Dr. Jeff Holt and our team of pediatric dentists, orthodontist, dental hygienists and dental assistants welcome you in our Kids Dental Welcome Video from Kids Dental located in Plano and Carrollton.

Kids Dental Welcome Video

At Kids Dental, we offer comprehensive, family-centered pediatric dental care in a child-friendly nurturing environment. If you are looking for a place to call your dental home, please schedule a consultation with one of our pediatric dentists by completing an Online Appointment Request or calling either office.

Plano Office Phone: 972-378-5437

Carrollton Office Phone: 972-394-2140

Go to the Apple Store and download our Dental App for kids! It’s a great way to help kids with their dental health.

At Kids Dental, we offer comprehensive, family-centered pediatric dental care in a child-friendly nurturing environment. If you are looking for a place to call your dental home, please schedule a consultation with one of our pediatric dentists by completing an Online Appointment Request or calling either office.

Plano Office Phone: 972-378-5437

Carrollton Office Phone: 972-394-2140

Baby Dental Topics

Dr Jeff Holt from Kids Dental in Plano and Carrollton provides information about baby dental topics for infant oral hygiene care.

• Why Baby Teeth Are Important
• Five Stages of Teething and Helpful Hints 
• Dental Hygiene for Babies and Toddlers
• Baby Bottle (Nursing) Tooth Decay
• Thumb Sucking and Pacifiers “Non-nutritive Sucking Habits”

At Kids Dental, we offer comprehensive, family-centered pediatric dental care in a child-friendly nurturing environment. If you are looking for a place to call your dental home, please schedule a consultation with one of our pediatric dentists by completing an Online Appointment Request or calling either office.

Plano Office Phone: 972-378-5437

Carrollton Office Phone: 972-394-2140

Dental Fluoride Treatments in Children

Along with dental sealants, dental fluoride treatment is one of the most effective ways to prevent tooth decay and maintain excellent dental health in children. Fluoride treatments are both safe and effective in decreasing the prevalence of cavities in children, by 95% specifically, when combined with dental sealants. Making the tooth more impervious to acid attacks caused by sugars and plaque bacteria in the mouth, fluoride acts as a shield for the outer enamel layer of the teeth and actually has the ability to reverse early dental decay in some cases. Ask your pediatric dentist about professional fluoride treatment for you child.  Our dental topics page provides other information on oral hygiene during pediatric dentistry.

What Exactly Is Fluoride?

Fluoride is a naturally existing mineral found in water, many foods, within the earth’s crust, and widely throughout nature. Fluoride is often added to tap water supplies for drinking and to toothpastes for children and adults.

Why Children Need Fluoride?

In the 1930s, researchers determined that people who had grow up drinking fluoridated drinking water had about 66% fewer cavities than people living in areas without fluoridated drinking water. Ever since, research has recurrently proven fluoridated drinking water to reduce levels of tooth decay within communities.

Fluoride is beneficial for all children, because it helps shield young teeth from damaging acid and can actually rescind early signs of dental decay (reverse very small cavities). Hurtful acids in the mouth form from bacteria combined with sugars. The acid damages the hard protective outer layer of the tooth called enamel. On a daily basis, minerals are being lost and added to the enamel layer of the teeth through naturally occurring processes called demineralization and remineralization. Minerals are lost (demineralization) when acid attacks the enamel, and minerals like phosphates, calcium, and fluoride (which all strengthen the teeth) are added back (remineralization) when kids drink water or eat foods that contain these minerals. Cavities form and decay occurs when too much demineralization transpires without enough remineralization to restore enamel.

Benefits of Dental Fluoride Treatments For Children

According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), professionally applied topical fluoride treatments are effective in decreasing dental decay in children as well, especially those in a high risk category for decay.  Having fluoride professionally applied during a pediatric dental visit ensures your child’s teeth have received an adequate and protective amount of fluoride to successfully obstruct acidic breakdown of the enamel layer of the teeth.

Only small amounts of fluoride are required for children to receive the maximal benefits. Professional dental fluoride treatments for children are applied to the teeth in a gel, foam, or varnish form. These treatments consist of highly increased levels of fluoride as compared to what is found in water and toothpastes. Ask your pediatric dentist about professional fluoride treatments, as recommendations may vary depending on a child’s particular oral and dental situation. Overall, however, these treatments are highly promoted, and parents can be assured in the difference professional fluoride treatments make in increasing dental health and strengthening the enamel layer of young teeth. In fact, recent research indicates that dental fluoride treatments are just as beneficial in strengthening developing teeth as they are in reducing the risk of early decay.

How safe is Fluoride For Children?

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), American Dental Association (ADA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) all claim fluoridated water to be safe for children and an effective agent in maintaining dental health.

In fact, fluoride exposure and intake becomes particularly important to a child’s dental development starting from the age of six months through sixteen years. This is the span of time when all of the baby and permanent teeth erupt. (Fluoride is beneficial for adults too.)

As a warning, fluoride can be dangerous in extremely high doses (toxic dose level depends on individual weight). Generally, a parent should not have to worry about toxic levels of fluoride being present in drinking water but should, however, monitor carefully their children’s use of products containing fluoride, such as toothpaste and mouthwash. Fluoridated products should be kept out of kids’ reach, especially if under six years of age. It is pretty difficult, however, to reach toxic levels of fluoride, given the small amounts typically contained in fluoridated home-based products. Also, remember to only use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste on a child’s toothbrush.

