Dental anxiety is common among adults, and all the more so with children. They’re coming into a place where they feel they have very little power, and they see a selection of scary instruments that are to be used in their mouths.

If you do not help your child to feel comfortable during dental visits, he or she may very well continue to feel debilitating anxiety well into adulthood.

Tips for Child’s Dental Anxiety

Consider the following advice to achieve this goal:

• You should bring your child in at an early age. Consider bringing him or her in during your own appointments to help make the experience a familiar and comfortable one.
• Put a good face on the dentist’s office. If this is a stressful place for you, children can pick up on your emotional cues and may become more stressed out themselves.
• Avoid language like “everything will be okay” when taking your child in for an appointment. He or she may likely feel some discomfort in the dental chair, and you don’t want them to feel betrayed by you when they do.
• Don’t offer bribes. When you feel the need to offer a reward for going to the dentist’s office, a child will likely expect an unpleasant experience and react accordingly.

It is generally advised that you bring your child to our Bellevue dentist for the first time at the age of one. Call Overlake Dental for additional information.

Understanding Your Baby’s Teeth

Did you know that all 20 of baby’s teeth are lined up inside his jaw, upper and lower, at birth, and just waiting for the right time to come in?

Normally, around the age of 6 to 10 months, the first lower front teeth will be emerging from his gums. This is followed shortly in a couple of months later by the upper two front teeth. The rest of baby’s teeth follow soon in just a few months, so by the time he is 2 to 2.5 years old the last set of molars have already come in.

Teething Process

This teething process is sometimes distressing for babies and they will show it by crying without let up and being irritable. Knowing this, try to soothe your baby’s discomfort by gently massaging his gums with a clean finger or a gauze pad or give him a soft teething ring to chew on.

If you’re breastfeeding or bottle feeding, wipe your baby’s mouth clean with soft cloth or gauze, most especially if his teeth are already showing. Sugar present in his milk can easily adhere to his teeth.

Do bring your baby to his first dental visit as you are bound to learn more from his dentist in the proper care of his beginning teeth and overall oral health.

Bellevue Dentistry and Your Toddler

At Overlake Dental, we see many parents bring their infants in for oral examination and advice on oral hygiene. Toddlers as young as three or even younger, are already taught, with some demonstration, on how to brush correctly.

Dr. Monica Yu is a gentle professional with children and parents, too. Keep your regular appointments with him as he guides you through your child’s dental development. It cannot be stressed enough how important it is to care for children’s teeth from the very start.

Flossing is an important part of any oral hygiene routine. However, some people struggle to keep up the habit. Occasionally, this is because of the discomfort that they experience when they try to clean out the gaps between their teeth. Maybe their gums hurt when brought into contact with the floss. Maybe they even get inflamed or start to bleed.

Should this describe your experience, it may be tempting to discontinue your flossing habit. After all, you may suspect that there is something wrong with your gums that your floss is aggravating. As counterintuitive as it may be, though, it is important that you muscle through the pain.

Similar comparison is feeling sore after a weightlifting session, which means that your muscles are getting stronger. The pain, or discomfort, you experience on your gums is the only way you’re going to strengthen up your delicate gum tissues to handle a proper, once-a-day flossing routine.

Learn Proper Flossing Techniques

Of course, if the pain and bleeding is particularly bad, you may want to visit your dentist. Especially if you haven’t been good about your flossing, it is entirely possible that you have a gum disease problem to deal with all the same. There are also recommendations of when to floss. Some dentist will recommend to floss before brushing your teeth. Read about our proper flossing techniques.

Consult Overlake Dental in Bellevue for more information.

Temporomandibular Disorders

TMD’s, or temporomandibular disorders, represent any sort of problem that afflicts the joint of your jawbone. Many people suffer from some form of TMD, and the reasons behind their disorder are not always clear.

Common Causes of TMD

However, it is likely that any given TMD can be traced back to one of the following common causes:

• Trauma suffered around your jaw, neck, or head.
• Bruxism, or excessive grinding or clenching of the jaw, which puts a lot of strain on your jaw muscles.
• Osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis in your jaw area.
• Certain serious disease, like gingivitis or oral cancer. These diseases can change the way your jaw fits into your skull, compromising the strength of your TMJ and inviting injury.
• Though the reasons behind this are not understood, the group most likely to suffer from TMD is women between the age of twenty and forty.

If you experience a persistent pain in your jaw, there are measures your dentist can take to help you manage TMD you may have. Talk to our Bellevue dentist to learn more.

Teeth Grinding

Many people grind their teeth at some point in their lives, but grinding too much can quickly turn into a problem that your Bellevue dentist may have to help with. The medical term for tooth-grinding is “bruxism”, and it can wear down your teeth, cause headaches, hurt your jaw or even give you TMJ disorders.

How do I know if I grind my teeth?

One of the problems with bruxism is that many people don’t know that they have it. This could be because they only grind while sleeping, but they can also grind throughout the day without being aware of the action. It therefore pays to be on the lookout for these warning signs: if your jaw is frequently sore for no apparent reason, or if a friend or family member notices you grinding periodically, you may need to bring this to your dentist’s attention.