As a parent, you want what is best for your child in everything, including oral health. You may be wondering how to keep your children’s teeth and gums healthy and set an efficient dental regimen for them.
Here are some tips and tricks for good dental health for kids. Following these steps will help ensure that your child has a beautiful smile that lasts a lifetime.
Not only will these steps help prevent cavities and gum disease, but more importantly, they will also instil good habits in your child that will last a lifetime.
Regular Dental Check-Ups
Ensuring that your child has regular dental check-ups is an important part of preventive dental care. Whether your child begins seeing a dentist early or as they lose their first baby tooth, it sets up a routine that sets the stage for their oral health in the future.
Scheduling regular check-ups also give parents an opportunity to learn about how to care for their child’s teeth at home and identify any potential problems before they become more severe.
This, coupled with teaching children about proper brushing and flossing practices, will help pave the way for strong teeth and gums throughout childhood and beyond.
Teach Your Child to Brush Their Teeth
Instilling the right brushing habits in your child is essential for healthy baby teeth. When their baby teeth begin to appear, it’s time to start brushing! Use a soft toothbrush and water (no toothpaste) twice daily.
Teaching them to brush twice a day – morning and night with fluoride toothpaste – will provide them with a lifelong foundation for good oral hygiene. Daily brushing helps remove food and plaque that can contribute to tooth decay, removing any built-up bacteria before it has time to cause damage.
Additionally, regular brushing also helps keep away bad breath, making sure that your child starts their day with fresh breath while feeling confident in any social situation. Establishing proper dental care for children and a brushing regimen at home can also help develop healthy habits in adulthood.
Help Them Choose Healthy Foods
As adults, we know that our diet plays an important role in oral health. We can encourage our children to make healthy choices by showing them the benefits of eating foods like fruits and vegetables.
These types of food are full of the vitamins and minerals needed for strong teeth, plus they provide crunchy textures that improve gum health by increasing saliva production.
Fruits and vegetables also contain fibre, which helps clean direct debris away from teeth to prevent plaque buildup. By introducing these tooth-friendly snacks into their diets, parents can help their kids start making smart decisions about their body’s nutritional needs from a young age.
Encourage Them to Drink Plenty of Water And Stay Hydrated
Staying hydrated is key to maintaining a healthy body and mind. Water serves many essential functions and helps keep the body’s temperature regulated, digestion running smoothly, and skin looking radiant.
Most people need six to eight glasses of water per day, but the amount may vary depending on activity levels, climate, or the types of foods being consumed.
Encouraging kids to drink plenty of water throughout the day can help ensure that their bodies are functioning optimally and that they are properly hydrated for physical activities.
Furthermore, staying hydrated can also help reduce headaches and fatigue from dehydration, maintain alertness by keeping energy levels up, as well as helping nourish bodily processes with essential vitamins and minerals found in drinking water.
So remember to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water throughout the day!
A Mouthguard to Protect Their Teeth
One of the best ways to protect your kids’ teeth while playing sports is by making sure they are wearing a mouthguard.
Wearing a mouthguard helps cushion contact and reduce the risk of chipped, fractured, or broken teeth, as well as an injury to the soft tissues in the mouth.
Choosing a properly fitted and comfortable mouthguard gives athletes better protection from taking any hard hits to their heads or mouth during physical activities like basketball, hockey, or lacrosse.
Studies have shown that using a properly fitted mouthguard can help athletes perform better and recover quicker than those who don’t wear one, making it an essential accessory for all sporting enthusiasts, particularly kids.
Ask Your Kids’ Dentist About Sealants to Prevent Cavities
As your child’s permanent teeth grow in, your dentist can help prevent your child’s teeth from decaying by applying a thin layer of resin (called a sealant) to the back teeth, where most chewing takes place.
A dental sealant is a thin coating of a topically applied resin material that bonds (seals) the surfaces of back teeth, creating an additional barrier against plaque and acid-producing bacteria that can be corrosive to teeth.
Most dentists recommend that children receive their first sealants soon after their adult molars start growing, which usually occurs around age 6.
Being proactive and talking to your dentist about sealants is one of the most important steps you can take to safeguard both your and your family’s oral health. Sealants will prevent tooth decay while saving money in extended treatment costs!
What Are The Most Common Dental Problems in Children?
With poor oral health, children can develop cavities, gum disease and other serious dental problems. Cavities occur when bacteria found in plaque stick to a tooth’s surface and produce acids that eat away at the tooth enamel.
Gum disease is caused by plaque buildup on teeth that causes inflammation of the gums. If left untreated, gum disease can lead to bone loss around the teeth and, eventually, tooth loss.
Your child’s dental health is important to their overall well-being and development. As a parent, you play a big role in keeping their teeth and gums healthy.
By following the tips we’ve outlined above and scheduling regular dental check-ups, you can help your kids enjoy good oral health for years to come.
If you have any questions or would like more information about how to care for your child’s oral health, please don’t hesitate to contact Dental Excellence on (02) 6188 7293. We are a kid-friendly dental practice, always happy to help set our younger patients on a path to lifelong dental health!
References
Children’s Oral Health
https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/basics/childrens-oral-health/index.html
Children’s Dental Health
https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/publications/features/childrens-dental-health.html
Children’s teeth
https://www.dentalhealth.org/childrens-teeth
Advice for children 0-5 years
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/oralhealth/prevention/Pages/resources-children-0-5.aspx
Health matters: child dental health
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-child-dental-health/health-matters-child-dental-health
