Having kids is a great thing and many people choose to have kids simply because of how fulfilling it is. Having kids can give you the purpose in your life that you might be lacking and it can bring an incredibly amount of joy along with it. But there is certainly no doubt about the fact that children can be quite a bit of work, and they are huge responsibility to take on, from the day you find out that you’re pregnant to the day that they graduate from college (if not even a bit beyond that point as well). You must feed them a balanced diet, give them a well rounded education, and provide them will all of the love that is possible to give.
Dental care for kids is another essential component of raising a healthy child and should start from an earlier age than many people realize. Preventative care is key, and you should be cleaning your child’s teeth from the very day that the first buds of teeth arise. For some children this is very early, at only a few months of age, and these teeth can be cleaned with nothing more than a wet washcloth and water. As your kids grow older, introducing toddler safe toothpaste and teaching them how to brush their teeth is ideal, but it’s important to remember that fluoride should not be used until your kids have surpassed their second birthday at the very earliest. On this matter, it is most definitely best to consult with your local pediatric dentist.
Kids should also be seeing pediatric dentists as well, ideally starting before they reach their second birthday and continuing on at least twice a year (as is the case for adults receiving dental services as well). While it might not seem that taking care of their baby teeth is all that important – after all, baby teeth fall out in just about everyone relatively early on in life (typically around the age of six) – this is actually far from the case. This is due to the fact that baby teeth act like placeholders and the health of a child’s baby teeth can have a direct impact on the quality and the health of the permanent teeth that come in to replace them once they have fallen out.
And the impact of a lack of dental care can be far more all encompassing. For one, a lack of dental care (as well as a lack of dental education) can lead to the development of cavities. And cavities are far too prevalent among children, with nearly half of all children (up to forty percent of them) having had at least one cavity by the time that they are five or six years of age (right around the time that they are entering kindergarten. In addition to this, more than eighteen and a half percent of all children who have their adult teeth (give or take) have some untreated cavities.
So it should come as no huge shock that dental pain is a huge problem among more children than it should be. Dental pain can simply be caused by untreated cavities or else it can be caused by more serious issues but regardless of the cause it is clear that the presence of dental pain in kids throughout the country has some hugely negative impacts and consequences. For one thing, it can contribute to children missing school as kids who have a number of dental problems are as much as three times more likely to miss school than children who have been provided with the adequate dental care. In fact, it’s been estimated that more than fifty million school hours are lost on a yearly basis here in the United States alone, certainly not something to be brushed aside and avoided. With tooth decay more common than other common childhood conditions like asthma and diabetes – up to twenty times more common, in fact – it’s no shock that this is the case, though it should certainly be taken seriously.
Dental care is hugely important for your kids and is not something to be underestimated for all kids.
