Helping Kids Have Healthy Smiles

The Candy Culprit

Diagram of Mouth

In July, three-year-old Ezra arrived from Montana to visit his father, Clifford Stanger.

"His teeth were bothering him bad. He complained about his mouth," Clifford says. The folks at Yellowhawk confirmed what the "light brown" color of Ezra's teeth had suggested -- a mouth full of decay. Issues with money and insurance kept Ezra from receiving immediate treatment, but he eventually was sent to Walla Walla where, under general anesthetic, doctors removed four of his baby teeth. In addition to his two top front teeth, he's now missing two bottom molars (the teeth farthest back in the mouth) on the left side. Chewing will be limited to the right side until Ezra's six-year molars arrive.

"I was bad about giving him candy," Clifford says as Ezra bites into a miniature Three Musketeers chocolate bar, the bounty of Halloween trick or treating. "Nowadays we don't have all that much candy around."

Lorene Van Pelt, who lives with Stanger, says she's been trying to substitute crackers and cheese, snacks without sugar, for the candy. And her daughter Tyanna, who is two, brushes twice a day.

"I'm being more careful with her after watching what he went through," Lorene says. "She needs those back teeth until she's about 10, so we brush everyday before school and everyday before bed."

Many parents think primary or baby teeth are unimportant. After all, they'll be replaced by bigger, stronger adult teeth, right? Wrong.

"A child needs to keep his or her primary teeth until about 12-years-old to maintain space for adult teeth, otherwise severe crowding can occur," says Sarah Moore, CDA at Yellowhawk. Adults know when they have a toothache but children with toothaches often can't express that pain as adults do. After dental treatment has been completed, Hinds says, "We hear parents say they've never seen their child so happy and eat so much."