🔹Dental Caries In Children🔹

  •Dental caries (also known as tooth decay or dental cavities) is the most common noncommunicable disease worldwide.

  •Severe dental caries affects general health and often causes pain and infection, which may result in tooth extraction.

Common dental caries for children-

1. Nursing bottle caries 

2. Rampant caries 

👉 NURSING BOTTLE CARIES

Nursing bottle caries is a form of tooth decay that is caused by children sleeping with bottles. This is also called baby bottle or nursing bottle tooth decay. It is caused when a child goes to bed with a bottle filled with milk or juice, anything except water. 

• Common age group:

It usually affects children between the ages of one and two years. Breastfed infants who fall asleep while breastfeeding are also at risk.

• Signs and symptoms:

The following are the most common signs and symptoms of nursing caries:

1) White spots on the teeth

2) Early development of cavities (brown areas on the tooth that lead to tooth destruction)

• Mostly occurs as dull, chalky appearence on the labial, palatal and proximal aspects of the maxillary anteriors.

• Prevention:

The following are suggestions to help prevent nursing caries:

1) Do not allow your child to go to bed with a bottle filled with anything but water.

2) Wean your child from the bottle in a timely manner.

3) Begin good early mouth care of the gums and teeth.

4) Give fluoride supplementation, as recommended by your child's doctor.

5) Have early dental visits for your child.

👉 RAMPANT CARIES

Rampant caries is a suddenly appearing, rapidly burrowing type of caries resulting in early pulp involvement. This type of caries appears mostly in small children of 2-5 years of age.

• Cause of Rampant dental caries in children:

When the baby is fed at night time and  put to sleep immediately, the milk and its contents remain inside the mouth. The sugary contents in the milk are fermented by the bacteria and release acids. The tooth decay starts appearing as brownish discolouration of the teeth and dissolving the tooth structure. Mostly it affects the upper front teeth because the lower teeth are protected by the tongue. It starts with one tooth and affects the other neighboring teeth at a faster rate.

• Clinical Features:

1) Occurs on those tooth which are usually immune to dental caries.

2) Onset is sudden.

3) Excessive amount of tooth decay present.

4) Initial lesion on the labial surface of maxillary incisor. In advanced lesion, it may extend around circumference of the crown.

5) Development of cervical caries may also take place.

6) Occurs on both child and adult.

• Management:

1) Reduce intake of redefined carbohydrate.

2) Reduce frequency of food intake.

3) Application of topical flouride.

4) Increase intake of fibrous food.

5) Restoration of carious tooth.

Dr. Lameea Shahed

Junior Consultant

Kinetic Dental, Dhaka

.......KINETIC DENTAL.......

House no. 73, Road: Chhayanir Bakery Factory Road, West Dhanmondi, Shankar, Dhaka: 1207.

Contact: 01868349178

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