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When you leave on a trip, you probably double-check that evrything’s ready: your clothes are packed, your ticket is handy, and your passport waits patiently on top of your bag or in a special pocket.

The same level of preparedness should apply with regard to caring for your oral health when you’re about to leave home for a while. Whether you’re jumping in the car for a weekend camping trip or flying halfway across the globe for a longer stint, the tips below will help you keep your teeth healthy whil you’re away.

Prepare Ahead of Time

The key to maintaining good oral hygiene during travel is preparation. Schedule a regular dental appointment so your teeth are freshly cleaned and ready before you leave. This can identify potential issues that might cause problems while you’re away.

If you have any items on a dental “to-do” list, such as wisdom tooth removal, replacement of a filling, or orthodontic adjustment, it’s a good idea to get those procedures completed before your trip.

En Route

If you’re stuck on a long flight or trekking far into the woods, you might find yourself where there’s no sink or even a toothbrush at hand. We speak for everyone when we say that nothing is worse than a mouth that feels, shall we say, less than fresh.

A lemon wedge or Granny Smith apple slice can help freshen up your breath when you’re in need of a quick fix. Rinsing your mouth thoroughly with water can help to wash away bacteria that causes cavities and reduce that gritty sensation. If you’ve got toothpaste, put a dot on your finger or a damp washcloth to serve as a makeshift toothbrush.

Nowadays, travel-sized dental products are available at most grocery stores and pharmacies. You can find travel toothbrushes, mini mouthwashes, and pocket-sized floss to slip into your travel bag.

Colgate makes disposable mini-toothbrushes called Wisps that can help you freshen up when you may not have access to a regular toothbrush. Packing a few extra dental supplies may also be a good idea in case one gets damaged or lost.

At Your Destination

Traveling abroad can expose you to unfamiliar conditions. Some countries have compromised water sources that will make you extremely ill if ingested, even from the tiny amount of water with which you wet your toothbrush.

Minimize that risk and keep bottles of water on hand instead for rinsing your mouth and toothbrush. If your toothbrush comes in contact with contaminated water, swapping it out for a new one is the safest option.

Storing your toothbrush properly is necessary to prevent bacteria from growing on it. Place your brush in a Ziploc bag when you’re on the go and allow it to breathe once you get to a temporary destination.

Traveling near or far should be an enjoyable experience. Dental issues shouldn’t be a source of worry on your vacation. As long as you’re prepared and take precautions, your teeth can stay healthy even when they’re out of the country!

Of course, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact our Naperville, Illinois office.

Children’s baby teeth generally start to fall out when the adult teeth underneath them are ready to arrive. Visits from the Tooth Fairy begin around the age of six, and continue until the last baby molar is gone.

But sometimes, we can’t wait for nature to take its course, and children need a dentist’s assistance to remove a primary tooth before it falls out on its own. Here are some common situations where extracting a baby tooth is best for a child’s present—and future—dental health.

• Serious Decay

Dentists make every effort to save teeth, and this includes baby teeth. A filling or even the baby tooth version of a root canal can be used to save little teeth when a cavity appears.

But severe decay could mean that there’s not enough healthy tooth structure left to fill. Or that bacteria have caused infection inside the tooth. Left untreated, infections can spread to other tissues in the body and can become quite serious. When a primary tooth is seriously decayed or infected, an extraction is often the healthiest choice.

• Trauma

Sometimes a baby tooth will recover on its own if it’s been jarred by an impact. Sometimes an injured tooth can be repaired with treatment. If there’s serious damage, though, a baby tooth is at risk for abscess and infection, and, sometimes, can cause harm to the adult tooth beneath it. In cases like these, an extraction is the safest option.

When an injury causes a broken or dislodged tooth, call David Jones immediately. Whether the tooth can be saved or should be extracted depends on how serious the injury is and how soon you can get your child to the dentist’s office or the emergency room.

Whenever a child loses a primary tooth early, a pediatric dentist will be on the lookout for potential orthodontic problems. Remaining baby teeth tend to shift to fill any empty spot. Without the proper space to come in, the adult tooth can erupt out of place or at an awkward angle. David Jones  might recommend a space maintainer to keep baby teeth aligned properly and to make sure the right spot stays open for the permanent tooth when it’s ready to erupt.

We’ve talked about primary teeth which are lost early, but it’s also problematic . . .

