Pediatric dentistry deals with children from birth through adolescence. It is recommended by the American academy of pediatric dentistry that a dental visit should happen soon after the presence of the first tooth or by a child’s first birthday.

As opposed to what the general public believe that the baby teeth are not so important, as anyway they are going to fall off and new set of permanent teeth will appear, utmost care and attention has to be paid to the hygiene of the baby teeth as well.  The following points have to be considered : Earlier the child visits the dentist less likely the child is going to develop fear about dentistry. The dentist educates the child early in life the correct technique of brushing and care of gums. Children often develop habits such as thumb sucking, nail biting, lip sucking etc. Which affects the proper growth of jaw bones. The dentist will help the child break these habits and any deviation in the growth pattern of the jaw or the teeth is identified and rectified by the dentist immediately. This is called interceptive orthodontics. Here ,even before a bad bite is established, its identified and rectified immediately thereby preventing the child from going through unnecessary treatment later on in life. Oral Prophylaxis (Professional cleaning and polishing of teeth), Fluoride application, Application of sealants are some of the preventive procedures performed. Fillings, root canal treatment and stainless steel crowns are also done as required to treat tooth decay. Sometimes baby teeth do not fall on there own in some of the patients and so the permanent teeth come in an improper position, so early extraction of these baby teeth which obstruct the eruption of permanent teeth is also done. If the child has constant nasal allergies or has strong adenoids. It can lead to mouth breathing, which again causes bad bite and improper development of jaw bones. This also can be rectified by early surgical removal of persistent inflamed adenoids by the ENT surgeon.