Let’s say you just found out that your young child has a
cavity in his or her baby tooth. You might think to yourself, let’s just pull it.
Its just gonna come out anyway right?
I would argue that baby teeth are important and should be maintained
until it is time for natural exfoliation.
So to that order, I’ve compiled a list of reasons why baby teeth are
important.
First, baby teeth are for chewing. It sound simple but the first stage of digestion happens in the mouth. We break
up the food into smaller pieces not only to swallow them easier, but also to
help the chemical breakdown of the food into nutrients go smoother and
quicker.
Second, the primary, or baby teeth, are important in speech
development. Placement of the tongue and
lips is guided by the teeth. Try this –
say the word “lisp.” Normal speech
patterns dictate that you start with your tongue on the back of your front
teeth to make the “L” sound and then move it away to make the “I” and then bring
your teeth together to make the “S”. Finally
your lips pull back to your front teeth and end with a percussive “P”. These moves are much more difficult to make,
much less learn, when those reference points aren’t there.
Third, these teeth are important for appearance and
alignment. I know what your thinking…
well, the kid is gonna have missing teeth sometime! True enough, but I’m talking about the baby
teeth acting as guides to the adult teeth as they come in. If a child’s tooth is missing too early that
guidance will be compromised and the tooth behind the missing one falls forward
into the missing tooth’s spot causing a domino effect and crowded adult teeth.
The best situation of course is prevention of decay and
disease in the first place, but if a child has decayed teeth we can still save
them. Let’s turn a bad situation into a
good one, instead of turning a bad situation into a worse one. You can like us on facebook, subscribe to
this blog or call Toothbrusher’s Dental at 405 789-6935 to reach us.