Prenatal Fluoride Exposure

A recent study performed in Canada and published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Pediatrics produced results showing that fluoride exposure during pregnancy may have an adverse effect on children’s intelligence. While more research is necessary to provide definitive statistics, the study has been cited as “one of the most rigorous studies” in this field. Read more about prenatal flouride exposure and affects on your child.

When Should My Child Begin Using Fluoridated Toothpaste?

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) recommends using just a “smear” of fluoridated toothpaste beginning when the first tooth appears, until a child is three years of age. At three years old, a pea-sized amount of fluoridated toothpaste can start being used. Ask the pediatric dentist about fluoride safety and precautionary measures recommended for young children, especially those under the age of six.

Please contact Kids Dental Plano Office or Kids Dental Carrollton Office to schedule a visit with one of our pediatric dentists or orthodontist.

Dental Sealants Prevent Cavities in Children

Dental sealants have been used largely since the 1960s as a protective tool in dentistry, due to their effective shielding abilities. According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD), nine out of ten cavities in school aged children form in the deep pits and crevices of the teeth. Simply put, sealants aid in protecting the biting surfaces of the teeth and keep cavities from occurring. Sealing children’s teeth keeps bacteria from adhering to surface or down into the grooves of the teeth, which in turn prevents tooth decay and makes the teeth easier to clean. Our dental topics page provides other information on oral hygiene during pediatric dentistry.

What Exactly Are Dental Sealants?

Specifically, dental sealants are thin coatings made of plastic that are typically painted on teeth in a liquid form in the dentist’s office. The liquid sealant is bonded to the teeth to form a protective coating. Although traditionally sealants have been used on the permanent molars in the back of the mouth, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) promotes the use of sealants on other teeth, including non-molar baby and permanent teeth. Dental sealant application is simple, quick, painless, and is usually done during routine check ups and cleaning visits, if needed.

How Are Dental Sealants Applied?

First the teeth are cleaned, dried, and isolated with cotton rolls in order to keep them from getting wet again before the sealant application. Each tooth is sealed individually. A conditioning gel is paced on the tooth in order to prepare it for bonding. The conditioning gel is then rinsed off, and the tooth is once again dried. At this point, the tooth is ready to accept the sealant. Then the flowable resin sealant material is applied to the deep pits and fissures in the chewing surfaces of the tooth using a specific applicator brush. A special light is used to cure and bond the sealant material to the enamel surface of the tooth, in order to prevent microscopic bacteria that cause cavities to form in the deep pits and grooves of teeth.

Dental Sealants Are Safe For Kids and Cost Effective

Dental sealants are extremely safe and effective in helping maintain your child’s optimal oral health. Dental sealants are not only a protective treatment but a cost effective one as well. Shielding your child’s teeth from bacteria that cause tooth decay,  that can lead to toothaches in children, dental sealants are both safe and preventive in keeping your child from needing more comprehensive and costly restorative dental treatment in the future.

Why Kids Need Dental Sealants?

Due to the way the teeth are formed, the biting surfaces of all back teeth, as well as some other teeth, have deep grooves and fissures in them.  It is easy for bacteria collect within these cracks and crevices. Sometimes, these bacteria cannot be removed, even with adequate brushing, due to the deepness of the grooves. This can become a serious oral health problem and can lead to dental decay.

For this reason dental sealants become imperative, because with proper practice of dental hygiene at home, regular dental check ups, and suitable follow-up care, they reduce the risk of the formation of the most common cavities in school-aged children by 80-90%. Today cavities are almost completely preventable, and studies show, especially when combined with fluoride treatments, making the choice to seal your children’s teeth is one of the very best ways to help them battle the threat of early childhood tooth decay. The effectiveness of dental sealants is unarguable.  Overall, dental sealants can significantly increase and protect the dental health of your children, which in turn promotes their overall health as well.

When Kids Need Dental Sealants

Talk to your pediatric dentist about recommendations for your child, as each case is specific and varies. The dentist will likely recommend dental sealants for your child’s primary (baby) teeth, especially if they have particularly deep grooves and fissures. It is extremely important maintain the health of your child’s baby teeth, in order to keep them from falling out too early.

Children need dental sealants on their permanent molars right when they erupt. The first permanent molars typically come in between five and seven years of age, and the second set of permanent molars usually comes in anytime between eleven and fourteen years of age. There are also other non-molar teeth with deep pits and grooves that may need sealing.

How Long Do Dental Sealants Last?

For a procedure that takes only a few minutes per tooth to complete, kids receive on average two to five years of protection against the most common cavities occurring in children. Under the very best circumstances, some sealants can even last up to ten years.

At Kids Dental, we offer comprehensive, family-centered pediatric dental care in a child-friendly nurturing environment. If you are looking for a place to call your dental home, please schedule a consultation with one of our pediatric dentists by completing an Online Appointment Request or calling either office.

Plano Office Phone: 972-378-5437

Carrollton Office Phone: 972-394-2140