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The Girls’ First Trip to the Dentist

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This post was sponsored by the MetLife TRICARE Dental Program as part of an Ambassador Program for Influence Central.

Just last week, I took the girls for their first dentist appointments. We’ve been paying for the MetLife TRICARE Dental Program family plan for ages, so we were kind of late to the game. Earlier that same day, I had my first appointment, since we’ve been stationed in Hawaii. Oops. Thankfully, all was well in my mouth. I wish I could say the same for the girls.

Since February is Children’s Dental Heath Awareness Month (I found this out as I was planning blog posts for the year) I knew it was finally the time to get the girls in and have their teeth checked. I only wish I had done it sooner. Dental health is so incredibly important and setting a good foundation early on, can lead to a lifetime of good dental habits.

For Adri, everything looked great. Unfortunately, Veronica had FOUR cavities. The dental assistant explained that cavities of this sort can be rather common in kids and mostly occur in teeth that have pits and grooves, which was the case for Veronica.

Adri sitting in the detntal chair - MetLife TRICARE Dental Program

Because of these early issues, I’ll be looking into getting sealants for Veronica and the rest of the girls when their permanent molars come in (about 6 years old for the first set, and 12 years old for the second set). Sealants are a plastic material that are applied to the chewing surface of molars, to help prevent cavities. With MetLife TRICARE Dental Program sealants on permanent molars are covered on children up to 18 years old with a 20% cost share.

 

As a child, I had sealants put into my own teeth. Due to childhood illness, I have really weak teeth, and thanks to the sealants, I’ve luckily never had cavities! They were SO easy to have put in, especially since there was no drilling or any removal of teeth structure involved.

Another important concern for children’s dental health is teeth grinding. Although grinding baby teeth rarely results in problems, it can cause jaw pain, headaches, and wear on teeth. Mostly commonly, kids grind their teeth while they’re asleep. A mouth guard or splint prescribed by your dental provider can help!