The rambunctious nature of some children places them at risk of suffering injuries that could have a negative impact on their dental health. If your child has recently damaged one of his or her baby teeth (officially referred to as primary teeth ), you may think the best course of action is to have the tooth removed and leave the gap until the permanent tooth grows in. Unfortunately, this decision could leave your child with permanent dental damage.

Here are three reasons why investing in a crown to replace your child's damaged tooth is a good idea.

1. Primary teeth play a critical role in the digestion process.

In order for your child to properly digest his or her food, a lot of chewing must take place. Without access to all of his or her teeth, chewing action may be compromised. If your child has a damaged tooth, the addition of a dental crown to this tooth can help maintain the tooth placement required for proper chewing.

This will ensure that your child gets the nutrition needed to grow strong and healthy while waiting for a permanent tooth to grow in.

2. Primary teeth play an important role in speech development.

Young children often require time and practice when it comes to proper language development. The placement of the tongue against the teeth plays a critical role in determining how easily your child is able to create the sounds needed to form words and sentences when communicating with others.

If you have a damaged tooth pulled and leave a gap while you are waiting for a permanent tooth to grow in and fill the gap, your child could develop some abnormal speech patterns to compensate for the gap. Having a damaged tooth replaced with a crown instead will allow your child to continue developing correct speech habits.

3. Primary teeth help guide permanent tooth growth.

If you want your child's permanent teeth to grow in straight and strong, then having primary teeth in place to help guide these permanent teeth is important. By replacing a damaged tooth with a dental crown, you ensure that the permanent teeth growing in on either side of the crown have a dental apparatus in place to guide their growth.

A gap could allow permanent teeth to grow in crooked, resulting in the need for costly corrective devices (like braces) to correct the appearance and function of your child's permanent teeth in the future.

When you understand the critical role that primary teeth play in your child's digestion, speech development, and permanent tooth growth pattern, it becomes easy to see why investing in dental crowns to replace damaged baby teeth can be beneficial. Contact a clinic like Sunnyside Dentistry for Children-David E Doyle, DDS to learn more.