Early dental care and detection of potential problems is a crucial part of your child's smile. Any dental complications early on could affect your child's nutrition and even lead to the onset of periodontal disease. Taking proper care of your child's baby teeth can help ensure that the underlying adult teeth come into their proper places and that other dental problems are averted. Here is a look at reasons why your child needs regular dental checkups as their adult teeth come in.

Tooth decay and gingivitis

The early loss of baby teeth to decay or gum disease can have serious consequences. Firstly, the gaps left by the lost teeth can trap plaque and bacteria that can cause further tooth decay and bad breath. The lost teeth can also allow adjacent teeth to shift, leading to your child having crooked teeth and a misaligned bite. To make matters worse, the shifting teeth could occupy spaces meant for the underlying adult teeth, necessitating tooth extraction.

Taking your child for early dental checkups can ensure that tooth decay or gingivitis is detected early so that remedial treatment can be offered to halt tooth and gum damage. Dentists often recommend fluoride toothpaste to help boost enamel strength and educate your child on healthy oral habits such as eating less candy so as to keep cavities at bay.

Professional tooth cleaning at the dental office could also help to halt the onset of gingivitis and remove plaque and tartar that has accumulated on the surface of your child's teeth. 

Orthodontic work

Baby teeth can often get misaligned, leading to a poor bite, overcrowding, and crooked teeth. Early detection of such issues during dental checkups can prompt your child to get the required orthodontic treatment to straighten their smile and avert future dental complications.

Dentists often use two-phase orthodontic treatment for children with bite issues, where an initial set of braces is installed to straighten baby teeth and a second set is applied to finalize the treatment once the adult teeth erupt. 

Wisdom teeth impaction

If your child has had orthodontic corrective work or has misaligned teeth, they may suffer from impacted wisdom teeth in their late childhood. This often occurs when wisdom teeth push into incorrect spaces due to lack of ample room for them to erupt properly.

Impacted wisdom teeth can cause excruciating pain and damage adjacent teeth as they come in at odd angles. Careful monitoring of your child's dental health could help reveal where their wisdom teeth are so they can be extracted early on if likely to cause complications. For more information, contact local professionals like Timothy D Calkins DDS