Procedures

Fillings are the most common restorative procedure regarding children. Whenever a child has a cavity, the doctor will remove the decayed portion of the tooth. Then a tooth colored material known as resin composite is used to fill in the tooth. The procedure is very safe and can be completed in one visit.

When a baby tooth is extensively decayed and using other filling materials isn’t likely to be successful, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) recommends restoring the tooth with a stainless steel crown especially if the tooth has received pulpal therapy. After removing the decay, your dentist will fit and cement a prefabricated crown made of stainless steel over the tooth. Here are some advantages of stainless steel crowns:

• Durable but inexpensive
• Full coverage protection for the tooth placed in one visit
• Very little sensitivity
• Less likely to need retreatment
• More successful in children under 4 who do not floss
• Good choice for children who need general anesthesia

We use primary zirconia crowns for esthetic, durable restorations in children. These can be used in place of stainless steel crowns or other bonded restorative options. This option is becoming more popular, with demand for esthetic dental solutions for children’s dentistry increasing.
Zirconia crowns have esthetic superiority, coupled with unmatched durability, biocompatibility, and many other advantages. This makes zirconia crowns an excellent option.

We like to save teeth! But on occasion, an extraction is necessary. We refer to extractions as a “wiggle”! Reasons to extract include:

• Make room for teeth that are coming in.
• Tooth decay that has destroyed enough tooth structure to prevent restoration
• Severe fractures
• Impacted or problematic wisdom teeth
• Some permanent teeth to make space for orthodontic treatment as determined by your orthodontist

Kids’ dentists perform pulp therapy on both primary (baby) teeth and permanent teeth. Though primary teeth are eventually shed, they are needed for speech production, proper chewing, and to guide the proper alignment and spacing of permanent teeth.

Pulpotomy
When a tooth has a bad cavity, the pulp of the tooth is exposed. This can be very painful, because the sensitive nerves and tissue are vulnerable. If your child is complaining of a toothache, it might be because he has a large cavity. In this case, we’ll need to do a pulpotomy to remove the damaged pulp. A pulpotomy is a fairly common procedure for decayed baby molars.

During a pulpotomy, we first remove damaged tissue, sterilize the area, then replace the pulp with a medicated filling. Sometimes, it is then necessary to place a crown to restore the structure and appearance of the tooth. A pulpotomy is usually very successful in saving a badly decayed baby molar, but if the damage is too deep, the tooth may eventually have to be extracted or treated with LSTR.

A fancy way of saying, let’s try to save a really sick tooth. When really important baby teeth, like the ones key for maintaining proper arch form and function, are no longer vital, this treatment is a great option! It is similar in time and method to a traditional pulpotomy (treatment for a still partly healthy tooth), but we change up a few steps. We actually leave an extra strong triple antibiotic medication within the tooth prior to placing the crown with the goal of killing off the bacteria causing the infection and giving the body time to heal and repair itself. If you have any more questions about this great new form of treatment, call us or come in. We cannot wait to meet you!

We use Silver diamine fluoride (SDF) on cavities to help stop tooth decay from progressing. We also use it to treat tooth sensitivity.

Benefits of SDF

• SDF can help stop tooth decay
• SDF can help relive sensitivity