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Don’t Let Your Dental Benefits Go To Waste

Don’t Let Your Dental Benefits Go To Waste

As we approach the end of the year, we want to share a tip that can help your family take full advantage of your remaining dental insurance benefits before they expire. Fall is one of the most fun and busiest times of the year. Most parents are still adjusting to “back to school” routines. There are tons of fun activities from fall sports to pumpkin picking and, of course, preparing for the…

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February Is National Children's Dental Health Month

February Is National Children’s Dental Health Month

Dental professionals nationwide recognize February as National Children’s Dental Health Month.   Children’s dentists observe this month in particular to increase awareness and promote healthy dental habits. Although largely preventable, Dental Caries (tooth decay) continues to be the most prevalent chronic disease in both children and adults. The ADA released a statement in March of 2015 stating:…

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How To Be Prepared For A Dental Emergency

How To Be Prepared For A Dental Emergency

Everyone hopes they will never find themselves in any sort of situation requiring emergency assistance, but knowing what to do is an important life and tooth saving tool.  The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry has a few tips if you happen to find yourself in a dental emergency: When a Baby Tooth is knocked out: Immediately contact your pediatric dentist.  Because of the potential for damage…

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Back To School Tips To Keep Your Student Smiling

Back To School Tips To Keep Your Student Smiling

Back to school time, for many, is an exciting time – a fresh start to a new school year. This is the perfect time to schedule your child’s dental check up. As you check off your shopping lists for school supplies and clothes, make sure to add a visit to your family dentist and also a time to review your dental hygiene routine at home with your child. This will not only help your child start his…

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Dental Sealants for Children's Teeth

Dental Sealants for Children’s Teeth

The Facts

According to the American Dental Association (ADA), dental sealants are effective for preventing dental carries in children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the preventative measure for all school-age children, And according to the Surgeon General’s report on oral health, sealants reduce decay in children’s teeth by more than 70 percent.

What Are Dental…

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Is your child missing school due to dental issues?

Is your child missing school due to dental issues?

It has become important for parents to ask themselves if dental issues are causing their children to be absent from classes or to fully participate in some of their academic or peer activities. Studies conducted on oral health and academic performance show that when kids have dental problems, they are not able to make the most of school.

  How Dental Issues Affect Children

The studies showed that…

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When should you wean your baby or toddler from pacifiers, sippy cups, and thumb sucking?

When should you wean your baby or toddler from pacifiers, sippy cups, and thumb sucking?

Parents often use pacifiers, bottles, and sippy cups for the comfort that it offers. However, children often become dependent on the items, making it difficult to separate from the child. It is important for parents to know when to discontinue the use and help the baby or toddler mature and develop.

Dental professionals recommend limiting use of the pacifier by the age of two, which will avoid…

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Summertime Snacks That Brighten Your Smile

Summertime Snacks That Brighten Your Smile

It’s officially summer – the perfect time to help your teeth shine their very brightest. Healthy, bright teeth give you a confident smile that lights up your entire face. Practicing good oral hygiene is most important for healthy teeth, but did you know there are some basic summer time snacks that are not only healthy but can also help naturally whiten your teeth?

Here are 5 yummy summer snacks…

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HEALTH PROBLEMS TIED TO GUM DISEASE

HEALTH PROBLEMS TIED TO GUM DISEASE

There are many oral problems that can complicate an individual’s day to day life, but gum disease in particular can be very difficult to tackle. Besides the fact that gum disease can be very painful, there are more health problems that can result from it.

Gum Disease-A Brief Overview


Gum disease is a potentially debilitating condition that starts with the build-up of plaque and bacteria around…

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Bad Teeth, Just After Two Weeks!

Bad Teeth, Just After Two Weeks!

Children get cavities which are not visible to the naked eye and adults have to be very aware of this fact. Kids eat candy, drink soda, and binge on snacks through out the fun day but don’t really care about cavities. Many parents don’t think to take their children to the dentist every month and pay a large price when there are three or more cavities found. These are cavity prone teeth of a…

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Dental Sedation For Children

Dental Sedation For Children

Children’s Dentistswork hard to make sure every child has a pleasant experience during their visit.  A bad experience at an early age can lead to a lifetime of fear and delayed dental care.  Typically children only need reassurance and encouragement for routine examinations and simple treatments.  However, occasionally they may need a more complicated procedure.  In order to keep them comfortable…

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What Parents Should Know About Fluoride

What Parents Should Know About Fluoride

Children’s dentists will agree that it’s never too early to begin caring for your baby’s teeth.  Early dental care can prevent a number of problems from occurring down the road. However, as with most things in a child’s life, oral care should be done in stages. This is especially true when it comes to using Fluoride

Oral Care For Babies

Dentists for babiesrecommend using gauze to gently wipe your…

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Children’s Dental Health Month

Children’s Dental Health Month

From infancy to our elder years, good oral hygiene has a significant effect on the health of our entire body. By beginning routine dental practicesfrom infancy, children grow up with good habits that bring many rewards throughout their lifetime. Children’s Dental Health Month is the perfect time for parents and children to brush up on their dental health knowledge. Here are a few important points…

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  A visit to the dentist may seem routine to many, but for children who fear the dentist, it is anything but routine.  Fear of the unknown and/or fear of pain are very common fears among kids ...

