Paediatric Dental Treatments

At Weymouth Street Paediatric Dentistry in London, we’re here when your child needs dental care. We help parents and kids lay a foundation for proper oral hygiene, helping them maintain a healthy smile into adulthood.

We specialise in dental health for children. Weymouth Street is a child-friendly dental practice, and we use equipment specifically designed for children. Our children’s dentist offers a range of oral health services from basic care to dental injuries. We provide comprehensive dental treatments that include:

Oral Health Examinations for Children

Preventative oral healthcare allows us to see and evaluate the state of children’s teeth and gums. Resolving children’s dental issues before they become a problem allows us to treat them early and contributes to a healthy mouth and healthy habits. We recommend regularly scheduled examinations for children, enabling us to stay up to date on a child’s oral health.

Our kids’ dentists undertake thorough examinations, including risk assessment for caries (cavities) and dental trauma that parents and children may be unaware of. We check children’s teeth, and also note areas of concern on the tongue, inside the cheeks, and on the roof of the mouth. Throughout the examination, based on what we see, we’ll make recommendations for care and any required treatment.

Preventive Dental Care for Kids

Start preventative dental care for children early. Once babies cut their first teeth, come and see us, and we can advise you on caring for their teeth. Preventative dental care starts with cleaning. At our paediatric dentist, we advise parents on how to brush and floss their child’s teeth to contribute to good oral health.

Depending on a child’s age, preventative care involves a topical fluoride treatment which makes teeth more resistant to decay. If we notice tooth decay starting, it’s usually from the child’s eating or drinking habits. When we see areas of concern, we’re happy to provide nutritional and dietary advice to parents to ensure teeth and gums stay healthy.

Habit Counselling

Using a pacifier or sucking a thumb may soothe a child, however, it’s not great for their oral health. These habits may contribute to an incorrect bite, problems with the proper growth of the mouth, and changes to the roof of the mouth. These habits may appear harmless, but they can lead to oral health issues and require dental treatments to correct.

The paediatric dental team at Weymouth is happy to offer advice and guidance on how to effectively stop these behaviours. We can explain to your child what may happen to their teeth if these habits persist. Other habits that may be problematic to the teeth are jaw clenching, nail-biting, tooth grinding, or chewing on hard objects.

Children’s Tooth Repair

Even though primary teeth fall out eventually, it’s important to keep them as long as possible, which means they may need to be repaired. If primary teeth incur decay, defects, or damage, our paediatric dentists need to place fillings or crowns. These repairs should last until the adult teeth grow in and the primary teeth fall out.

Losing primary teeth is not ideal. Primary teeth help guide adult teeth as they grow in, so they come in properly. Children with incorrectly shaped teeth, underdeveloped teeth, chipped teeth, or teeth with decay may require tooth repair. If you’re concerned about your child having to get a filling at a young age, we’re here to put you at ease.

Children’s Dental Injuries

Kids can get hurt from falling down or playing too roughly. Unfortunately, as a result, their teeth may become cracked, chipped, loose, or knocked out from the socket. When these dental injuries happen, children are likely to cry and be afraid because of bleeding, pain, or sensitivity to the affected area.

Our children’s dentist is equipped to manage dental injuries in both the primary and permanent teeth. When a dental injury or dental trauma happens, remain calm, give us a call, and get some guidance from our emergency dental page. We’ll give you advice over the phone, answer your questions, and ask you to come to see us. In the office, we’ll take X-rays to determine the extent of the damage and prepare a treatment plan based on your child’s needs.

How to Care for Children’s Dental Injuries

When you call us after a child’s dental emergency, we’ll walk you through what to do in a particular situation. Injuries may involve fractured, displaced, or knocked-out teeth; the individual dental injury requires particular care. If there is an injury to a primary tooth, it may affect the permanent tooth that’s still below the gum line. Injuries to permanent teeth may affect the tooth’s development and survival.

Applying cool water or an ice pop can reduce swelling and pain until you get to our paediatric dental office. If a tooth comes out, do not touch it by the root, instead, hold it by the crown. We’ll stabilise loose teeth, smooth ragged edges, and do what we can to preserve the tooth.

Catching Incorrect Bites Early

Malocclusions happen when a child’s teeth are crooked, crowded, or there is an issue with the bite and how the teeth fit together. This may be an overbite, underbite, open bite, or crossbite. Malocclusions may be the result of genetics, injury, environment, or develop from children’s habits, such as thumb sucking. Incorrect bites can result in issues with eating or speaking, lead to teeth grinding, gum disease, jaw joint problems, and other oral health issues. At our children’s dental practice, we assess and manage malocclusions. This treatment may be simple enough for treatment with a mouthpiece or it may include referral to a specialist orthodontist.

Gum Disease in Children

When we discover periodontal (gum) disease in children, treatment starts immediately. It’s important to manage gum diseases and gum conditions, including ulcers and pediatric periodontal disease, before they become more serious oral health concerns. Common gum diseases in children include:

• Chronic gingivitis causes a child’s gum tissues to swell, turn red, and bleed. Gingivitis can be treated with regular brushing, flossing, and professional dental care from our paediatric dentists.
• Aggressive periodontitis is a gum disease that affects molars and incisors found more often teenagers.
• Generalised aggressive periodontitis is a gum disease that may affect the entire mouth and can eventually cause teeth to loosen. This condition causes inflammation of the gums, with an accumulation of plaque and calculus.

Book an Appointment with our Children’s Dentist

Our treatments can be carried out under local anaesthesia in the dental chair or general anaesthesia in a private hospital setting.

Our team at Weymouth Street Paediatric Dentistry is here and ready to help children requiring dental treatments. Get in touch with us for any oral health concerns you have for your child, and we’ll schedule them for an exam.