• Take care of your health

In the womb

During pregnancy, it is extremely important that the future mother is aware of correct nutrition, the effects of drugs taken on the development of the child’s teeth buds, the effects of positioning the child in the cot just after birth, the best methods of feeding, and which habits to avoid.

At six months

This is the time for the child’s first dental visit. During this visit, the dentist will give the parents some advice on how to deal with the child during the teething process, will recommend appropriate analgesics, will explain the methods of children’s oral hygiene, and may suggest performing fluoride prophylaxis. 

12 to 18 months

In this period, the teething process should still be supervised by a professional. The dentist can help to eliminate hypersensitivity in the gums and hyperactivity in the child, can explain to the parents the best methods of feeding, and may suggest impregnating teeth affected by caries.

24 months to three years

Normally, by this time all first teeth will have appeared. This is when a visit should be made to the dentist to inspect the child’s teeth for number, colour, and shape. Children should be on an appropriate diet in which sweets and sugary drinks are avoided. The dentist may examine the child for potential malocclusion and will make a comparison with the parents’ occlusion (some types of malocclusion are hereditary). 

This is a period of the highest risk of caries. During this time, there should be frequent follow-up visits and the introduction of contact fluoridation and tooth fissure sealing in first teeth (deciduous molars remain for up to ten years) and adult teeth as they appear. Further fluoride prophylaxis - endogenous and exogenous - is also recommended. The dentist can advise on brushing teeth correctly and using appropriate toothbrushes and toothpastes. The dentist will also recommend treating teeth affected by caries (with modern treatment methods: coloured fillings and HealOzone), assess teeth defects, and if necessary will arrange frequent follow-up visits.

School age

In this period, children should have follow-up visits every six months, during which the doctor will assess teething in the process of teeth replacement, and will prescribe fluoride and orthodontic prophylaxis as well as treatment of teeth affected by caries.
This is the end of the development stage and the beginning of the adult stage, and is the best time to eliminate malocclusions and correct cosmetic defects. 

Adulthood

Regular follow-up visits to a dentist should always be made. This guarantees rapid reaction and immediate elimination of developing disorders. Consultations with the following specialists may be necessary:

• a prosthetic dentistry specialist, who explains the necessity for prosthetic treatment and develops a potential prosthetic reconstruction plan,
• an orthodontist, who decides whether orthodontic treatment should be applied (it should be borne in mind that in fact there is no age barrier to correcting malocclusion),
• a periodontologist, who deals with bone atrophy, procedures preventing the potential progression of periodontopathy, i.e. the loosening and loss of teeth, and gingivitis,
• a surgeon, who advises on potential teeth extractions in the event decay is advanced, corrective procedures for an individual tooth (e.g. extracting a root apex or extracting only one root of a multi-root tooth), as well as procedures to correct atrophic bone.

Special cases:

• Women planning to have a child should undergo a panoramic x-ray of their teeth in order to check their condition. The dentist can then make sure that no decay is present around tooth root apices which may become a source of infection.
  During pregnancy, women cannot be x-rayed, and therefore pregnant women should always have a current x-ray of their teeth, in case root canal treatment is required.
• Parents should take special care of their children’s teeth. Because of the structure of first teeth and newly-grown adult teeth, caries develop much sooner than in adults’ teeth.
• If you have any problems with your stomach or digestion, consult your dentist – perhaps caries and dental defects are the underlying cause of the problem.
• If you suffer from frequent headaches or aural problems, you should see a prosthetic dentistry specialist - perhaps you have abnormal contact between your teeth and this is the cause of the problem.
• If you have recurring inflammation for unknown reasons, e.g. inflammation of joints, or you have an increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate, see a dentist or a periodontologist.
• If you are dissatisfied with your smile and feel unwell, see a dentist who practices aesthetic dentistry and prosthetics.