At Charpentier Family Dentistry, we know that children need more than just a bright and healthy smile. Dr. Charpentier is passionate about making sure your child’s visit is rewarding and fun. Positive early experiences at our office help ensure a healthy lifetime relationship with the dentist.
Our kids dentistry team will always take extra time to earn the trust of both you and your child, to make sure each trip to the dentist is a pleasant, calm experience.
Baby teeth are not as strong as adult teeth. If your child’s tooth suffers a large cavity, the bacteria can damage the pulp inside the tooth, causing pain and inflammation. When the soft tissue inside the pulp chamber becomes infected or inflamed, Dr. Charpentier might recommend a pulpotomy. Instead of removing the entire tooth, Charpentier Family Dentistry will put a medicated filling into the pulp chamber to try to keep the remaining pulp inside the tooth alive and healthy.
Treatment for cavities in children depends on how severe the decay is as well as each child’s age and risk of future cavities. At Charpentier Family Dentistry, we typically treat cavities with discreet and effective tooth-colored fillings.
Protective dental sealants are thin coats of plastic painted onto your child’s back teeth to protect their deep grooves and depressions from accumulating bacteria and food particles. Studies show that 88% of cavities in American school-aged children are caused by food and bacteria being caught in rear molars.
At Charpentier Family Dentistry, we typically apply a protective sealant to your child’s back teeth, premolars, and molars. The sealant will last for several years, but we will continue to check it during your child’s regular dental appointments.
As a parent herself, Dr. Charpentier understands that you want the best for your child. This is why we focus on providing the highest quality pediatric dental care possible. It’s completely normal for a child to be unsure or nervous about their first dental visit, but at Charpentier Family Dentistry they don’t have to be! Our practice is designed to make your child comfortable and excited to visit the dentist.
Dental crowns are tooth-shaped coverings cemented to a badly damaged tooth to restore the shape and functionality of the tooth. Dr. Charpentier may recommend a crown for your child’s tooth if it has a large cavity, was broken or chipped due to trauma, or if the tooth hasn’t developed correctly.
Unfortunately, sometimes a child’s tooth may be too badly decayed to save. In this case, Dr. Charpentier will perform an extraction. An extraction may also be recommended if the tooth is severely fractured or is crowding other healthy teeth.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentists (AAPD) advises that children be seen for a checkup every 6 months. These visits allow Dr. Charpentier to closely monitor new changes in your child’s mouth and ensure that you, as a parent, have the information you need to promote continued oral health in your child.
If your child is anxious, has special needs, or just needs extra help staying calm and comfortable, Dr. Charpentier may recommend laughing gas. Laughing gas is a completely safe way to help children receive the dental care they need without anxiety or fear.
Once the dental treatment is over, the gas will be completely out of their system after just a few minutes. This sedation method is widely considered to be low risk. At Charpentier Family Dentistry, our goal is to always care for your child’s dental health in the safest way possible.
Your child might need a space maintainer if they lose a tooth early or have a baby tooth extracted. If your child needs a space maintainer, Dr. Charpentier will custom make it to fit your child’s mouth. It will keep the space open where the baby tooth was lost. This will allow the permanent tooth to come into place.
Baby teeth are vital to the healthy development of adult teeth and facial structure. If a space maintainer is not used, your child’s other teeth can shift into the open space and more invasive orthodontic treatment might be needed.
Dental fluoride treatments are safe and effective in decreasing the amount of cavities in children. Dr. Charpentier often recommend fluoride treatments along with dental sealants, to protect your child’s teeth. Fluoride acts as a shield for the tooth’s outer enamel and can actually reverse early dental decay in some children.
Dr. Charpentier has completed extensive training to work with patients who have special needs. Our entire team has the knowledge, patience and expertise to help your child through their entire visit.
Not all wisdom teeth need to be extracted – but some do. In many situations, it’s best to pull the wisdom teeth before they jeopardize your smile as a whole. If your wisdom tooth’s growth can cause damage to neighboring teeth, or cannot fully erupt, we may consider extraction.
We will take a panoramic radiograph of your entire jaw, so we can see the size, location, and developmental stage of the wisdom teeth in consideration. At the earliest, wisdom teeth are removed in the mid-teen years, but 3rd molars do not finish developing until closer to about 30 years of age.
The primary purpose of a pediatric partial is cosmetic; to complete the child’s smile so that they feel comfortable and confident. For children who lose their baby teeth early due to cavities or trauma, pediatric partials can be the perfect solution to replace the missing teeth.
Does your child suck his or her thumb? Has early tooth loss made their bite change? Our early bite assessments allow us to help your child avoid bite complications later on, such as impacted teeth or overbites. This can prevent the need to wear braces for an extended period of time later on.
Do not risk complications later on down the road. Call Charpentier Family Dentistry today to get the compassionate and high quality of care your child deserves.
We are committed to making sure you get the high quality dental care you need by offering our patients a variety of sedation dentistry options.
*The doctors of Charpentier Family Dentistry are general dentists providing oral surgery, pediatric, and orthodontic dentistry services.
| Monday | 8:00am - 4:30pm |
| Tuesday | 8:00am - 5:30pm |
| Wednesday | 8:00am - 5:00pm |
| Thursday | 8:00am - 3:00pm |
| Friday | CLOSED |
