Caring for Your Child’s Teeth: Some Excellent Tips to Help You
Is brushing a child’s teeth important for various reasons? Your child’s jaw is kept straight by the primary teeth to accommodate permanent teeth. Brushing plays a vital role in helping children to chew, talk, and smile. Healthy teeth also boost children’s confidence and participation in educational activities and social life. When healthy habits are established at an early age, it helps encourage excellent lifelong habits. If your child’s teeth must be removed because of tooth decay, it causes shifting of the teeth to reduce space for permanent teeth to erupt. If children are allowed to continue with poor oral hygiene, the likelihood of their adult teeth decaying increases significantly.
When to Begin Proper Oral Hygiene Routine for Kids?
Parents of newborns are regularly questioning at what age they should begin brushing and flossing their child’s teeth. A good rule to follow is to start flossing as soon as the child’s teeth come into contact with each other. When the teeth are in contact, food particles get trapped between them to foster the growth of bacteria and the development of plaque. Not every child needs to have his or her to flossed at a young age, but advice must be sought from a dentist.
How to Brush Baby Teeth?
Excellent oral care must begin before the child’s first tooth appears. It has been recommended by the AAP that following a feeding, the child’s gums must be wiped with a soft washcloth using only water. A dentist recommended cleanser can also be utilized. The child’s teeth must be brushed after the first tooth appears for two minutes twice a day. Parents can use a child-sized soft-bristled toothbrush with a cushioned head and a pea-sized dab of non-fluoridated toothpaste.
Caring for the Child’s Oral Health
Between the ages of 4 to 24 months, plaque can accumulate on the teeth to cause tooth decay, which should be prevented regularly by cleaning the newborn’s baby gums with a soft washcloth after feedings.
Children over the age of two should be given fluoridated toothpaste for preventing decay as their teeth continue to develop. Children must be encouraged to brush their teeth themselves from the age of two. However, parents must be supervising them and follow up by brushing them again to ensure their teeth are clean. Children can resist brushing, forcing upon parents the need to get creative and make the process fun. Brushing for children can be made enjoyable by choosing the child’s favorite cartoon characters to make the experience enjoyable.
By the age of five or seven, children begin to believe they can care for their teeth themselves, but most do not have the manual dexterity to clean their teeth thoroughly. Parents are recommended to allow children to brush by themselves and follow up after that by helping them to brush and floss to make it a family event. Children over the age of five or seven begin to develop molars making it essential for parents to provide them fluoridated toothpaste.
Children must be encouraged to maintain good dental health by educating them about the value of the same on their overall health by the time they are ready for school. After beginning school, less influence can be exerted by parents over the child’s meals and snacks. Therefore an example must be set for children by parents by having a variety of healthy foods themselves followed by consistent oral health care routine of brushing twice daily and flossing without exceptions.
Caring for your child’s teeth without involving a practitioner from pediatric dentistry by the first birthday of the child is not a good idea. Parents must not be under the impression that they can avoid visits to a children’s specialist who can assess the child’s oral and overall health and identify any specific issues in the child’s mouth. Whenever necessary, specialists from A Family Dental Center will recommend treatments for any problems that may have developed or suggest sealants and fluoride treatments to prevent dental caries. The oral health of the child must receive as much attention as adults. It is for parents to understand their children have different dental needs than them, and caring for them appropriately is a necessity rather than an exception. Children’s baby teeth fall off by the age of six or seven by which time they should be taught the value of retaining their permanent teeth for as long as possible. The task may appear challenging but can be easily accomplished. Children must be taken for regular dental checkups, and cleanings taught the value of caring for their permanent teeth, educated about nutrition and diet, and, most importantly, encouraged to believe they can get off to good oral and overall health by caring for their teeth.
(Want some dental care tips for kids? Read about how you can care for your child’s teeth from an early age to ensure he or she develops good habits to last forever.)