Our Blog

First word, first step, first day of school—these firsts are milestones every parent celebrates. And one of the earliest and most precious milestones is your baby’s first real smile! 

Keep that smile beaming and healthy from infancy to young adulthood with the help of dental milestones. These breakthrough events mark significant stages in oral development, and are a great guide to understanding, protecting, and supporting your child’s path to adult oral health.

• First Tooth

The first tooth often arrives around the age of six months. And this is the time to start cavity prevention, with twice daily gentle brushing with a soft-bristled, child-sized toothbrush. Talk to Dr. Jason Rector or your child's pediatrician to learn how and when to brush and how much and what kind of toothpaste to use.

By the age of three, toddlers typically have all of their 20 baby teeth, and these little teeth are essential to children’s health. They help kids chew and eat, assist speech development and pronunciation, and act as placeholders so adult teeth can erupt in the proper place. Keep your child’s baby teeth their healthiest by partnering with the dental team at Rector Pediatric Dental in Ocean Springs.

• First Visit to the Dentist

Once that first tooth has come in, or around age one, it’s time to bring your little one to the dentist for a first visit. Your pediatric dentist will do a careful exam to see if your child’s teeth and jaws are developing as they should, check the health of the teeth, and answer your questions about brushing, flossing, toothpaste, teething, pacifiers, thumb-sucking, or any other concerns. 

Why choose a pediatric dentist? Your pediatric dental team are experts at creating a “dental home,” a welcoming place which provides comforting continuity and specialized, child-oriented preventative care and treatment from infancy through the teen years.

• First Lost Tooth/First Permanent Tooth

Around age six, most children start to lose baby teeth, typically in the order in which they arrived. Losing a baby tooth is a big step for children, and might be a bit scary. You can celebrate this milestone with a visit from the Tooth Fairy, or a certificate, or a new toothbrush in your child’s favorite color. 

And as the permanent teeth come in, continue to encourage twice daily brushing and flossing, and consider proactive treatment with dental sealants. Even when children have learned to brush properly, and brush twice each day, it can be hard for kids to remove all the plaque and food particles from the grooved chewing surfaces on top of molars. That’s why molars are much more vulnerable to decay than any other teeth. 

Around the time your child’s first permanent molars erupt, the team at Rector Pediatric Dental might suggest sealants. Sealants protect the chewing surfaces of the molars from food particle and plaque buildup. This safe and invisible protective coating, usually a plastic resin, is applied in the office and typically lasts from three to five years. 

• First Orthodontic Visit

Pediatric dentists and orthodontists recommend an orthodontic examination by age seven (or earlier, if you have any concerns). At this point, children have a mix of primary and permanent teeth, allowing an orthodontist to assess tooth spacing and alignment and the way the jaws fit together. 

Your orthodontist might find no issues with your child’s teeth or bite. Or, perhaps, follow-up appointments might be scheduled to determine if and when future treatment is advisable. Sometimes, because some problems can be treated more easily when your child is young, early intervention with a fixed or removeable appliance is recommended right away. 

Having an orthodontic plan in place helps ensure that children benefit from the most effective and timely treatment at any stage of their development.

• Orthodontic Treatment

Orthodontic treatment commonly begins in early adolescence (ten to 14) when most or all of the permanent teeth have erupted. The facial and jaw bones are still growing in preteens and young teens, which makes it easier to reposition teeth and guide jaw alignment.

More treatment options are available than ever before—and today’s braces, clear aligners, smaller and more comfortable appliances, and even 3D technology make treating malocclusions and misalignments more efficient than ever before.

A healthy bite and properly aligned teeth are a foundation of lasting oral health. Orthodontic treatment helps prevent decay, gum disease, jaw pain, and even early tooth loss. And, of course, the value of your child’s increased self-confidence is impossible to overestimate!

• Wisdom Teeth

Wisdom teeth, or third molars, generally start to erupt in the late teens or early twenties and often have a harmful effect on oral health.

Erupting or impacted wisdom teeth can push neighboring teeth out of position, damage adjacent tooth roots, and cause inflammation and infection in gum and bone around the wisdom tooth. For these reasons, preventative extraction is often recommended. 