• When a Baby Tooth Doesn’t Fall Out

Usually, a wiggly baby tooth is a clue that the adult tooth underneath has started pushing its way up and out. The baby tooth’s root is gradually absorbed as the adult tooth moves into place. Without an intact root to hold it in place, the baby tooth grows looser and looser until it falls out. Now the permanent tooth has the perfect open space ready for its arrival.

But when baby teeth don’t fall out on their own, this can be another source of orthodontic difficulties.

Stubborn baby teeth can mean adult teeth erupt behind them, creating a double row of teeth (colorfully known as “shark teeth”) and risking crowding and misalignment. Or a baby tooth can block an adult tooth from erupting at all. When that baby tooth just isn’t budging, an extraction will create space for the permanent tooth to erupt.

If an extraction is scheduled, consult with David Jones about these important topics in advance:

• Preparing for the Procedure

A pediatric dentist is an expert not just in caring for little teeth, but in caring for little patients as well. Because extractions can be scary for children, talk to our Naperville, Illinois dental team to learn how to prepare your child for the procedure in an informative, comforting, and age-appropriate way.

• Sedation Options

A local anesthetic could be all that’s necessary for a simple extraction. If sedation is recommended for an extraction, or if you feel sedation is better for your child’s needs, discuss nitrous oxide, oral medication, and other options with your dentist.

• Aftercare

Whether it’s how to protect the area around the extraction, which foods and drinks are best over the days following, or how to treat pain and swelling, you’ll be given clear instructions by your pediatric dental team to help your child recover comfortably and quickly.

Little teeth can take different paths on their way to the Tooth Fairy. Your pediatric dentist is an expert both in treating children’s dental needs and in making sure their oral development is on schedule. If your dentist has recommended an extraction, it’s because this is the very best way to protect your child’s immediate oral health while ensuring a healthy future adult smile.

It’s that time of year again—Halloween! Carving pumpkins. Creating costumes. And, of course, collecting candy.

But some of the candies in that collection aren’t much of a treat for your teeth. When you’re deciding on the perfect pieces to choose from the candy cauldron, here are some tricks from Small Smiles LLC to identify the ones that can be more frightful than delightful for your tooth enamel:   

• Is it Chewy or Sticky?

Any sticky or chewy candy—caramels, taffy, licorice, gummy anything—is candy that also sticks to your teeth. And it really sticks in between your teeth, where it’s harder to brush away.

The problem? Bacteria in plaque love sugar, and sticky candies provide them with hours of sugary feasting. Bacteria use this sugar to make acids, and acids cause weak spots in tooth enamel. These weak spots will get bigger over time as the bacteria keep on attacking your enamel, and that’s how you can end up with a cavity. Less sugar that spends less time on your teeth = fewer cavities!

• Is it Sour?

Sour candies get that intense, lip-puckering taste because they’re so acidic. What’s wrong with acids? Just like the acids made by bacteria, acids in food attack our tooth enamel, too.

Sour candies are hard on your teeth all by themselves. When you eat a candy that’s both sour (acidic) and gummy (sticky), all coated in sugar, that’s triple trouble!

• Is it Hard or Crunchy?

Some kids like hard candies like lollipops and fruity drops because they last a long time. But that’s the problem. All that time a hard candy rolls around in your mouth is time spent bathing your teeth with sugar.

Thinking of shortening your sugar exposure by chewing hard candies? Also a bad idea! Crunching into a piece of hard candy can chip or crack a tooth and even damage fillings.

Luckily, there are healthier trick-or-treating choices if you know what to look for. 

• Soft Candies and Chocolates

A chocolate bar, a peanut butter cup, mint patties, and other soft candies won’t stick around on your teeth the same way chewy or hard candies do. No sour acids, either. And because dark chocolate has less sugar than lighter chocolates, it’s an even healthier choice.

• Sugar-Free Gum

This treat is not only sugarless, but chewing it helps us make more saliva. Saliva washes away sugary food particles and helps lower the amount of acids in the mouth. You can get the same results with sugar-free lollipops or hard candies—just don’t crunch down on them.

No need to skip the trick-or-treating this year. Occasional sugary or acidic treats can be balanced out with daily brushing and flossing, a healthy diet, and regular visits to our Naperville, Illinois office for exams and cleanings. When you do enjoy a treat that’s sugary or acidic, there are tricks to help you keep your smile healthy and cavity-free.

