Growth and Disease Prevention

 Parent’s role in children's health : 

 prevent and avoid the most common pathologies since childhood

and assure our children a healthy smile!

 Maybe not everybody knows that behind a healthy smile there is not only a decay-free mouth but most of all a potentially healthy child. From this point of view Dental Prevention doesn't have to be considered only a matter of checking incipient decays or telling our children to brush their teeth in the morning, after lunch and before bedtime but should be adopted as the first step to our health. In addition, it is essential to ensure that children have all the required nutrients during their developmental stage and to monitor their  mineral composition by spotting not only the lacking/excess of nutritional elements but also any heavy metal contamination to avoid any enzymatic disfunction due to cationic deficiency.

 These, which are the basis of physiology , are the foundations for  correct development and health .

 Therefore  the attention that  parents and pediatricians give to the child since childhood is fundamental as after the age of 3 anything that may create an obstruction to the breath of the child may influence the physiological development of the face. That is why ever since children reach the age at which they are required to attend school, dental check-ups should not be limited to cavity prevention but should also include an evaluation to see if  the child has already acquired any type of bad habit , which, if not immediately corrected, could evolve into incipient dentofacial malocclusion. The presence of hypertrophic adenoids or of some acquired bad habits (such as regularly sucking the thumb, the inferior lip or a pen) can interfere with the harmonious balance between the upper and lower jaw that physiologically develop towards each other.  Sucking the thumb creates a front space between the upper and lower jaw where the child acquires the habit of breathing through. The direct consequence of breathing through the mouth - therefore not using the nostrils – is Hypo- development of the Palate and clinically recurring acute rhinitis, tonsillitis and/or otitis. When this situation begins, it initiates a “self maintaining” vicious cycle that will  exponentially worsen the dentofacial development as the otitis or tonsillitis will cause the need of oral breathing while oral breathing will never stop recurring rhinitis or tonsillitis. Through these recurring or chronics episodes, the “acute”necessity for the child to breath through open mouth will be transformed into a “chronic oral bad breathing habit”  (that will stabilize oral breathing as a “habit” even during the period of health) supporting the development of dentofacial malocclusion between the age of 7 and 12. In this context, it is easy to understand that - since occlusion has a direct effect on child's swallowing, breathing and chewing patterns- correct dental occlusion helps avoid not only a series of oral clinical problems specifically related to teeth (as tooth fractures, grinding, pulp problems, gum retraction,  bone reabsorption, etc.)  but also ear, nose and throat pathologies and even most allergies. Furthermore, when a child is not able to chew properly he begins the habit of swallowing food too quickly which results in eating too fast and too much (because he does not feel full).  The obvious consequences are not only on his weight but mostly on his endocrine system, as well as on his posture. In addition to this,  the relation between postural orthopedic problems and dental malocclusion is well known, and eventually most gastro-intestinal disorders start with an incorrect chewing as proper chewing is the main key to proper digestion and recurrent antibiotic therapies - due to the recurrent ENT inflammations- will seriously affect the immunological system of the  child. Finally respiratory inflammations of the upper ways (lungs, bronchial tubes, etc) related to bad breathing habits in childhood seriously affect child's sleeping patterns, reducing school performance as being chronically sleepless is a condition that causes absent-minded or unwilling pupils. Based on the above I hope that all of you can see the influence of the dentofacial system on our general well being and follow the strategy that would easily ensure our health simply by starting with correct and complete dental prevention during the growth period. 

Maria Nuri Marullo MD, DDS