As anyone who works for the Kool Smiles network will tell you, the dental health of a child is incredibly important. Children need to have good dental hygiene and practices that keep them from running into issues so that they can have healthy teeth for many years to come. Often, the patterns and habits that are formed when they are young will stick with them for the rest of their lives.
As a parent, do you find it difficult to know what to do? Maybe your parents never showed you everything that you needed to know and you had dental problems. You do not want your children to go through the same thing, but you do not know how to avoid it. Below are some practical things that every parent should know that can go a long way toward helping a child have better dental health.
1. Teeth Should be Brushed Twice a Day
You always want your children to brush their teeth twice each day. Ideally, you want them to do this after they eat breakfast and after they eat dinner. It should be the last thing that they do during the day, after bedtime snacks and drinks. One of the worst things for teeth is to have sugar or anything else sitting on them all night long, so you want to brush those away before bed.
2. Flossing is Important
Flossing is often a step that is skipped. Parents feel like getting a child to brush his or her teeth is hard enough, so flossing is neglected. However, it is incredibly important. Food can get trapped between the teeth that it is impossible for a toothbrush to get back out. Only floss can get in there and remove it. If it is not removed, the food can cause cavities on the inside of the teeth, where they cannot even be seen. In fact, this is one of the most common places for cavities to exist.
3. Sugary Drinks Should be Avoided
Every time that a child takes a sip of a sugary drink, he is just giving his teeth a bath in cavity-causing sugar. The rise in the popularity of soda over the years has led to more cavities than ever before. However, it is not just the soda that is at fault. Did you know that many juices are just as bad, in terms of sugar, as pop? You want your children to drink plain water as much as possible. This can be hard – and you should not try to get rid of soda altogether – but regulating it can help.
4. Issues Should be Reported Quickly
Many issues only get worse with time, so you want to report things to a dentist as quickly as you can. For example, a simple cavity can be fixed with ease, but, if it is left alone, it can grow infected. That infection can then spread to the jaw or even the brain. If it gets into the child’s neck, it could lead to swelling that is very dangerous since it can block off the airway. If it gets into the brain, even more issues could arise. If you just take your child to a dentist at the beginning, the problem will be easy to resolve, keeping them safe.
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This post of yours would be of great benefit not only to me but also to other parents who are concerned about their children’s dental hygiene.