• Eat a treat or two with your meals instead of snacking through the day. You won’t be exposing your teeth to sugar for hours at a time, which means bacteria and acids won’t be haunting your enamel all day long.
• Drink water. If you eat your candy with an acidic soda or juice, you’re getting sugar + sugar + acids. That’s a scary recipe when it comes to healthy teeth! Water helps wash away sugar and acids—and, if you have fluoridated water in your community, you’ll be getting a bit of fluoride to strengthen your enamel, too.
• Halloween is no time to ghost your toothbrush and floss. Be extra careful to brush and clean between your teeth after eating sweets.

Any questions? Talk to David Jones to learn the best ways to keep your smile looking boo-tiful all year long!

What a milestone! The transition from bottle to sippy cup is one of baby’s first steps toward toddler independence. And like all first journeys, some helpful guideposts come in handy. That’s why David Jones and our team have several recommendations to help you navigate this transition, making sure your baby’s dental health is protected along the way.

Choosing a Sippy Cup

Sippy cups are often a parent’s first choice for this big step in baby’s development. While sippy cups offer a variety of child-safe materials, lively colors, and comfortable handle options, the feature of interest from a dental perspective is lid design.

Sippy cups curb spills because their lids don’t allow liquids to flow out freely, ensuring that drinks make it into baby’s mouth instead of onto furniture or floor. Cup lids might incorporate:

• Built-in straws
• A drinking edge around the rim of the cup which seals when your child isn’t drinking
• Soft spouts
• Hard spouts
• Spouts with valves to prevent liquids from leaking out. (Spouts with valves work like a nipple, which means baby is sucking instead of sipping.)

Which design is best? For short periods, any of these designs can work for you. Over long periods, spouted cups could have the same effects as prolonged thumb-sucking and pacifier use, potentially affecting a child’s tongue positioning, tooth alignment, bite, and speech development. Your dentist will be able to suggest which cups are best for your child’s dental health both short and long term.

What to Put in a Sippy Cup

Once your baby has begun drinking from a cup, it should only hold tooth-friendly drinks.

• Pediatricians generally recommend breast milk and/or formula until your child is 12 months old. You can switch to regular milk (or a healthy milk alternative) once your child is a year old with your doctor’s okay.
• Water can be introduced when your pediatrician thinks your child is ready, usually around the age of six months.
• Because even natural fruit juices have lots of sugar, dentists and pediatricians suggest giving your baby small amounts only—or feed your child fruit instead!
• Skip the sugared drinks, sports drinks, caffeinated drinks, and sodas. They aren’t healthy for little bodies or little teeth.

Help Prevent Tooth Decay

Just like adults, babies can suffer tooth decay, too—and for the same reasons. The bacteria in plaque use the sugars found in our diets to create acids, and acids erode tooth enamel.

When a toddler totes a sippy cup around all day, even filled with healthy drinks, those baby teeth are constantly exposed to the natural sugars found in breast milk, formula, and, for older children, milk. Drinks with more or added sugars, such as juices or sweetened drinks, cause more damage to tooth enamel. Use a sippy cup wisely:

• Offer the cup with meals and snacks, when increased saliva production can help wash away sugars and neutralize the acids which cause cavities.
• Offer water between meals.
• Don’t let your baby take a sippy cup to bed. Some spill-proof cups are designed to be sucked like bottles, and, like bottles, sugary liquids can pool in babies’ mouths as they sleep.
• Get into a tooth-cleaning routine as soon as your child’s teeth start to arrive.

And, while we’re talking about healthy teeth, please don’t let your child toddle around with a sippy cup. A fall while drinking can injure a baby’s mouth and teeth.

Partner with Your Child’s Dentist

The journey from baby to toddler can seem overwhelming sometimes for both you and your child, but you have expert help available! It's a good idea to make a first dental appointment at our Naperville, Illinois office sometime between the appearance of the first baby tooth and your child’s first birthday. This initial visit is an opportunity for David Jones to:

• Check your child’s overall dental health and development.
• Look for signs of early decay.
• Talk about proactive dental care, including how and when to clean your child’s teeth.
• Answer questions about how you can support your child’s dental health, including the advantages and disadvantages of sippy cups.

Used properly, sippy cups can be a helpful transition on your child’s journey from bottle to cup, and from baby-who-relies-on-you-for-everything to take-charge-toddler. David Jones and our team are an ideal guide as you and your child chart this path together.