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Early Childhood Dental Care

9. The Dentist.

The American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry and the Canadian Dental Association both recommend that children visit the dentist by 12 months. Although this seems early, the goal is to provide preventive services and to promote awareness of oral health. Here's a checklist of what your dentist should discuss at that first visit:

• The benefits of regular home and professional care, even at a young age.
• The relationship of diet to dental disease
• The effect of certain medications and conditions on oral health (For example, asthma medications have side effects that increase susceptibility to decay.)
• Why sleeping with a bottle can increase cavities.
• Oral hygiene practices.
• The benefits of water fluoridation.
• Developmental milestones, such as sequence of tooth eruption.
• Monitoring jaw growth and development.
• Effects of habits such as thumb sucking and pacifiers.
• Injury prevention, trauma treatment (for example, what to do if a tooth is hit or knocked out).