6 Ways to take care of your kids teeth

It goes without saying that every child is the apple of the parent's eye. As a parent, you are always willing to walk the extra mile when it comes to the health and safety of your child. One should understand that oral health is equally important as overall health and the key to good oral health is a set of sparkling and decay-free pearly whites.


Strong and healthy teeth have a vital role to play in children as they are an integral component for the development process of speech and nutrition. Good teeth help the child have proper food and enables the child to talk properly. Some may feel that milk teeth aren't as important as adult teeth. That is wrong! Milk teeth form the foundation of well-aligned adult teeth. When milk teeth develop deep cavities and get pulled out before its designated time, the space for the corresponding adult tooth (that is lying within the jawbone) begins to close. Therefore, the adult tooth emerges in a wrong position and disturbs the entire bite pattern. The child may need braces subsequently. If you really wish to save yourselves from future headaches, it is your responsibility to inculcate good dental habits in your child when he/she is young. Remember that nothing can be costlier than fixing a bad mouth and as they say prevention is better than cure.


Here are a few tips that you can make use of to ensure that your children have cavity-free and healthy teeth

1. Brushing twice daily

Brushing teeth after getting up in the morning is a habit that you teach by default. To bring in the practice of brushing the teeth before bedtime is what can sometimes need more effort as by the end of a long and tiring day you want to hit the sack desperately and it can be easy to overlook this. Nighttime brushing, however, is even more important as allowing the children to sleep with the food debris within their mouth can be likened to adding fuel to the bacterial activity. You can, however, make brushing fun but letting kids choose their own toothbrushes with their favourite cartoon character or maybe their favourite colour. Let them also choose the toothpaste in their prefered flavour and just have fun with it, also remember a fun 2-minute timer to encourage them to brush for the whole 2 minutes. There are some excellent brushing tips over on the NHS website.

2. Flossing once a day

Brushing teeth rubs off the food particles on the teeth surfaces but fails to clean the debris stuck between two teeth. Flossing takes care of these interdental areas. Using floss may not be easy during the initial days. As a parent, you may have to handhold most of the time. Once they become capable of doing it by themselves, you may have to supervise them for a few days before they become experts completely. 



3. Routine dental checkups

Routine visits to the dentist is as vital as the practice of oral hygiene measures at home. Your dentist is the best person to figure out if the teeth of your child are in a healthy state or are in for need immediate attention. A small decay, when left untreated, can destroy the entire tooth and spread to the neighbouring teeth. Children that fall in the age range of 6 to 12 years have a mixed set of teeth, where they have both milk teeth and adult teeth. The problems with alignment can creep up right at this age and can be diagnosed and corrected right at the initial stages itself, so you may not have to invest in braces later. Taking your child for routine dental check-ups can keep a number of dental problems at bay. 



4. Professional dental cleaning 

Most adults will have visited a Dental Hygienist, in fact it's recommended to visit one every 6 months to keep on top of your dental hygiene. What I didn't know until recently was that children can also benefit from having their teeth polished and can aid towards preventing decay. The hygienist can use child-friendly flavours while polishing making the whole experience more pleasant for the child.

5. Get fluoride treatment done

Fluorides fortify the teeth and give an extra protective layer of protection against dental decay which is essential when more sugar is being added to the food we eat. You should consult your dentist to know if your kid's teeth should have fluoride application done or not. In cases, when the drinking water has sufficient levels of fluoride an extra application may not be needed. Otherwise, the application of fluoride varnishes on your kids' teeth is highly recommended to ward off bacterial activity. Your dentist can offer a fluoride varnish treatment every 6 months and if they only offer fluoride gel kindly ask them to use fluoride varnish since the varnish works better and doesn't make kids gag. The office can get free fluoride varnish samples from several dental websites so that you can make sure your child gets the proper dental protection they need.


6. Healthy Eating

If you really want to shower your love on your kids then don't opt for the sweet, sticky or sugary confectionery every time. Soda or fizzy drinks is another important thing that needs to be restricted to kids. The importance of healthy eating needs to be instilled in their minds right at a young age. Once they learn the benefits of eating sensibly, they will follow these small lessons throughout their lives. The rule of moderation and avoidance of snacks in between meals are another two things when it comes to modifying one's diet. Replace fruit juices with whole fruit as that contains more fibres that provide good roughage as well.


As parents, we need to do what we can to encourage excellent dental hygiene for both ourselves and our children. You can also encourage it through fun books and videos that gently focus on the importance of dental health. you can make the children watch videos or read books on dental health and hygiene. Also don't forget to be encouraging and reward them with kind words and a hug every time they brush their teeth. There is more info about why it's so important to keep on top of your kids dental health over on the Oral Health Foundation.

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