If your teen shows any symptoms of erupting or impacted wisdom teeth—irritated, swollen, or bleeding gums, bad breath, jaw pain or swelling—a visit to the dentist is in order.

As parents, you do your best to guide your child’s journey from infancy to healthy adulthood. Each dental milestone marks a new stage in your child’s oral health journey, and new ways for you to encourage and protect that oral health. Use these milestones to set your child up for a lifetime of good dental habits—and a lifetime of healthy smiles!

It’s common for children to suck their thumb at a young age. Dr. Jason Rector and our team want you to understand the potential issues that can surface down the road if the habit isn’t broken early on.

It’s normal for infants to explore the function of their mouths by putting objects like their thumbs inside it. You shouldn’t be concerned if your baby regularly sucks his or her thumb. For infants who are still growing their baby teeth, thumb sucking can help with stimulating growth and development of their baby teeth.

Thumb sucking is not a problem among infants because they generally do it to sooth and comfort themselves. Problems can occur of kids continue the habit when their baby teeth begin to fall out, around six years of age.

If you have a young child whose adult teeth are starting to come in, that’s when thumb sucking can start to be a problem. Most children stop thumb sucking between the ages of two and three years. According to the American Dental Association, if thumb sucking continues as adult teeth come in, this can lead to problems involving improper alignment of teeth and growth of the jaw, gums, and roof of the mouth.

It may also affect your child’s speech after that, by causing a lisp or other speech impediments. As a parent, you may need to begin to regulate and intervene if thumb sucking starts to become a bigger problem for your child.

How to Stop Thumb Sucking

• Provide comfort to your child if thumb sucking happens when he or she is anxious.
• Limit thumb sucking initially to bedtime or naptime.
• Employ positive reinforcement for good behavior.
• Talk with your child about the potential problems that come from this habit.
• Distract your son or daughter with activities such as fun games any time you notice it starting.
• Involve your little one in choosing methods for stopping, like positive rewards.
• Have Dr. Jason Rector talk to your child to reinforce concerns about thumb sucking.

Don’t forget that thumb sucking is a common habit that many children indulge in, and it should not be a concern right away. If you’re worried about your child’s thumb-sucking habit, start to address the issue as soon as possible.

The above techniques can help to reduce the amount of time your child sucks a thumb. Dr. Jason Rector and our team are here to help you if you have any questions or concerns about this habit.

Feel free to call our Ocean Springs office and we will be happy to help you and your child.

A new baby! What a joyful, exciting time! Joy, excitement, and lots of questions about the best ways to keep your child healthy and happy. So, we have some suggestions to help start your baby on the path to a lifetime of healthy, happy smiles.

• Before Those First Baby Teeth Appear

After each bottle or breast feeding, it’s a good idea to wipe your baby’s gums with a clean, damp washcloth or gauze pad wrapped around one of your fingers.

This gentle cleaning helps wipe away food and bacteria that can irritate the gums as the teeth start to erupt and helps prepare your child for brushing once those little teeth have arrived.

• Cleaning Your Baby’s Teeth

Most babies start getting their first teeth around the age of six months. And those first teeth mean it’s time for a first toothbrush!

Choose a brush specifically for babies. These brushes are designed to fit tiny mouths to prevent gagging. They have soft bristles to protect tooth enamel and gums. They have handles that are easy for you to maneuver. There are even silicone finger brushes available which fit over your finger and use a textured surface to brush away bacteria and food particles.

Ask Dr. Jason Rector about the right time to start using toothpaste. When your baby is old enough for toothpaste, it’s important to choose the right one, which means a toothpaste formulated for infants. It’s also important to use the right amount of toothpaste. A smear of toothpaste no bigger than a grain of rice grain is enough for early brushing.

Brushing twice a day, morning and night, is the normal recommendation unless your pediatric dentist has other advice. We’re also a great source of information on how to make brushing time easier and more enjoyable for both you and your baby!

