Child Dental Prevention- 1st Visit by Age1

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends a first visit to the dental office by age 1. I know that seems too early for a lot of folks. Their are several benefits to such an early visit:

1) educating parents on healthy preventive strategies for their child;
2) catching any dental problems in their infancy before they escalate;
3) getting the child familiar with the dental office as a positive, nontraumatic environment.

Dental disease is very preventable and doesn't cause symptoms until it's very advanced stages. Don't assume that because your child has no dental complaints or you don't see any problems that they're healthy. Get them on a routine of uneventful maintenance with a dentist. The best way to create a dental phobe is to wait too long and have your child's first interaction with a dentist be one of treating an advanced dental emergency.

Dr Ken Schweifler is a Dentist in Los Altos.

To request an appointment please call the office at 650-941-2166

or visit our Facebook Page.

Brushing your tongue?

Do you brush your tongue every time you brush your teeth? The tongue harbors a lot of bacteria, the same bacteria that can cause gingivitis, put you at risk for cavities and cause bad breath. If you're not already making this habit, I would recommend you start. It only takes a few quick seconds.

Dr Ken Schweifler is a Dentist in Los Altos.

To request an appointment please call the office at 650-941-2166

or visit our Facebook Page.

Routine Preventive Steps to Ensure Dental Health

Fall is upon us and our kids are donning their backpacks and have headed back to the classroom. As families adjust to new school schedules and a more regimented, post-summer lifestyle, I felt it appropriate timing to share some dental prevention education to empower you and your loved ones.

I promote Preventive Dentistry because children with healthy mouths have a better chance of general health. Dental problems can interfere with eating and adequate nutritional intake, speech and self-esteem. Kids with dental pain may be unable to concentrate in school. Those that get off to a healthy start with routine dental visits and responsible homecare can minimize the need for definitive treatment over the course of their lives, avoiding unpleasant dental experiences that perhaps their parents have experienced. Even in our relatively affluent community, I witness many unfortunate dental problems in children due to lack of prevention.

A patient recently brought his daughter to my office for the first time at age 6, motivated by a painful infection caused by a neglected cavity. A dental office can be a scary environment for lots of people, but especially for a young child that’s experiencing pain and completely unfamiliar with her environment. After extracting that hopeless tooth and treating several others with advancing cavities, I sat down with the father to discuss preventive strategies. This is the same individual that only comes to my office when he’s experiencing his own dental emergencies and brought his 5 year old son to my office 3 years ago with such advanced problems that he had to be referred to a specialist for “hospital-level” dentistry. When I asked how his son was doing, he stated that he hadn’t been back to the dentist since that traumatic hospital experience. I was shocked. Clearly my recommendations for getting on a healthy path of routine maintenance and prevention hadn’t altered this destructive cycle. I reiterated to him that all this pain and suffering, all this time and financial commitment were 100% preventable. He holds a set of values where he believes a dentist is only someone you see when you have a dental emergency and consequently he’s on the verge of full mouth dentures, just like his parents before him.

Preventive dentistry begins when the first tooth erupts. We encourage daily cleaning of teeth and a first visit to a dentist at that point, or no later than 12 months of age. The main objectives for a visit so early is to educate the parents on healthy preventive strategies, implement a healthy preventive regimen, catch any destructive habits in their infancy and get the child accustomed to the dental office as a positive, nontraumatic environment. After completing a thorough oral examination and assessing your child’s risk for developing cavities, a dental team can design a personalized preventive program for homecare. Preschoolers generally lack the manual dexterity necessary to really do a thorough job and they need parental assistance. It’s not enough to send your 3 year old to the bathroom and expect that they’re going to do an adequate job on their own. With your support, your child can follow directions and create healthy habits to last a lifetime.

One thing is unanimously true for dental patients: they would prefer NO DENTISTRY and more time and money to engage in other life pursuits. The least invasive and least expensive way to control your child’s dental problems is to ensure they never occur in the first place or are detected early enough to avoid extensive treatments. As a father of three kids under 6 years old, I can relate to many of the same challenges and concerns that other parents face. You owe it to yourself and your family to take these simple, preventive steps to ensure that your family’s dental needs never become a needless source of stress.

Dr Ken Schweifler is a Dentist in Los Altos.

To request an appointment please call the office at 650-941-2166

or visit our Facebook Page.

Putting the “Care” back in Healthcare

What keeps you from visiting the dentist?

Is it Time? Money? Anxiety? Denial?

“I don’t have the time.”

Time is fleeting. It is one of the few things that once lost, is not recoverable. Not investing time in your oral health will inevitably cost more time, money and anguish in the long run. How do you want to spend the last decades of your life? Playing catch up with your health, or catching up with your grandkids or friends on the golf course? The choice is yours. What do you value and prioritize in your life? We often don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. Ask anyone who currently wears a denture if they wish they had their natural teeth to chew with.

“Dentistry is too expensive.”

There’s no doubt that restorative dentistry can be costly, but routine maintenance and early detection of dental problems saves patients money, time, and tooth structure over a lifetime. An early detected cavity may require a conservative filling, but if neglected, that cavity may grow and require root canal treatment and a crown, or an extraction. Extractions are relatively cheap, but the loss of just one tooth can compromises the whole chewing system and accelerates its demise. Get stabilized and move healthily forward. Especially considering our current economic climate, we are offering several flexible, financial options in our office to eliminate $ as a primary deterrent to pursuing dental health.

“Dentistry is painful/stressful.”

Have you had a negative dental experience? Has your parents’ fears of dentistry been transmitted to you? Are you transmitting those same fears to your kids? There’s an ongoing dilemma that occurs with many dental phobic patients: they fear the dentist so they don’t see a dentist routinely and thus don’t benefit from early detection. Instead, their problems eventually become painful emergencies which they then relate to the dental visit. This traumatic experience then reinforces their dental phobia. They never experience the health-centered, positive side of dental care-

Prevention + Routine maintenance + Early Detection =Conservative, Pain-free Treatments or No Treatment at all

Dental Anxiety is very prevalent. In our office, we want to get to the bottom of our patient’s fears so that we can best address them. Sometimes it requires taking “baby steps”, offering shorter appointments, prescribing anti-anxiety medications, or working with an anesthesiologist. It starts with creating a calm, caring culture and earning the trust of the patient. You owe it to yourself to get the care you need in a place where you can feel safe, secure and cared for.

“My teeth/gums are a mess but it’s just easier to not deal with it” or

“Why see a dentist?... nothing is bothering me.”

Sometimes we choose not to deal with a problem because we think it is easier than confronting it. If you have been told you have a dental issue and have been ignoring it, I assure you it still exists. Many people use “pain” as the final motivator for pursuing dental treatment. Unfortunately, such a mentality leads to more extensive, more expensive, emergency-level care. In its early, more treatable condition, periodontal disease is void of symptoms. Our office prides itself on providing you with the objective information about your condition and letting you decide a course of action. Are you ready to hear the truth and get educated about your state of oral health or would you rather be in the dark?

Dr Ken Schweifler is a Dentist in Los Altos.

To request an appointment please call the office at 650-941-2166

or visit our Facebook Page.