When Cat Cora is not doing battle as the first female chef on the Food Network’s hit series Iron Chef America, she is busy caring for the needs of her four active young sons. This includes monitoring the food they eat and their oral hygiene habits.

The busy chef, restaurateur, author, philanthropist and television personality recently revealed in an interview with Dear Doctor magazine that it all started when her four sons were little. She got rid of bottles and sippy cups as soon as possible to prevent tooth decay. She also started exposing her boys to a wide variety of spices and foods when they were infants — for example, by putting cinnamon in their baby cereal. Cat limits the amount of sugar in their diet by using fruit puree in baked goods and BBQ sauces, or the natural sugar substitute Stevia. Furthermore, Cat reports, “my kids have never had fast food.”

Cat is right on target with her approach to her children’s oral health. In fact, we are often asked, when is the right time to schedule a child’s first dental appointment? Our answer surprises some people — especially those expecting their first child.

The ideal time to take your child to the dentist is around age 1. Why so young? A baby’s first visit to the dentist sets the stage for lifelong oral health. Besides, tooth decay can start very early. Baby Bottle Tooth Decay (BBTD), as the name suggests, impacts children who often go to sleep sipping a bottle filled with a liquid containing natural or added sugars, such as formula, fruit juice or a fruity drink mix. Another condition, Early Childhood Caries (ECC), is often found in children who continuously use sippy cups (again, filled with sugary liquids), children who breast feed at will throughout the night, children who use a sweetened pacifier, and children who regularly take sugar-based oral medicine to treat chronic illness.

One of the most common parental concerns is the habit of many children, even late into childhood, to suck their thumbs or fingers. Many parents have asked us, “Could this affect their teeth?”

The answer, unfortunately, is yes — thumb sucking can contribute to a malocclusion (bad bite) that could eventually require orthodontic treatment. Before making any assumptions, however, we need to understand the bigger picture.

To begin with, infants have a different swallowing mechanism than adults and older children. When you as an adult swallow, you’ll notice the tip of your tongue positions itself just above the back of the top front teeth. An infant, however, will thrust their tongue between their upper and lower jaw as they swallow (also known as an infantile swallowing pattern or primary tongue thrust). The infant normally begins changing to an adult swallowing pattern when their primary (baby) teeth begin to erupt.

However, if a child’s swallowing transition is slower than normal and the tongue rests between the jaws for a longer duration, it can inhibit the full eruption of teeth, believed to be the main cause of an open bite (a gap between the upper and lower teeth when the jaws are shut). The thumb during sucking resting between the teeth can have the same effect.

Thumb sucking may not necessarily lead to a malocclusion — for example, an abnormally developing jawbone could be the culprit. If prolonged thumb sucking does become a concern, however, there are steps we can take to reduce the impact of the habit. We can install a thin metal “tongue crib” behind the upper and lower incisors that will not only discourage thumb sucking, but also help retrain the tongue not to rest between the upper and lower teeth. There are also exercise routines known as orofacial myofunctional therapy (OMT) that can retrain specific muscles in the mouth to encourage more normal chewing and swallowing patterns.

She received an academy award for best supporting actress in Chicago (2002); she regularly stars in big Hollywood films like Oceans Twelve and Side Effects. And she’s been named one of People magazine’s “most beautiful people” of the year… a total of five times so far. According to big-screen heartthrob Antonio Banderas, “She has one of the most beautiful close-ups in cinematography today.”

So would it surprise you to learn that Catherine Zeta-Jones had a little help from cosmetic dentistry along the way? In her childhood, the actress said, “I was teased because I had a really flat-looking nose, and before I got braces, my teeth used to stick out a bit.” According to press reports, she has also had various dental treatments to make her teeth look whiter and more even.

Because she’s been in the spotlight since a young age, Zeta-Jones had her cosmetic dental treatments performed over a number of years. But if you’re unhappy with your smile right now, there’s no need to wait: Getting a complete “smile makeover” starts with a consultation at our office. How does it work?

We begin with a thorough dental exam to check for any underlying issues, and some basic questions, including: What do you (and don’t you) like about your smile? Are your teeth as even and as white as you’d like them to be? Is your smile too “gummy”, or do the teeth seem too large or small in proportion to your facial features? Do gaps, chips or cracked teeth detract from your appearance?

Next, working together with you, we can develop a plan to correct any perceived problems in your smile. We’ve already mentioned two of the most common ways to enhance a smile that’s less than perfect: orthodontics for straightening crooked teeth, and whitening treatments for a more brilliant smile. If your teeth are otherwise healthy, both treatments can be performed at any time — in fact, more and more of today’s orthodontic patients are adults.

Other treatments that are often used include cosmetic bonding to repair small to moderate chips or cracks in teeth; crowns (caps) to restore teeth with more extensive structural damage; and veneers to remedy a number of defects — including discoloration, small irregularities in tooth spacing, and even teeth that appear too long or too short. Plus, we have even more procedures designed to remedy specific dental issues.

Will having a better smile get you on the “most beautiful people” list? We can’t say for sure. But we think you’ll feel better about yourself… and people will notice.