How to Prevent Children’s Tooth Decay…Permanently      

 

Early tooth decay in children is caused by three factors: 

1. Naturally occurring developmental holes in the teeth.

2. Bacteria that is often overlooked on the inside and outside of those teeth. 

3. A diet of pre-digested foods that feed those bacteria on both the inside and outsides of those teeth. 

 

How Do We Effectively Prevent that Tooth Decay for a Lifetime?

Teach kids early a biofilm control technique (for bacterial removal) that daily eliminates or disrupts the bacteria that stick to the teeth.

 

Teach these techniques so the children can do them effectively from the beginning, in the areas everyone misses where all the disease takes place.

 

In order to do this the parents, grandparents and caregivers must know how to clean their teeth effectively and be able to evaluate the effectiveness of their children cleaning their teeth.  

 

Intervene early and aggressively to have your dentist seal those natural occurring defects. This can be started at a young age (7) with well-done sealants, and later (age 12-14) in the permanent teeth with micro fillings accomplished under high magnification achieving well-done results using the best techniques and materials. 

 

Everyone wins and the bacteria will have no place to hide.

 

The significance of airway in a lifetime of health.

Evaluate for adequate airway and sleep disruption early. Children who do not get regenerative sleep and regenerative neurological rest because of disruptive airway problems will over-eat, misbehave, do poorly in school and fail to thrive. They will also crave sugars.  The brain can do without regenerative sleep or without sugar; it cannot go without both.

 

Do not let children get hungry, feed them before their brains uncontrollably crave quick absorbing calories (sugars).

 

Feed children foods that need to be chewed, that digest slowly and avoid calorically dense rapidly absorbing liquid calories. Processed foods have led to too many children with underdevelopment of the jaws and airway from lack of use during growth and development.  This in turn leads to a compromised airway, sleep disruption and an over consumption of both calories and sugars. 

 

Remember, if there are holes in your teeth, or bacteria on them, you will have preventable but devastating and costly decay.  Using high magnification to identify and seal even the tiniest of holes gives bacteria nowhere to hide. 

 

Greg Vigoren, D.D.S., practices a leading health first, 21st century dentistry in Newport Beach where he has taken and used hundreds of thousands of highly magnified digital photos of his work and his patients’ teeth to teach and educate.