By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
It’s back-to-school season again; a time when parents and children are scrambling to get everything in order for that first day of school. And it’s likely that one of the many items that should be on the back-to-school checklist is a trip to the dentist. At least that is what Dr. Cody Hughes recommends.
Dr. Hughes is a pediatric dentist and owner of Valley Pediatric Dentistry with offices in Logandale and in Mesquite. If children have not been to the dentist yet this year, Dr. Hughes says that now might be a perfect time to make an appointment to get that done.
As a pediatric dentist, Dr. Hughes’ specialty is working on kids’ teeth. So, you can imagine, he has seen a little bit of everything. But Dr. Hughes views his job as much more than just fixing things with kids’ teeth when they go wrong.
“A big part of the pediatric dentistry specialty is prevention,” Hughes said. “We do a lot of educating the kids and their parents so that we can keep problems from ever happening in the first place.”
With all that in mind, Dr. Hughes spent some time with the PROGRESS last week, sharing some of the most common misconceptions or misunderstandings that people generally have about dental care for their kids. Here they are.
1. Kids don’t need to go to the dentist until they enter their school-age years.
Actually, when it comes to visits to the dentist, the earlier the better when it comes to kids.
“It is actually recommended that the first dental visit takes place at age 1,” Hughes said. “We have found a lot of benefits to seeing them early.”
According to Hughes, this allows for an early dialogue to begin with parents on their kids oral development and dental care. It establishes what Dr. Hughes calls a “dental home” which becomes important in the months following that as the child begins to learn to walk on his/her own.
“It is the age of 2-3 when the most incidents of trauma occur,” Hughes said. “That is when they start to become mobile, but still aren’t very stable.”
Another benefit of starting dental visits early is establishing a routine of dental care and of conditioning the child to have a positive outlook about dentists.
“It’s true that starting that early that most of them are going to cry when they come to the dentist,” Hughes said. “But a lot of that is because they have been to the doctor’s office and gotten shots everytime they go, so they associate us with the pediatrician.”
Hughes said that when young children come for an exam, it usually goes relatively quickly and it is not at all a painful experience. Then they always receive a prize at the end of the visit.
“They realize that coming to the dentist is not such a bad thing,” Hughes said. “And they usually leave with a smile on their face. Those kinds of experiences make future visits easier, even when there might be more extensive work needed.”
2. All snacks are about the same. Hughes said that some of the biggest misconceptions of parents are surrounding food and diet. For example, some snack products made for kids claim to be healthy, but they are not necessarily good for the teeth.
“Some fruit snacks and juices say that they are made with 100 percent juice, but it’s not always true,” Hughes said. “They often have a lot of sugar added in there.”
Hughes recommends keeping between-meal snacktime as simple, healthy and sugar-free as possible. Even with drinks that would normally be considered fine.
“For example, during mealtimes, juice or milk are okay,” he said. “But at snack time we’d suggest just water; and then have non-sugary snack foods like fruits, vegetables, cheese and crackers; things like that.”
Hughes explains that tooth decay is caused by the same bacteria that feed off of simple carbohydrates found in cookies, candies and other sweet snacks. So minimizing those types of foods can reduce the risk of cavities.
In addition, too frequent snack times can cause problems, Hughes said. “When you eat something the ph level of the mouth drops and it can take 20 minutes to recover. So if kids are eating something every half hour or so, those levels never recover and its more likely to develop cavities.”
3. Young kids can be trusted to brush on their own.
“Lots of parents trust their young kids to brush well all by themselves,” Hughes said. “But younger kids; like 3, 4, 5 years old; might be putting the toothbrush in their mouths. But often they are not really brushing. So the job doesn’t really get done.”
Hughes recommends that parents personally supervise their kids toothbrushing habits up until the age of at least 8-9. What’s more, when kids reach that age, parents should be checking very closely during the transition to make sure that good habits are being maintained.
Hughes uses the example of his own daughter who was turning 9 years old and wanted to be left to brush her teeth on her own.
“I let her do it on her own for a few days, but then I kept a close eye on how she had done,” Hughes said. “I could see that there were still some problem spots so I went back to supervising her for a while longer. Of course, that only motivated her to do better so that she could be allowed to do it on her own again. And eventually she got it.”
