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Sports are great for children for a variety of reasons. Children can develop their motor skills, learn how to solve conflicts and work together, and develop their work ethics. As a parent, you may recognize the benefits of sports, but also naturally worry about your child’s health and safety. Your job goes beyond providing a water bottle and making sure your child follows the rules of the game.

Although you may not think of your child’s teeth first when you think about sports, accidents can happen that affect your children’s teeth. A stray hockey stick, an errant basketball, or a misguided dive after a volleyball are examples of ways a child could lose a tooth. In fact, studies show that young athletes lose more than three million teeth each year.

Becoming a Better Athlete to Protect Teeth

Becoming a better athlete involves refining skills, learning the rules of the game, and being a good sport. These components are not just about winning. They are also about safety. Young athletes who are better ball-handlers and who are careful to avoid fouls and penalties are less likely to have harmful contact with the ball, teammates, or opponents. Children who are better roller-bladers are less likely to take a face plant into the blacktop, and more likely to save their teeth. Being a good sport and avoiding unnecessary contact is one way to protect teeth.

Proper Protective Equipment for Teeth

If your child is in a sport that poses a high threat to teeth, it is essential for your child to wear a mouthguard. Mouthguards fit your child’s mouth and consist of soft plastic. Drs. Paul Pasternack, Chara Pasternack, and Christine Biondi can custom fit a mouthguard if generic ones are uncomfortable. While children may resist wearing a mouthguard initially, your persistence in insisting that they wear it should be enough to convince them. A helmet or face mask provides additional protection.

While prevention is best, rapid treatment can improve the situation if your child does happen to lose a tooth during sports. Rapid implantation can work in about ten percent of cases. To learn about ways to save a lost tooth, contact our Vorhees office.

Some lucky babies wake one morning displaying a brand new tooth to the complete surprise of their unsuspecting parents! But your happy baby is irritable and drooling. Or your hearty eater doesn’t feel like finishing her food. Perhaps she finds it hard to go to sleep when she’s usually nodded off before you finish the first lullaby. A small number of children suffer little or no discomfort teething, but for the majority of babies who do, here are some helpful ways to ease their teething pain.

• Massage--Rubbing your baby’s gums with a clean finger or piece of gauze—gentle pressure is all you need. And do be careful of your fingers once those teeth start coming in!
• Chewing—there are many colorful and easy to grasp teething toys available, including BPA-free models.
• Cool Relief—Cool a solid teether in the refrigerator to help ease discomfort. Placing a teething ring in the freezer is not recommended, as extreme cold can be damaging to little mouths and gums.
• Comfort Food—If your baby is eating solid foods, try cold applesauce or other purees.
• Skin Care—Drooling is often part of the teething process, but try to keep your child’s face free from rash and chaffing by wiping with a clean cloth when necessary.

And while you are trying to keep your baby comfortable, also be sure to keep her safe!

• Know what your baby is putting into her mouth. All teething items should be non-toxic and free of harmful chemicals. Teethers filled with fluids may break or leak, so a solid toy is best.
• Make teething items size-appropriate. Avoid anything small or breakable that might present a choking hazard.
• Over-the-counter gels and liquids containing benzocaine, meant to reduce pain in the gums and mouth, may on rare occasion lead to serious health conditions in small children. Always check with Drs. Paul Pasternack, Chara Pasternack, and Christine Biondi or your pediatrician before buying an over-the-counter teething medication for your baby.

For many babies, teething can be a long and sometimes difficult process. If there is anything we can do to help you and your baby in this journey, please give our Vorhees office a call.

We mark special times throughout the year to encourage better oral health, like Dental Hygiene Month, and Children’s Dental Health Month, and even National Tooth Fairy Day! This July 21^st is National Junk Food Day, and the team at Pasternack Pediatric Dental couldn’t let it pass without some healthy ideas to help you and your family make the best of this not-so-dentally-healthy day.

What makes junk food unhealthy? Most of the foods in this category have high levels of sugars, starches, salts, or fats, which aren’t good for your body in large quantities. When it comes to your family’s dental health, some junk foods are worse than others because they are actively destructive to tooth enamel.

Foods like candy, cookies, doughnuts, chips, energy drinks, sports drinks, and sodas can have large amounts of sugar, starch, and acid. And a diet filled with sugars, starches, and acids puts your child’s tooth enamel under constant attack.

