JULY 2010 - TOOTH TALK In Nashville Parent Magazine
By admin • Jul 1st, 2010 • Category: Tooth Talk
July 2010
Q: Dr. Snodgrass What is the main cause of cavities?
A: There is no main reason for cavities. Cavities are caused by multi-factoral reasons. The most common cause in infancy is prolonged bottle or breast-feeding, especially at night. For children past the toddling stage, it’s usually a combination of frequency, duration, and concentration of sugar in addition to poor oral hygiene; and for teenagers, it’s too many sweets and not enough attention to hygiene.
Q: Why can’t you put porcelain-fused to metal crowns on baby teeth?
A: PFM crowns are not usually advocated for baby teeth for many reasons: one, they are too expensive to place on teeth that will soon be lost. Two, the pulpal tissue in baby teeth consume too much of the inner portion of the teeth to allow a layer of metal, then a layer of porcelain, and three porcelain is too hard and unforgiving to the opposing teeth and growing jaws.
Q: Dr. Oakes, I am interested in braces, but my 14 year old still has quite a few baby teeth. Is this normal?
A: While it is not within the norm for a teenager to still have baby teeth, it is not a condition to be alarmed about. I myself had baby teeth well into my teens. The only problem is that, orthodontically, it’s treatment gets slightly delayed until a later age. Most children (and parents for that matter) hope to have orthodontics completed by their early teens. So, kids that are slightly delayed in loosing teeth may just need to wait on the start of braces. However, the best way to fully analyze delayed loss of baby teeth would be to have an orthodontic evaluation as soon as possible. It is always possibility that there could be an underlying reason not readily detected for the slower than average tooth loss.
