Check-ups and Cleanings in Santa Clara , CA

Comprehensive Oral Health Evaluation For Kids

Bay Area Kids Dentist provides a comprehensive oral exam and dental cleaning fluoride application each time your child comes in for a kid’s dental check-up. The oral health evaluation includes:

• getting your child’s teeth as clean as possible
• checking for cavities
• looking for signs of tooth decay
• early detection and treatment of dental problems

We understand that it’s important for both you and your child to know what to expect during your child’s oral health exam. In addition to explaining that here, we always inform your child of our next actions at the bi-annual exam.

Getting Started With Dentistry for Kids

As we start each check-up visit we will ask you to describe your child’s typical daily diet We know from experience that some foods cause higher risks than others do when it comes to developing tooth decay and other common oral health issues.  Another important function of a kid’s dentist is to assess habits such as thumb sucking, pacifier use, or frequently drinking sweetened fruit juice. While these are normal behaviours in young children, they may become problematic if taken to an extreme. We provide parents with information on how various habits affect the development of baby teeth as well as adult teeth.

Dental Cleaning & Oral Health Exam

Your child can choose to sit on your lap or in our specialty-sized exam chair so we can complete our cleaning. This typically involves gentle back and forth motions with a children’s toothbrush containing a strong tooth polish. However, we take care to select flavours children enjoy such as bubble gum.

Fluoride Treatments for Kids

We also provide fluoride treatments for most children to help guard against tooth decay. Although fluoride is present in water and many types of toothpaste, it’s not quite enough to give kids the level of protection we like to see. Having adequate fluoride helps to strengthen tooth enamel as well. If your child’s back molars have come in, we apply a sealant for added protection from decay.

Dental X-rays for Kids

Our dentistry for kids may include x-rays to get a complete picture of the teeth or to diagnose a dental condition. During the years before adolescence, we continually monitor the way your son or daughter’s top and bottom teeth come together. We also monitor the alignment of the permanent adult teeth once they come in to determine if your child could benefit from orthodontic work in the future. Our staff will instruct you to schedule another appointment if we detect cavities or other issues that require additional treatment.

The dentists, dental assistants, and the rest of the staff at Bay Area Kids Dentist look forward to treating your child at his or her next routine exam.

Kids Oral Hygiene Frequently Asked Questions

How long should my child brush their teeth for?

Our pedodontists recommend 2 minutes overall, which is 1 minute for the top and 1 minute for the bottom. To make it fun our team at BAKD tells our families to sing or hum their favorite song while brushing.

How often should my child visit the dentist?

Bay Area Kids Dentists recommend a visit with us at least two times a year, more specifically every 6 months. Some children may need to be seen by our dentists more frequently depending on their oral hygiene. Even if your child has great oral health and brushes and flosses regularly it’s important to maintain regular visits because just missing one visit means there will be a year in between their last and next visit.

What is fluoride? Is Flouride good for my child’s oral Health?

Fluoride is a mineral that is naturally occurring and is used in dentistry to help protect teeth against cavities by strengthening tooth enamel. At Bay Area Kids Dentist we apply fluoride at every dental cleaning. We request a minimum of once a year but recommend its application at least twice a year.

How often should my child use fluoride?

Most tap water is treated with fluoride however at Bay Area Kids Dentist we also strongly recommend toothpaste with fluoride as well.  We recommend your child to start using fluoride once they get their first tooth.  Just use a grain of rice size if your child doesn’t know how to spit yet and a pea size if they can spit well. At your child’s dental appointment it is common practice to apply fluoride after their cleaning and we apply it at every cleaning.

Are there eating instructions after applying fluoride?

Our Team asks our patients to not eat or drink water 30 minutes after the application so the fluoride doesn’t wash away.

What happens at a kid’s dental cleaning?

At our Dental Cleaning appointments, we want to accomplish several things. Our Registered Dental Assistants will go over oral hygiene with parents and children, what they find in the mouth while they are coronal polishing, flossing, brushing, and fluoride treatment.  The dentist will come over and do the exam once the cleaning is done.  If x-rays have not been taken in about a year then we’ll take an updated set.

What are x-rays?

X-rays are pictures that are used in every dental and medical office to view things we normally can’t see with the human eye.

Why are x-rays important?

We take x-rays to visualize growth, to diagnose cavities or possible infections.

What is a panoramic x-ray?

A panoramic x-ray is an image that allows us to visualize the entire mouth and how each tooth is growing. We can also find abnormalities that your child might have in the mouth. For children this also helps us visualize if the permanent/adult teeth are coming in. In older children, it also helps us visualize the presence of wisdom teeth. For these reasons we also call it a Growth and Development x-ray.

If my child has taken a full set of x-rays within the last year, why are we taking more x-rays?

Usually, in order to address any concerns like pain, or growth of a tooth it is normal practice to take an additional x-ray to view what’s happening with your child’s oral health. If the dental assistant or dentist sees a possible cavity, we will take additional x-rays.