Why Baby Teeth are Important.

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.