About Children's Tooth Extraction

As the saying goes, toothache is not a disease, but it can be fatal. Regarding extracting cavities in children, the editor once had cavities, so he has a deep understanding of this. Even adults can’t stand toothache, let alone children! So when a child has tooth decay, is it better to remove the teeth to avoid future problems, or is it better to take other measures? Next, let’s talk about the issues related to children’s tooth decay!

Caries-causing bacteria spread by word of mouth

What people commonly call "rotten teeth and tooth decay" in children is actually dental caries. In the past, people believed that it was closely related to inappropriate breast or bottle feeding methods, so it was also called bottle caries, bottle feeding syndrome, etc. However, in fact, the causes of dental caries are complex, and bottle feeding is not the only factor.

The most important inducing factor of tooth decay is the cariogenic bacteria (especially Streptococcus mutans) "living" in the mouth. S. mutans is mainly transmitted from mother to baby. During breastfeeding and close contact with infants and young children, the Streptococcus mutans in the mother's mouth can be transmitted to the baby. In my country, many mothers like to taste the hot and cold food spoon by spoon before feeding it to their children. Although their starting point is to love their children, they do not realize that they are passing tooth-causing bacteria to their children.

Bad eating habits are also an important factor leading to early caries. Eating too much sugar (mainly sucrose, glucose, fructose, etc.) provides raw materials for caries-causing bacteria to decompose, metabolize and produce acid. Inappropriate feeding methods, such as letting infants and young children sleep with a bottle in their mouth and feeding them multiple times at night, can cause the milk, sugar, juice, etc. in the bottle to stick to the deciduous teeth for a long time through the nipple at the bottle mouth, which can easily lead to large-scale caries of the maxillary front teeth. Oral hygiene habits should not be neglected. Many children with early caries have thick plaque, calculus and pigmentation on their teeth because they do not do a good job of oral hygiene on a regular basis.

Tooth decay can make children ugly

Early childhood caries develops rapidly and often affects multiple deciduous teeth. Large-area defects in deciduous teeth can cause "toothache", reduce chewing efficiency, and even affect eating. It can lead to malnutrition in infants and young children and affect their growth and development. If it further develops into pulpitis or periapical inflammation and is not treated in time, it may affect the development of the tooth germ of the successor permanent tooth (the tooth that will be replaced in the future). If the deciduous teeth are lost prematurely, it may even affect the development of the jaw, causing malocclusion and making the child ugly. The chipped or missing front teeth not only affect the appearance and pronunciation, but are also detrimental to the psychological development of children.

Regarding the extraction of rotten teeth in children, although the teeth are small, once they get dental disease, it is no longer a trivial matter. Everyone must pay enough attention to it. For children, it is even more important not to ignore. Once there is a problem with the deciduous teeth, parents must take the children to the hospital to see a dentist in time and ask professionals to handle it. Generally speaking, decayed teeth do not necessarily have to be extracted. It depends on the location and severity of the decayed teeth and needs to be analyzed based on the specific situation.