Bernie is a 5-year-old who has never visited a dentist, even though his family has dental insurance that allows for free regular checkups. his parents say that they will start taking him to the dentist when his first permanent tooth erupts. what should his parents know about delayed dental care? question 11 options:
a) children do not need to brush their baby teeth but they should visit the dentist to get fluoride treatments.
b) untreated decay in "baby" teeth can harm permanent teeth.
c) visiting the dentist at a young age will cause the child to fear the dentist.
d) there is no medical need to visit a dentist before permanent teeth emerge.

b) Untreated decay in "baby" teeth can harm permanent teeth.  

Explanation:

Milk teeth, although not permanent, may present complications. In the case of caries, for example, many parents think that no treatment is needed as the tooth will fall out, but that is a mistake. When caries are left untreated, bacteria can enter the tooth canal and promote a permanent tooth infection, which is just below. With this, the permanent can be born with some imperfection, such as malformation, lack of a tip or stains.

Apart from these consequences, if there is no treatment, the caries increase and can take the entire tooth - if it is completely decayed, the dentist has nothing to do but extract it. The problem is that when the baby tooth is extracted early, before it softens, it leaves a space that is taken up by the other baby teeth, which move and stop the growth of the perms. As a result, the permanents can become inmates, grow in half or crooked.

For this reason, it is important that Bernie's parents allow him to have a dental treatment even if he has no permanent teeth yet.