To gain a set of healthy and straight teeth, keeping good oral hygiene is always of the greatest importance. Especially during the mixed dentition of children, parents should pay more attention to their oral hygiene and schedule regular checkups for them. The earlier we discover the problems, the earlier we can seek treatments. Thus, we are able to prevent big problems down the road. 

      1.Seek timely treatment for dental caries. 

      Due to the special anatomy structure of deciduous teeth and early permanent teeth as well as their dietary habits, it is quite common to see dental caries among children. As an old Chinese saying goes, a lot of sufferings will follow the neglect of a small cavity. In severe cases of dental caries, there will be problems like food entrapment, and swollen and aching gums. Because of pain, children would prefer to chew on the other side, that’s why many children develop unilateral mastication. What’s worse, unilateral mastication will lead to facial asymmetry and unilateral underbite.

      2.Correct bad oral habits in a timely manner

      Change the habit of sucking fingers. When you are sucking fingers, the cheek muscle will contract, which will take a toll on the width of dental arc. Over time, it may lead to the inharmony of arc form and size, and even the protrusion of mandibular anterior incisors. That’s why bucktooth comes into being. The severity of malocclusion caused by sucking fingers, depends on the sucking strength, duration, frequency and the original facial profile. 

      Change the habit of biting lips. Biting upper lip will result in protrusion of mandibular anterior incisors and undersized low jaw. As a result, you may suffer severe bucktooth and crowded teeth of the lower arc. While biting lower lip may cause the inadequate growth of upper jaw, thus leading to underbite and crowded teeth of upper arc. 

      Change the habit of breathing through mouth. There are mainly two reasons for breathing through mouth. For one thing, it is caused by the blockage of the upper respiratory tract, including nasal polyp, hypertrophy of nasal turbinates, adenoidal hypertrophy and hypertrophy of tonsil. For another, it is merely the bad habit. Breathing through mouth in a long run will lead to a short and thick upper lip, the hogging of hard palate and teeth misalignment. 

      Change the unhealthy habit of swallowing. Without teeth eruption, baby will position his tongue between the maxillary and mandibular anterior teeth when swallowing. After the eruption of deciduous teeth, the tongue will be raised to transfer the food without contacting the teeth any more at the time of swallowing. If children remain the baby-like way of swallowing for a long time, with teeth pressing against the teeth when swallowing, over time there will be problems like larger teeth gaps and open jaw.

      Change the habit of unilateral mastication.

    3. Keep a balanced diet to promote the growth of jawbone. 

      Genetically, both jawbone and teeth will degenerate during the evolving process of mankind. By observing, we find that most ancient people have wisdom teeth erupting vertically without signs of impaction. As human evolves, modern people have encountered a congenital loss of tooth germ of wisdom teeth. Even though the tooth germ remains, wisdom tooth can hardly achieve a desired eruption. The degeneration of jawbone is faster than that of teeth. If our ancestors have a small jawbone, then the jawbone of our generation will be smaller. As a result, the undersized jawbone cannot contain the teeth, resulting in a crowded dentition. Actually, such situation is quite common, in accordance with genetic development. Moreover, since nowadays the food becomes more and more exquisite, more and more children won’t bother to chew food carefully. With the family planning, the number of child in a family is declining. A child is looked after by a few adults. The food the child eat will be cut into small pieces in advance, which is harmful for the growth of jawbone. Besides, the over exquisite diet will also lead to the non-fallen out deciduous teeth after eruption of permanent teeth. 

    4. Remove deciduous teeth timely when permanent teeth start to erupt. 

      It’s quite common to see double dentition among children, which worries parents a lot. On one hand, it results from the decrease of gnawing motions. Parents will cut the food into small pieces once their child has tiny discomfort on teeth. Thus deciduous teeth will remain firm all the way. On the other hand, it is because of the small-sized jawbone. Normally, at the very beginning of permanent teeth eruption, deciduous teeth root will see absorption. As absorption progresses enough for the fallen out of deciduous teeth, the permanent teeth will erupt outside the gums just in time. Because of inadequate gaps between deciduous teeth, permanent teeth are not able to replace the deciduous teeth in the normal position, causing no absorption of deciduous teeth root. Therefore, it’s necessary to remove deciduous teeth in time when permanent teeth start to erupt. At that time the tooth root still remain the potential for growth. After the removal of deciduous teeth, chances are that permanent teeth can adjust their position to the normal one.

      Feel free to contact me if there’s any dental problem. (WeChat ID: aiyuan325180)