When you have a child or children, you want what’s best for them.
From a young age, you take them to doctor’s appointments, check-ups with nurses and ensure that they eat the right foods to help them grow.
When you have an infant, it is all too easy to forget about the importance of dental check-ups. After all, it may seem odd to take a child to a dentist if they do not have teeth, but it is important that, from a young age, your child associates dental visits with being fun and pain free, or phobias and avoidance behaviours may begin, which can impact negatively on their long-term health.
At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we recommend that you and your child visit our dental clinic in W1 by the time your child is 12 months old and we can provide your child with toys, to create a more fun encounter, making the overall experience more enjoyable for them.
The importance of childhood dentistry
At our dental clinic in W1, our dentists firmly believe that prevention is better than cure.
This applies to all areas of life but particularly dentistry, as all dental issues are easier to treat if they are detected early.
With childhood dentistry, at our dental clinic in W1, our dentists strive to prevent issues like cavities from occurring in young children, but also work hard to prevent other dental issues that many parents do not realise can be detected under the age of 3 years.
Our dental team are able to prevent long term dental issues from occurring if detected early enough.
Overbites
An incredibly common type of misalignment, overbites occur when the teeth on the top jaw overlap the teeth on the bottom jaw, when the jaw is closed.
Overbites can create issues such as mismatched bites, weaker bite strength and can have a visible impact on a child’s confidence if left untreated. Detected early, overbites can be prevented with the use of minimalist braces and aligners.
Underbites
As the name suggests, an underbite is similar to an overbite, with the teeth on the lower jaw overlapping the top set of teeth when the jaw is resting.
Underbites tend to occur when the lower jaw is longer and when detected early, surgery can be performed to shorten the jaw, or the overbite can be corrected with aligners.
Cross bites
A cross bite occurs when the top and lower jaw do not align correctly. Often preventable with orthodontic braces, this can cause a condition known as temporomandibular joint dysfunction to occur, which can be a painful condition in the long term and has been linked to migraines.
At Harley Street Dental, we want to help your child feel comfortable at the dentist and aim to make their experience as pleasant as possible so that they feel confident about visiting in the future.
Contact us today for more information about our child dentistry treatments.