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Trouble with Fruity Drinks, Treats and Soda

As one of Tucson’s favorite dentist for children, General Dentistry 4 Kids knows that parents are…

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Tips for a Healthier Mouth (Pt.1)

Here at General Dentistry 4 Kids we know that when it comes to keeping a whiter, healthier smile that we’re not the only ones who play a role!

It’s extremely important to be proactive about keeping your teeth clean if you want to maintain a healthy smile, so we’ve compiled a few tips for you to follow in order to make sure you’re always doing your part in the battle against plaque, tooth decay, enamel decay, etc.

  5 Tips to Maintain Healthy Teeth

Brush 2-3 Minutes

It may be repeated often, but brushing your teeth for the proper amount of time is crucial to keeping your teeth clean and avoiding unnecessary trips to the dentist’s office.

We recommend 2-3 minutes of brushing. Certainly not any less, but not necessarily more either. It’s good to balance the amount of scrubbing you do on your teeth daily.

Which leads us to our next tip…

  Moderation

Over-brushing, or not brushing your teeth enough, is more destructive than you might think.

Doing so can either cause your tooth enamel to be damaged over time, or if you’re not brushing enough you’re most likely collecting a lot of unwanted bacteria and plaque in your mouth, yuck!

It’s recommended that adults and kids brush their teeth 1-2 times each day, but no more than 3!

  Eat Crispy Vegetables/Fruits

Another healthy way to keep your smile shining is to be healthier in your diet! There are a multitude of fruits and vegetables that have the unique ability to scrub the surface of your teeth with their abrasive like properties and keep them clean throughout the day.

Some of these fruits and veggies include: apples, raw carrots, celery sticks, etc. You can even substitute non-buttered popcorn as it is also considered a “detergent” food.

So snack away! But don’t forget about…

  Mouthwashing After Snacks

One of the most important ways to keep your mouth healthy is to keep food from becoming lodged or stuck in between the teeth and gums.

Once stuck, the food collects more and more bacteria over time and increases your chance of developing minor cavities and plaque build-up in hard to reach areas.

The quickest way to remove food and build-up is to mouthwash once or twice daily in between major meals or after snacks.

Flossing works just as well, if not better, but if you feel something get stuck never just leave it be – grab a toothpick, some floss or rinse your mouth briefly to clean it out as soon as possible.

  Create a Routine

There are so many tips to keep your teeth clean and avoid non-regular visits to your local dentist, but probably the most important of all is to develop a routine.

Making a habit out of when you brush your teeth, how often you floss, and paying mind to maintaining their beauty is essential to keeping them healthy throughout your lifetime.

Most of us brush both morning and night as we get in and out of bed, but for some this isn’t always the most feasible routine. Find out what times work best for you to be able to properly brush and rinse and start making it a habit to do it daily at those times.

The goal is to make maintaining a healthy smile more of a subconscious activity than something you have to think about constantly in order to achieve!

  These are just a few easy tips for being your own dentist while we’re not in the picture!

We’ll be back in our next blog with a few more so be on the lookout!

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Welcome to General Dentistry 4 Kids

Greetings everyone.  Our hope in starting this blog is to offer our insights on interesting topics and trends in children’s dentistry as well as some insight into our philosophy on that same topic.

If you are a parent, you may have noticed some rather dramatic changes in the industry over the past decade especially for those on some form of Medicaid/AHCCCS.  Access to dentistry especially among the lower income had lots to be desired.  This was highlighted in the 2000 report Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General (for complete report, go here).  This report shined much-needed light on the “silent epidemic” of untreated oral disease — and affirmed the link between oral health and general health.  A few years later in 2003, the government, health care providers and public health advocates released A National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health.

Many states responded to this government call to action by increasing funding for oral health.  In addition, there was a concerted effort to sign up additional providers especially in under served areas.  To it’s credit, Arizona actually started these efforts before the release of the aforementioned reports.

Arizona’s effort to attract more dentists was very successful especially in the early 2000′s.  Over time, our state’s focus has moved from expanding services to ensuring we live within our means financially.  That has resulted in drastic cuts in those that qualify for AHCCCS as well as drastic cuts in the fees paid for dental procedures.  Many dentists have either stopped taking AHCCCS and focused on private insurance patients or shut down their business all together.

We at General Dentistry 4 Kids are focused on making sure we continue to support all our patients including the AHCCCS community.  We’ve had to evolve to the new AHCCCS environment.  One thing we will never change is our focus on our patients’ experience and quality dental care when they are in our offices.  We continue to improve the offices by upgrading the lobbies, adding video gaming stations and other fun activities for the kids as well as constantly updated our equipment to the most modern technologies.

A few of us will be writing on this blog about a variety of subjects that will help you better understand who we are and help explain various topics related to children’s dentistry.  Some of the topics will include possible side effects from poor oral health, explanation of changes to various insurance plans, and our philosophy on patient service and satisfaction just to name a few.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  Hope you enjoyed it and found it informative.