In every area of medicine as well as of stomathology preventive care takes one of the most important roles in the prevention of diseases and their development. Knowing the fact that in stomathology the most common diseases are caries paradonthosis so should our preventive consist in the prevention of the advancement of these diseases. There’s a very good Macedonian proverb considering prevention: “It’s better to prevent than to cure it” who’s equivalent in English is “ It’s better to be safe than sorry”.

 

Prevention of teeth diseases should start in early childhood,because good habits for maintaining healthy teeth and gums are developed at a very young age. Since the appearance of the first milk tooth (deciduous tooth), that in average appears when the baby is about six months, until the complete appearance of the last milk tooth (5), the parents should start taking care of their child’s teeth. Until the child turns two, the parent is obligated to clean the child’s teeth. By the age of 2-2.5 all of the milk teeth are fully-grown in the child’s mouth and that’s an ideal time when parents should bye the first toothbrush and toothpaste for their little ones. There’s an enormous choice of toothbrushes and toothpaste on today’s market. But from our expertise in order to help you make the right choice we recommend those of “Colgate” and “Signal”. The health of children’s teeth depends a lot on the right technique of tooth brushing. A proper tooth brushing is done with vertical or circular movements of the brush, always starting from the gums and continuing towards the teeth. It’s also important to brush all three sides of the teeth: outside, inside, and masticatory surface in both, upper and lower jaw. Besides this we also recommend a massage of the gums with a special soft brushand brushing of tongue where bacteria often resides. The duration of the teeth brushing should be about 2-3min. but the technique of proper brushing remains the most important.

 

When the child is about 6 years old the first permanent molar appears as “numbersix”. When this tooth appears, if the child’s milk teeth have caries, then this tooth should be given a special care, and the parents should be educated in due time so that this tooth will not get cavity later. If there are conditions in the child’s mouth for fast developing of caries in this tooth or if that has already happened, than we should make preventive filling to this tooth. There are two methods of preventive filling: invasive I noninvasive, and what method we’ll use depends on what were diagnosed previously on the examination. Our choice of material for preventive filling is Gradia and to be more specific Gradia Flo.

 

It’s important to emphasize that these methods are completely PAINLESS, and our advice is this should be done in the earliest possible phase so that further spreading of the caries would be prevented. This will allow our children to forget the fear of the doctor and to come with joy to the dental office, knowing that the doctor always does what’s best for their health. The pschicology of fear is the first thing that we should work on with our children, both the doctors and the parents, so we can give a safe childhood to our children, who are our biggest treasure. Among other things, we want to add that the first permanent molar is the center of the masticate pressure and it holds the all the teeth to develop properly; and that’s why it’s premature extraction leads to a disorder of the dental line and other later orthodontic malocclusion. It ought to be known that milk teeth should be taken care of until their physiological shift with permanent teeth. Every premature extraction of any milk tooth shortens the growth of the jowl and with it the space for the permanent teeth shrinks (normally the permanent teeth are bigger than the milk ones). Because of the smaller space they grow out or inside from the dental line, and there for the young person gets permanent bad look of his teeth and orthodontic malocclusion, that in later years requires frequent treatment for many years.

 

For example: if we know that 4 or 5 milk teeth are normally changed at about 9 or 10 years of age than we should do our best to keep these teeth in the mouth until the age of 9 or 10. Our preventive measures also include preventive lay over with fluoride, which should be done at least 2 times a year. Fluoride is a chemical element and when applied in this way on the teeth it strengthens the surface of the teeth - enamel. And with this it helps in the prevention of caries. Here we should mention that fluoride doesn’t help in the curing of already formed tooth cavity but it only helps in the prevention of it’s new forming on healthy teeth.

The highly developed countries that implement the system of fluoridation of the drinking water confirm the big positive effect from the fluoride application. The statistics of the people with caries shows that it’s presence in this countries is on much lower level.

 

The rest of our services from preventive dentistry are the treatment and the filling of milk teeth. For this purpose we I in Stomadent Vital use high quality Fuji materials from GC Corporation that consist of high percentage of fluoride which is released in the tooth substance in a long period of time and thus prevent the growth of caries. The use of these filling materials is not only justified but also useful because of they are non-toxic and therefore completely safe for the health of your child.

In cases when there’s no chance of keeping a tooth due to some diagnosis, it must be extracted. We always explain first to the parents and the child about the treatment in question, and then with their permission we proceed. The extraction of already loosened milk tooth in most cases is painless, except in the case when the tooth has cavity with purulent exudates under the roots, and it’s advised to be extracted because of the possible spreading of the infection. Also this tooth presents danger for the common health of the child (heart, joints, kidneys). That’s why we shouldn’t prolong the extraction of this kind of teeth.

 

With anesthesia and previously given antibiotic therapy the extraction is painless. In this context we like to add that our principle remains: “It's better to invest in prevention (which is painless and useful) than in curing (which besides being painful, it can also leave consequences in the development of the child like fear etc." Besides prevention is much cheaper.