If you are a teenager or the parent of a teenager, today’s Your Time Dental Urgent Care post is for you. Today’s post discusses dental issues of special concern to adolescents. Dental risks for Gibsonton teens include both developmental and lifestyle-related factors.
At Your Time Dental Urgent Care, we see cavities and gum disease far too often in teens. Possible causes and complicating circumstances include insufficient dental hygiene, unhealthy diet, malocclusion (misaligned bite), smoking, hormonal changes, tooth grinding, mouth breathing, eating disorders, and side effects of medications.
As children become more independent, some get lax about brushing and flossing. Additionally, some teens’ diets become worse when they have more freedom to choose what to eat. Few parents let their four year-old drink an energy drink, but they are consumed frequently by Gibsonton adolescents – presumably without their parents’ knowledge.
Malocclusion can make proper brushing and flossing problematic, leaving even vigilant brushers with decay from food particles that are almost impossible to remove. Malocclusion can also trigger TMD (Temporomandibular disorder). If you suspect that your teen’s bite is not aligned properly, or if your teen observes a clicking sound in the jaw joint, call Your Time Dental Urgent Care at 813-519-0128 to schedule an exam.
In spite of numerous Florida public service campaigns aimed at preventing teen smoking, many youth take up the detrimental habit even before they graduate from high school. Smoking wrecks teeth as surely as it wrecks lungs.
Gibsonton parents of teenagers are well aware that puberty has a significant impact on physical and emotional health. Puberty causes all sorts of changes in the body, and the mouth is no exception. Increased hormone levels (especially in females) can cause the body to react to a very small amount of plaque, triggering inflammation of gum tissue and increased risk of the more advanced form of gum disease known as periodontitis. Your dentist can guide you if more frequent professional cleanings are necessary to preserve gum health.
If you visit any soccer field or basketball court in Florida, you will see that many young athletes fail to protect their teeth. If your adolescent participates in a contact sport, talk to us about custom athletic mouthguards.
One of the teen dental issues that impact most young men and women is wisdom teeth. It’s best to start monitoring your teen’s wisdom teeth early so they can be treated before they result in dilemmas with the jaw or surrounding teeth. And you certainly don’t want to send your high-school grad to an out-of-state college without addressing his or her third molars. If problems emerge, your youth won’t be near their regular dentist, will probably miss class, and will either need to come home or use an out-of-network dentist or oral surgeon. If you don’t have a family dentist, Richard Kernagis of Your Time Dental Urgent Care can examine your teen and evaluate X-rays to advise you on the best course of action for his or her wisdom teeth.
This article is by no means exhaustive on the vital subject of adolescent oral health. Future posts will discuss orthodontia, oral piercings, eating disorders, and abnormal teeth growth.
If you are looking for a family dentist in the Gibsonton area, I invite you to schedule an appointment at Your Time Dental Urgent Care by calling 813-519-0128. We have been providing quality dental care to Gibsonton families since 2001. For more details about teen dental health or weekend dental care, sedation dentistry, or root canals, call today.
Contact Your Time Dental Urgent Care:
Locations: (Tap to open in Google Maps):
South Shore – Gibsonton
13145 Kings Lake Drive Ste 105B Gibsonton, FL 33534 Call: 813-519-0128
FishHawk – Lithia
5486 Lithia Pinecrest Rd, Ste B Lithia, FL 33547 Call: 813-519-0128
