Dental Care: ECC (Early Childhood Caries)

The problem of dental caries is normal and widely prevalent. Irrespective of age and sex, all the races and nations have its impact. Dental caries in children is known as ECC. Early childhood caries popularly known as bottle caries, is mainly due to the feeding bottle; of course the micro-organisms also play an important role.

Sometimes you will note that the ECC is on upper front teeth in children. The cause was probably malnutrition where the formation of enamel was not proper.

Symptoms

• Pain.
• Difficulty in chewing.
• Abscess formation.
• Retarded growth.
• Cause caries in permanent teeth.
• Difficulty in speech.
• Low self-esteem.

Prescription

• Encourage breastfeeding.
• Feed bottle only when child is awake.
• In sleep the contents should be diluted.
• Clean the teeth after feeding.
• Supplement the diet with non-liquid content after 6 months.

Dentist’s help

Dentist plays a vital role in the management of early childhood caries with the modern equipment. Preventive dentistry should ideally begin much more before the birth of the child. The expecting mother should be educated on matters such as nutrition to provide an ideal environment for the developing foetus. Soon after birth, the mother should be educated on proper nursing and care of the child. In case of the child being bottle-fed the mother is advised on the physiologic nipple and not the conventional nipple.

The conventional nipples are non-physiologic and do not permit sucking by movement of the tongue and the lower jaw. The physiologic nipples, on the other hand are designed to permit sucking of the milk which more or less resembles the normal functional activity as in breast feeding. The hidden caries that is caries in between milk teeth, should be detected and properly restored by a dentist.

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