• Bottles and Baby Teeth

Cavities begin forming because oral bacteria create acids which erode enamel, the protective outer coating of the tooth. Cavity-causing bacteria love to feed on sugar. Baby formula and even breast milk contain carbohydrates in the form of sugars—which is a good thing!

Carbohydrates are essential for babies’ growth and development. Lactose, the sugar found in breast milk, is a carb which is easy for your baby to digest, and which supports healthy bacteria in the digestive system. Formulas with lactose and other types of sugars also provide your baby with these necessary, easily digestible carbohydrates.

But going to sleep with a bottle or while breastfeeding means those healthy sugars aren’t all digested. Instead, liquid pools in the mouth, bathing those beautiful new teeth in sugars over night. This can lead to a condition called “baby bottle tooth decay,” which is especially damaging to the upper front teeth. (And the chance of cavities is even greater if your child’s bottle contains juice or other sugared drinks.)

That’s why dentists recommend making sure a baby’s finished with breastfeeding or bottle before going to sleep to help prevent cavities and decay.

Baby teeth are important. They help in speech development. They allow your child to eat and chew properly when it’s time for solid foods. They hold places for permanent teeth so the adult teeth erupt where they’re supposed to. All very good reasons to finish feeding baby before bedtime!

• Making New Friends

When your baby has those first teeth, and certainly by the age of 12 months, it’s time to add some new friends to your baby’s life with a first visit to our Ocean Springs pediatric dental office.

Pediatric dentists have specialized training in caring for children’s teeth. They can assess tooth and bite development. They are experts in treating decay and injuries in primary teeth. They can advise parents on any potential problems with pacifier or thumb sucking habits. And they know how to make sure children are comfortable in a child-friendly environment.

That first checkup will allow Dr. Jason Rector to make sure your baby’s dental development is on schedule. There will be an exam to check those tiny teeth for enamel erosion or cavities. And you dentist will have great advice for proactive dental care, for diet, and for tips on how to brush most effectively.

These early visits are also a chance for your child to become accustomed to visiting the dentist regularly. Your pediatric dentist and staff are experts at creating a dental home, with welcoming, child-oriented dental care which provides comforting continuity from infancy through the teenage years. Look after your baby’s teeth right from the start, and you can look forward to seeing your baby grow up with a healthy and happy smile!

You’ve planned your dream vacation. Your reservations are made. You’re packed and ready. You’ve even scheduled a dental checkup at our Ocean Springs office to make sure you catch any potential problems, have finished any major work, and have an up-to-date chart.

But things don’t always go according to even the best of plans. So, what to do if you find you have a dental emergency while traveling? Dr. Jason Rector and our team have some recommendations for problems that might arise.

• Toothache—Rinse your mouth with warm water and use dental floss to remove any food particles. Never put aspirin directly on a tooth or gum tissue. If the pain persists, call a dentist.
• Cracked or broken tooth—Immediately rinse with warm water to clean the area and apply cold compresses to the face to minimize swelling. Get in touch with a dentist.
• If you lose a tooth—Keep the tooth moist at all times. Put the tooth back in the socket without touching the root if possible. If that is not an option, place the tooth between the cheek and gums or in milk. See a dentist as soon as possible.

Know where to get help if you need it! If you are traveling in the United States, the American Dental Association offers Find-a-Dentist, a website that can locate a member dentist closest to you. If you are traveling to another country, there are steps you can take to prepare for an emergency.

• If you are out of the country and need to locate a dentist, your local embassy or consulate, your hotel concierge, or friends abroad can be a useful resource.
• Before you go, check your insurance to see if you are covered while traveling.
• If you have travel insurance, find out if it covers dental treatment and can provide information on qualified local dentists and translation help, if necessary.
• Good dental care is available in many areas internationally, but it is important to know what standards are present in the countries you plan to visit. The Organization for Safety and Asepsis Procedures offers a checklist for safe treatment in their “Traveler’s Guide to Safe Dental Care.”

If you have any questions, Dr. Jason Rector and our team are happy to do all we can to answer them. While it’s unlikely that problems will arise, we are always available if you need to contact our Ocean Springs office. Bon voyage, and we look forward to hearing about your trip!