Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that you find in the air, water, rocks, plants, and soil all around you. It is also an essential component of the mineral content in teeth enamel in your kid’s teeth.
Your teeth enamel experiences demineralization as the result of the work of plaque bacteria and the effects of sugar in your diet. That loss of minerals from your teeth needs to be balanced by remineralization in order to ensure healthy teeth. The loss of too many minerals for too long — including fluoride — can leave your teeth especially vulnerable to tooth decay.
A fluoride treatment in Millwoods can restore fluoride lost from your children’s teeth to ensure their oral health and minimize the risk that they will develop cavities. There are several sources of fluoride in your child’s day to day life, including from municipal water. In Millwoods, the utility operator EPCOR adds fluoride to municipal water as directed by City Council. Whether or not you live in an area serviced by fluoridated water, a dentist near you can provide fluoride treatment to boost your child’s dental health.
Pediatricians recommend that children receive fluoride treatments from approximately the age of six months until the age of 16 years of old. Why?
Benefits of fluoride treatment for kids
Strengthens your enamel
At the level of your child’s molecules, fluoride strengthens the enamel of your child’s teeth. That stronger enamel is more resistant to chips, cracks, and tooth decay. Preventing those chips, cracks, and decay not only keeps your teeth healthier, but helps improve the appearance of your children’s teeth, too.
Helps to remineralize your teeth
Plaque bacteria and sugars cause the loss of minerals in your child’s enamel — a process called demineralization. Demineralization can leave your child’s teeth very vulnerable unless balanced by remineralization. Fluoride treatment near you encourages the replacement of lost materials from the saliva in your child’s mouth leaving their teeth stronger. Fluoride will not reverse a cavity meaning fillings for any existing cavities may be necessary, but fluoride can build resistance to decay and restore the health of teeth enamel.
Defence against oral bacteria
A fluoride treatment in Millwoods interferes with the ability of teeth decay bacteria to grow, reproduce, and stick to your child’s teeth.
Reduce dental costs
Anything that improves the ability of your child to resist the effects of tooth decay offers the benefit of dental treatment cost savings. That is just as true about fluoride treatment. For example, studies of dental costs in the United States have shown that the addition of fluoride to municipal water supplies reduced tooth decay in pre-teens by over two-thirds.
Is fluoride safe for your kids?
Fluoride is safe and beneficial for your child’s teeth as long as taken to appropriate levels. Children who have ingested too much fluoride while their permanent teeth were developing may show white spots on their permanent teeth once they grow in — a condition called dental fluorosis. At its mildest, fluorosis is mainly a cosmetic issue that does not affect your child’s oral health. What this does reinforce, though, is the need to discuss all possible sources of fluoride with your dentist while discussing the appropriateness of fluoride treatment in Millwoods.
Every dentist in Millwoods is determined to maximize your child’s ability to resist tooth decay and minimize the risk of developing any cavities. They’ll offer every possible resource to your family to keep all your teeth healthy — including fluoride treatments for every kid in the family (and every kid at heart).