Baby teeth are a lot more than gifts for the tooth fairy.

Did you know baby teeth affect your self-esteem, determine lifelong habits, and control the way you will speak for the rest of your life? Read below for 5 reasons why you should be paying more attention to baby teeth.

1. There is a direct correlation between the health of baby teeth and permanent teeth
As a kid, your permanent teeth follow closely behind your baby teeth. Baby teeth are much more susceptible to cavities and other tooth complications compared to your adult teeth because they only have a small layer of enamel. With your permanent teeth following so closely behind your baby teeth this means that those complications can spread quickly to the adult teeth, causing lasting damage.

2. The alignment of your teeth start as a baby
When your baby teeth are lost early, the surrounding teeth grow towards the missing gap. Permanent bad tooth alignment can then result due to your adult teeth having less room to grow from the surrounding teeth taking its place. Be mindful of how your teeth move early to prevent crooked teeth and permanent bad tooth alignment. (Don’t worry if you didn’t catch it early though; that’s what braces are for.)

3. Baby teeth create speech patterns
While your face muscles, lips, and your tongue are used to pronounce sounds, they are only produced properly when they move the right way on your teeth. One contributor to the mispronunciation of speech is the sound moving incorrectly due to poor tooth alignment. As a child, if your teeth are not aligned properly your speech will suffer as it cannot move correctly through your mouth. Poor speech habits will develop as a result.

4. Your self-esteem starts with your baby teeth
Things like tooth decay, crooked teeth, and other forms of dental pain develop easier as a child. With childhood being the most important time for self-esteem to develop, it is important that your child doesn’t suffer from these painful complications that can be a distraction. If your child is distracted by them, the feelings of embarrassment, nervousness, and sadness can arise. Those feelings are the key contributors to a decrease in socialization and poor self-esteem—something no parent wants for their child.

5. Creating lasting healthy habits
As a child—when you’re likely to have your baby teeth—you develop the healthy oral habits that you take with you into adulthood. If you do not take good care of your baby teeth you will end up with poor oral habits that will, in turn, result in poor care of your permanent teeth. If you don’t take proper care of your permanent teeth you could end up with permanent damage

Final note: your baby teeth are more than a stepping stone. They lay the foundation for the development and care of your adult teeth. Contact us right away so we can ensure your child’s baby teeth are where they need to be.