Ways to Prevent Dental Emergencies When Heading Back to School

As your child heads to school after the holidays, you might be anxious about whether your child will make new friends, latch on to the education teachers teach them, or struggle or renew old rivalries to return home with injuries or impacts on their mouths. Of course, you can worry about your child heading back to a new session in school, but have you made plans to protect them while letting them experience the ups and downs that accompany growing up? There are some hazards you must avoid with children, especially dental emergencies.

Dental emergencies are painful for children, just as they are for adults. In addition, the situation can distract your child from learning in school and connecting with their teachers and classmates. To prepare for the back-to-school routine and prevent dental emergencies, here are some tips you can adopt to ensure your child doesn’t experience a dental situation when starting a new year in school.

What Is Pediatric Emergency Dentistry?

Pediatric dental emergencies are no different from general dental situations affecting adults. For example, children can suffer from a broken or chipped tooth falling in school when playing, develop toothaches from untreated cavities, or even have a knocked-out tooth from playful incidents gone wrong and resulting in altercations. The primary difference is that the dental situation affects a child instead of a grown-up, making it essential for you to ensure they receive prompt treatment from the emergency pediatric dentist in Houston, TX, soon after you notice the dental emergency or the child complains about it.

How to Handle Dental Emergencies in Children?

Handling pediatric dental emergencies in children is no different than managing dental situations and adults. You might find it challenging to determine whether the pediatric dentist near me attends to dental emergencies for children whenever they are approached. Nonetheless, you must try to visit them to understand whether they are open or offer emergency dental services for children beyond office hours. You can consider yourself fortunate if the children’s dentist near you is available late in the evening and is willing to consider your child’s dental predicament to offer a remedy which most pediatric dentists do. However, if the dentist’s office is closed for the day, you have no option but to search for dentists providing pediatric emergency services to deal with any situation affecting your child.

How to Prevent Back-To-School Dental Emergencies?

Planning Ahead

Planning helps prevent dental emergencies in children and adults. If during the holiday season, when you have neglected your child’s teeth and gums and allowed them to enjoy themselves, you can take it for granted that they will have dental plaque and tartar hardened on their teeth to allow their mouth bacteria to eventually make them a victim of tooth decay. However, if you plan to send your kids back to school after the holidays, you must start planning to ensure they brush and floss their teeth as suggested by their dentist and ensure your child does not give up the smile-friendly practices but continue them to prevent cavities from interfering with their schooling.

Food and Beverage Choices

When packing your child’s meal box, you must ensure they receive a balanced meal. You can reduce the risks of children developing cavities by avoiding sugary and carbohydrate-heavy foods besides the crunchy and hard variety to prevent chipping and cracking of teeth. Similarly, you must avoid sports drinks, soda, juices, et cetera because they are conducive to tooth decay and allow your kids to have them sparingly. Instead of packing your child’s meal box with the foods or drinks mentioned above, you can select alternatives like apples, carrots, et cetera because they are fibrous and require chewing. Chewing helps the child’s mouth salivate to rinse food particles, plaque, and bacteria off their teeth.

Dental Visits for Exams and Cleanings

Back-to-school is an exciting time, but it’s not an occasion to avoid visiting the Houston pediatric dentist to give your child a dental exam and cleaning before heading back to school. The dentist will examine your child’s mouth, looking for signs of tooth decay and suggesting prompt treatments before the condition worsens. Your child also receives a dental cleaning helping them have a beautiful smile, besides receiving fluoride treatments to help strengthen tooth enamel to prevent cavities.

If your child is involved in contact sports, the Houston dentist suggests you get them a customized mouthguard and a helmet if they play football. The mouthguard helps prevent dental injuries from impacts on the mouth that might result in a dental emergency late in the evening, causing stress and anxiety.

Finally, you can never predict dental emergencies because children will experience challenges in school. However, if you adopt the practices suggested in this article, you have in hand to lower the risks of dental emergencies occurring to help your child enjoy their year in school without dental complications.

If your child confronts a dental situation in school, Greenway Pediatric Dentistry provides pediatric emergency dentistry on all days of the week, including Saturdays. You can contact them for any dental condition affecting your child if you haven’t taken the precautions suggested in this article to receive prompt treatment.