The bacteria in plaque make acids from the sugars and starches (which break down into sugars) in our diets. These acids then erode the mineral crystals which give our enamel its strength, leaving weak spots which can deepen and become cavities. A steady diet of sweet and starchy foods for your family creates a steady diet of sugar for cavity-causing bacteria.

Just like the acids produced by bacteria can erode tooth enamel, acids in food can also strip away the minerals which keep enamel strong. Sodas, sports drinks, energy drinks, and many fruit juices are often both sugary and highly acidic, making them very damaging to tooth enamel.

So, let’s spend a few moments today to discuss how your family members can enjoy a bit of junk food every now and then and still take good care of their teeth.

1. Limit Sugars, Starches, and Acids

We don’t just mean limiting the number of treats people eat in a day. It’s also a good idea to limit treats to certain times as well. Serve desserts with meals, when saliva production is higher, to help wash away sugary and starchy food particles. Acidic drinks, when sipped throughout the day, are like bathing teeth in acids. Better to drink sodas or acidic juices in one sitting and provide water to drink or rinse after!

1. Brush after Eating Sticky Sugary and Starchy Foods

Sticky foods filled with sugars and starches are double jeopardy for your family’s tooth enamel. Not only are they the foods of choice for plaque bacteria, they also tend to stick to enamel and between the teeth, giving cavity-causing bacteria more time to work. An after-treat brushing will get rid of any sugary or starchy leftovers as well as removing built up plaque.

1. —But Don’t Brush Too Soon After Acidic Foods and Drinks

When we eat or drink something acidic, our enamel is more vulnerable to damage immediately afterward because acids weaken the mineral strength of our teeth. If we brush right away, even soft bristles can be abrasive. It’s best to wait about 60 minutes to give children’s enamel time to get strong again with the enamel-building minerals found in their saliva, and then brush as usual.

1. Make Water Part of Your Family’s Healthy Diet

Easy, available, inexpensive—what’s not to like about water? Oh, and it’s also healthy for our teeth! Rinsing with water after a treat helps remove lingering food particles and acids. And drinking water when we’re thirsty helps us produce saliva. Saliva not only rinses our teeth, it helps neutralize acids and helps replace calcium and phosphate minerals which may have been stripped away by acids.

This July 21^st, we’re not really celebrating junk food—we’re celebrating all the things you do to protect your family’s oral health. So, whether indulging today is on the menu or not, keep your family’s teeth their healthiest by making junk food a rare treat, keeping up with daily brushing and flossing, and visiting our Vorhees office for checkups and cleanings. Let’s make National Junk Food Day just another day in a year filled with healthy smiles!

In the eyes of most parents, nothing is cuter than their baby’s smile. Did you know your little one’s smile (that is, his or her oral health) actually plays a huge role in determining the child’s overall well-being? In order to keep your youngster healthy and smiling, you need to know when and how to take care of those tiny teeth.

Baby teeth aren’t just temporaries that will fall out eventually. They help your baby chew and talk, and they reserve space in the jaw for permanent teeth later on. Since they’re so important, the right time to start dental care is only a few days after your infant is born.

Take a soft, wet washcloth or piece of gauze and gently wipe your baby’s gums. The earlier you begin, the more accustomed your child will become to a daily dental hygiene routine.

Babies that are put to bed with a bottle may be at greater risk for developing cavities. Milk, juice, and any other drinks that contain sugar instigate tooth decay while the child sleeps.

If your baby must go to bed with something, a bottle of water is the healthiest option. Remember to wipe your little one’s gums after each feeding, whether it’s formula from a bottle or breast milk.

As soon as your infant’s first tooth comes in, it’s time to start brushing! Twice a day, take a small amount of toothpaste (about the size of a grain of rice) and brush your son or daughter’s teeth gently in circular motions. As soon as your toddler has multiple teeth that touch one another, floss up and down the sides of the teeth to remove any plaque between them or below the gumline.

Babies’ teeth are prone to cavities and gingivitis, so you’ll want to be on the lookout for telltale signs. Check regularly for red, swollen gums, because this may be an indication of developing gum disease. Discoloration, white spots, or small pits in the teeth can signal a forming cavity.

As long as you follow these simple guidelines and schedule regular dental checkups with Drs. Paul Pasternack, Chara Pasternack, and Christine Biondi at our Vorhees office, you can help to ensure your baby has a healthy mouth. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing your happy baby’s healthy smile.