 back to my channel everybody or welcome if you are new here in this video let's talk about children and cavities so if the dentist tells you your child needs the cavity filled right away or if the dentist says oh we're gonna have to put your child to sleep or we don't have to worry about that cavity it's not big enough this can often be very confusing because you might be thinking well why was it last time they had to get a filling right away my my child's only five or my child's two but they're recommending we put them to sleep for dental work or this cavity is nothing to worry about they noticed a sticky spot they said it's okay they took x-rays no worries what are the differences between all of those so basically the earlier a cavity is caught the better especially in children for a number of reasons one of them is because your child isn't going to want to sit there to get a needle to put the tooth to sleep and then they're not going to cooperate for half an hour while we try to fix the filling because how fillings work is we have to take the cavity out first that is with the high-speed handpiece nobody likes that and then we have to put the filling back in or sorry the filling in once the tooth is you know drilled out for lack of a better word and once we put the filling in it's going to be kind of lumpy so then we have to polish it out make it smooth it's no fun for adults remember when you had your cavity filled you had to sit there well we kind of do our thing it's no different for children but we do try to work much faster so anytime the dentist says we don't have to worry about your child's cavity you're probably thinking oh my goodness thank goodness because I don't want them to have to go through that or on the opposite side of things what if the dentist says mmm your child needs to be put to sleep this is why so if the cavity or cavities aren't caught early enough sometimes a child can have what's called rampant decay where there's cavities on five or more teeth and they're just not in very good shape we know as dental professionals we know that that let's say five-year-old or younger isn't going to sit through that for two hours while we fix everything so often it's recommended in that case to have the child be put to sleep so so they can do all the fillings at once the child's put to sleep nothing to worry about and of course the child is cooperating because they're put to sleep so everything can be done in one shot just as a side note I always try to avoid children being put to sleep because they're under general anesthetic they're put to sleep so I always prefer to get to those cavities before they have a number of them where they do have to be put to sleep and it's also very expensive you're looking at $2,000 or more just to fix maybe five cavities so imagine the more they have the more expensive it's going to be so I always try to catch cavities early there is such a thing called silver diamine fluoride which is a liquid I call it the cavity killing liquid if they have a cavity or even five cavities if it's caught early enough where it's not quite through the enamel yet it's not going to be near the pulp near the nerve we can apply that simple drop to kill that cavity it takes half a second often the child doesn't even know we're doing it I put it on a little micro brush a little drop on that micro brush while I'm polishing you know getting all excited about polishing their teeth wow those teeth are looking so shiny I take the micro brush I kind of dab it on and then just continue polishing they don't even know I'm doing it if the cavity is caught early enough we can do that to one or more cavities it's a lot cheaper the child doesn't even know they don't even need a needle none of that so I'd say that's a lot more exciting right and having to pay thousands of dollars to put them to sleep but we talked earlier about what if your child needs a filling or several fillings we can only do fillings on children if they're cooperative because that mouth has to be kept open maintain a dry field but we have to put the tooth to sleep using a needle we try to kind of sneak the needle in there you know so they don't know we're doing it but they often do it's just not a nice situation but some children obviously do much better than others but a filling is needed if let's say there is a cavity in there there's this big hole that's through the enamel and there's this big hole we can't just leave the hole there by putting in that simple drop the cavity killing liquid we're not putting a filling in to bring that tooth back a drop isn't a filling it's just kind of killing the cavity what's there but with the big hole you don't want to keep that big hole there right because when the child's kind of chewing they're not going to be chewing well so we need to bring that tooth structure back by putting in a white filling but if we find that the child's not going to cooperate or there's many many feelings to do this is when we recommend the child is put to sleep so we can do our work and not have to worry this can happen so if you're doing everything you can but you don't go to the dental office often enough to get a checkup and those cavities are bigger there's a big hole or maybe you didn't notice now your child needs a filling we will try to do it in the dental office if it's caught early enough or they may have to be put to sleep but often too we look at how long is that child's tooth going to be in the mouth for let's say they're two years old and they have two fillings their first tooth isn't going to be lost until age five so we can't keep an active cavity in there for a couple years that's just not going to work it's going to get bigger it's going to cause them pain we can't do a filling on a two-year-old so this is when we have to put them to sleep but let's say we notice a cavity where that tooth is going to fall out within six months sometimes even a year we might say to you they do have a cavity here we could fix it if you want but that tooth is going to fall out soon anyway so why waste the money why put them through that by doing a filling just brush it well so it doesn't get bigger because we don't want it to get bigger within the time it's going to fall out and then it causes the child pain right so there's many different instances and many different things we look at so just as a recap get your child in earlier at least every six months for their dental checkup because we can catch cavities early enough even if I'm looking at a cavity and I say that cavity is really small I never say let's just check it next time I put that drop on right away so it doesn't have a chance to get bigger that cavity killing liquid if I wait six months it's probably going to get bigger and then we need to do a filling or something else right so get your child in earlier the earlier the better once we do find a cavity we look at well how big is the cavity can we just use the cavity killing liquid or do they need a filling if there's a big hole we need to put a filling in to kind of make it look like a tooth again or are there so many cavities is the child so young where we need to put them to sleep to get the work done so these are the different things we look at so I know it's a lot but let me know if you have any questions comment below I've been a dental hygienist I've been a dental professional for 18 years I've had my own mobile dental practice since 2018 where I come to patients homes to clean their teeth and do dental hygiene checkups so if you're in the Winnipeg area you can book an appointment with me I would love to see you thank you guys so much for watching click like if you do like this video that does help me in my channel and I'll see you guys in the next one