Pediatric Dentistry of Redlands

While being a parent is one of the most important jobs that someone can do, no one is expecting you to be perfect. However, instilling great habits in your children certainly starts with you. Children eat what is in the house and what is available to them. By cutting down on sugar and increasing vegetables and fruits you not only decrease their risk of diabetes, obesity, and decay but you increase their desires to be healthy overall. “Those habits you instill,” Dr. Cameron Fuller says, “start from a very young age.” While you are anxious for your child to begin eating solid food make sure you’re including plenty of leafy greens and bright colors. Certain fruits and vegetables actually contain more water. Which is an excellent source of vitamins for children and theyI also help ‘rinse’ off their teeth after they have eaten. The   palate is ever changing in kids and therefore if you try one food and they don’t like it try it again at a later date. Yo...

New Year’s Resolutions Are Not Just For Kids The New Year is quickly approaching and while you are contemplating those New Year’s resolutions create some short-term goals that increase your child’s overall healthy habits. While what we do is model appropriate habits to our children, we also want them to learn how to make and stick to short-term goals.   Children need practice in making goals and taking the steps to achieve them. This is the perfect time of year for this lesson, says pediatric dentist, Dr. CameronFuller. Whether you want your child to brush and floss more regularly, join a sport, or eat more fruits and vegetables, they take their cues from you.   When creating a goal with your child it should be one that they are invested in. This will help keep them motivated to achieve it. Smart goals are ideal because they are specific, measurable, action oriented, realistic and time-bound.   “Once you have created the goal they want to a...

It is unfortunate but sometimes in the middle of watching television you may hear a loud, squeaky noise. When you hear that loud noise and you go to investigate you find that your young daughter is grinding her teeth. While, the sound is loud and you worry about the overall health of her mouth there are treatments that Dr. Fuller can recommend. Children may grind their teeth for a variety of reasons. It may be nervousness, their teeth may not be aligned properly or it may be in response to pain. Some children who have cerebral palsy or who have been diagnosed with attention disorders will also grind their teeth. No matter what the actual reason is, drawing attention to it can actually make it worse.   Bruxism, or grinding often happens at night when they are sleeping or while they are under stress. The long-term effects of bruxism are chipped teeth from weakened enamel, which can lead to long-term problems with adult teeth when the baby teeth finally fall ...

When you take your child to visit the dentist on their six month check-up it may be recommended that you have x-rays completed. While there is a small amount of radiation exposure, the benefit outweighs the harm when proper precautions are taken.   Your pediatric dentist may recommend x-rays for your children for a variety of reasons. X-rays are an electromagnetic wave of sort lengths with high energy that passes through materials opaque to light. X-rays are used in order to see cavities between the teeth. Due to the small space between the teeth, a dentist with a naked eye would not be able to see if there are cavities developing. However, by taking an x-ray of the different areas in the mouth cavities are illuminated and treatment can occur. If your child is in pain due to dental decay and your child needs a pulpotomy Dr. Cameron Fuller may take x-rays in order to see how deep the decay is.    And radiographs may also be recommended in order to ev...

There are numerous reasons why a pediatric dentist may recommend x-rays for your child.   For example, he might want to see how the permanent teeth are developing or determine if decay is impacting your child’s mouth. How often radiographs are   recommended depends on your child’s overall dental history.   Children who are at high risks for dental decay, such as children that lack adequate brushing and flossing practices or who have a sweet tooth may require x-rays more often than others. Another reason for x-rays is if your child has had an unfortunate injury to their jaw or teeth. When this happens they may require x-rays a few appointments in a row in order to determine how the injury is healing. No matter how often your child is in need of x-rays, the team at Pediatric Dentistry of Redlands and Associates will do everything they can to make the process as easy as possible for your child. For example, your child will be draped in a lead apr...

A pulpotomy is a procedure that may be recommended by your child’s pediatric dentist if tooth decay has spread, if your child has a cracked or chipped tooth and the root is showing, or if they are having sensitivity to extreme temperatures. This procedure should be completed in order to eliminate the pain your child may be feeling. During a pulpotomy Dr. Cameron Fuller will first explain the procedure to you and why he is recommending this course of treatment. Once it has been decided to go forward, it is a relatively easy procedure depending on how many teeth are impacted and the degree of decay. Dr. Fuller , your Redlands pediatric dentist, will carefully remove the pulp from the tooth after all of the decay has been removed. Next, he will sterilize the tooth and then place putty that hardens in the area to seal it.   If the tooth is a molar, a crown may be placed on the tooth in order to protect it. This procedure should usually solve the problem and allow...

  While preventive dental care is critical to your child’s permanent teeth, it is even more important you provide dental care for their baby teeth if they end up with a cavity.   Baby teeth are important to the success of your child’s adult teeth. Decay, can spread and the damage it causes can last a lifetime. While you think that their baby teeth are going to fall out and the decay will be gone, this may simply not be the case. Decay, or dental disease, can spread.   " Decay in baby teeth can reach far below the gum line and create problems with developing permanent teeth," states Pediatric dentist Dr. Cameron Fuller . Once the decay is below the gum line into the roots of your child’s tooth, your child may be in an extreme amount of pain, but often they do not have the words or understanding of what is causing their discomfort. This means your child could end up needing a pulpotomy or more serious dental procedure in order to get rid of the tooth decay. ...

Flossing is the number one dental habit adults say they don’t do on a regular basis. While we understand the importance of flossing and the long-term effects of not using proper flossing habits, it doesn’t seem to impact the overall amount of adults that have established this very important routine. While we as adults are not flossing, we are inadvertently telling our children that it is also acceptable for them not to floss. "The habits we establish with them at a young age will carry over to their routines as an adult," suggests Dr. Fuller. A habit takes twenty-one days to establish. We have to start when our children our young and their first teeth are coming in. Make it fun for both of you and find floss that fits your needs and theirs, you’ll be more likely to remember to floss your own teeth and your child’s if you do. It is also important when first starting a new routine to complete it at the same time of day for twenty-one days, this will he...

 A cavity on a baby tooth may seem like an insignificant item that can wait for treatment. But that’s not  true. “Did you know decay can spread from baby teeth to your child’s permanent teeth?” asks pediatric dentist Dr. Cameron Fuller .   He finds a significant number of parents that have never been educated on the importance of taking care of cavities in baby teeth. “Even though baby teeth are going to fall out, they are setting the stage for your daughter or son’s permanent teeth, and severe decay can impact their overall health,” says Dr. Fuller. For example, your child’s cavity, if not taken care of, can develop into an abscess. An abscess is a collection of pus that pools in the tooth. It can cause severe swelling and infection. An infection that is not treated can end up spreading throughout the body and can cause severe pain. The unfortunate consequences are missed work for you and missed school days for them. A child’s smile also impact...