We offer a full range of dental care for children. Dr. Morse has successfully treated children as young as 24 months without general anesthesia.
Dental phobia or fear of going to the dentist is a learned behavior. Children should not be threatened with the prospect of going to the dentist.
For very young children, a get-acquainted visit during which little or no treatment is done may be a good idea. The child is familiarized with the dental office and the routine procedures performed during a check-up and cleaning.
Many children can be treated without having to resort to dangerous drugs.
Certain procedures can be done without painful local anesthesia injections, using Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) instead to relieve anxiety.
Children below age 5 tend to have limited ability to cooperate. Appointments should be scheduled early in the day, with lengthy procedures avoided and time spent in the dental chair as brief as possible.
Deciduous or "baby" teeth are smaller and weaker than permanent teeth. Decay and wear can cause problems more quickly than in permanent teeth. Children should be brought to the dentist as soon as possible if the parents suspects a problem because of the rapidity at which problems can progress in deciduous teeth.
Baby-bottle caries occurs in children that have been given sugar-containing beverages in the baby bottle or tippy-cup. Decay in these cases is rampant destroying exposed tooth surfaces. In those cases where the teeth are salvable, pulpotomies (a form of root canal treatment for a baby tooth) and crowns are often needed.
Pulpotomy is a procedure in which the pulp chamber of a deciduous tooth is opened. A disinfecting medicament is placed in the pulp chamber after which a cement with disinfectant properties is placed. This procedure should be considered a last-resort step to save a tooth that would otherwise be extracted. After the pulpotomy is done the tooth is restored with either a composite restoration or a ...
Stainless Steel Crown which permits an otherwise fractured tooth to be functional and equally important to maintain the space that will be needed for the normal eruption of the permanent tooth that replaces the deciduous tooth.
Space Maintainers are indicated when a deciduous tooth is lost and the permanent tooth is not ready to erupt for an extended period of time. In some cases, the remaining teeth can drift into the empty space of the missing tooth and cause difficulty for normal eruption of the permanent tooth.
Sealants are tooth colored composite filling materials that are placed in the grooves of the biting surfaces of posterior teeth. The sealant fills the space that would normally harbor the bacteria that are responsible for tooth decay.
Preventive resin restorations (PRR) are similar to sealants in that composite fillings are placed in the grooves of the posterior teeth. In the case of the PRR the grooves are first cleaned with a dental drill.
Composite Fillings Dr Morse uses non-toxic composite restorations almost exclusively. While amalgam (silver) restorations have been used for hundreds of years, many parents are concerned about the toxicity of the mercury used in silver fillings. Tooth-colored composite restorations provide for better esthetics and can last as long as the deciduous tooth will be viable in the mouth.
Amalgam (Silver) Fillings In some rare cases, in caries-prone children, silver fillings may be indicated because of their better cariostatic properties.
