Trends in Child Dentistry: Tech Advances Improve Treatment Outcomes

Dentistry is at the forefront of technological advances, and children benefit daily from more efficient, economical and even lifesaving care that is made possible by these developments. Although prevention is always better than restoration, three emerging technologies hold special promise for pediatric dentistry. They are lasers, aligners and digital scanners.

Lasers

Although laser technology was first introduced to the dental profession roughly 35 years ago, it has tremendously improved in the last decade. “Recently, laser technology has advanced so significantly that its use, especially in pediatric dentistry, can fill a textbook,” asserts Robert A. Convissar, DDS, a board-certified laser dentist in New York City. A pioneer in laser dentistry, he teaches the subject worldwide and is the author of the leading textbook Principles and Practices of Laser Dentistry.

Lasers offer many different wavelengths for multiple purposes. For example, low-level laser therapy uses light energy to elicit biological responses, such as pain relief, wound healing, muscle relaxation, immune system modulation and nerve regeneration. According to Convissar, this type of laser therapy is used in pediatric dentistry to temporarily interrupt the sensation of pain, permitting fillings and root canal treatments in children’s teeth without injecting an analgesic drug.

“Ultraspeed CO2 lasers can be used to treat week-old babies whose tongues are not mobile enough to latch onto their mothers’ nipples and nurse properly. The procedure is minimally invasive, quick and painless,” he explains, noting that painful breastfeeding and excessive spitting up are two of the most common signs of a tongue tie. Convissar and the dentists that perform tongue-tie releases work closely with international board-certified lactation consultants to facilitate breastfeeding success.

“Orthodontists and general dentists are now using CO2, diode and erbium lasers to put the finishing touches on their tooth-alignment treatments,” Convissar reports. With these instruments, they are able to fashion tooth length and proportion, as well as shape gum profiles to achieve the ideal smile.

Aligners

One critical structure of facial development for growing children is that of the roof of the mouth, which is also the floor of the nose. Sufficient room for the tongue in the palate is important for both upper and lower airway development. In the past, maxillary expansion to correct serious tooth misalignment was performed with functional appliance therapy, including expanders and braces. Today, invisible trays, or aligners, which made their first appearance in 1997, offer an aesthetic and “invisible” option that allows better oral-hygiene maintenance, reduces office visits and lowers the incidence of complications.

Until recently, these systems were limited when it came to treating cases involving bone and arch development in growing children. Some systems have now introduced an expansion component into their aligner tray systems helping to not only realign teeth, but also develop more room, thus possibly avoiding dental extractions.

The Nuvola OP System employs a morpho-functional corrector to be used for 30 minutes per day with the aligners in place, creating intense and intermittent forces that are directed to the cranial bone bases. A 2022 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health reported “a significant expansion of the maxillary arch, as well as a high degree of patient satisfaction and compliance” with this system.

Digital Scanners

The advent of intra-oral scanners and cameras allows dental practices to take digital impressions in a few minutes with minimal discomfort for patients and outstanding views of the mouth. They have also become more accurate, affordable, smaller, lighter and easier to use.

Dr. Claire Stagg practices holistic, integrative dentistry in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. She is the author of Smile, It’s All Connected! For more information, visit HealthConnectionsDentistry.com.