Oral hygiene is not only essential to adults but young kids as well. As a parent, you have to pay huge attention to the teeth of your baby. Oral hygiene for kids has been a major health issue in developed countries with children with poor oral health three times likely to miss school due to pain, as compared to those with good oral health.
Here are some simple strategies that you can use to improve the oral health of your children.
1. Get a Check-Up
The first thing you should make sure you have incorporated is visiting a dentist’s office by the first birthday of your kid. Early preventive care puts your child in the right direction when it comes to oral health. If you want to save much on children’s dental care, you have to start early. Trends show that the cost of a first dental appointment for children is nearly 40% less than that of adults which is something you need to exploit.
2. Teach Good Habits
Teaching good habits is the primary method of instilling oral hygiene among children. However, some of them might be very young to do it by themselves. You have to take charge and start enhancing oral hygiene in the early days. Using a washcloth to clean the gums is an essential aspect of oral health. When teeth have developed, you can consult your dentist about the infant toothbrush and whether to use it.
3. Avoid Baby Bottle Decay
Young moms tend to put infants for a nap with a bottle of milk, formula, or juice. This is a bad habit as it causes bacteria to develop around the gum. Using sugary fluids provides a conducive environment for bacteria to feed, which is a primary cause of tooth decay. Children orthodontics are against this tendency. If you must give your child a bottle, always make sure that it contains clean water.
4. Regular Dental Care
As the child grows, it is your responsibility to make sure that he checks in for children dental services regularly. Most people assume that their children don’t need to see a dentist. This is a huge mistake, and it may have future negative impacts on your child’s oral hygiene. As highlighted earlier, dental clinic for kids costs less, which is something you need to leverage on. A dentist can identify oral problems at an earlier stage and solve them before they get out of control.
5. Avoid Hard Foods
At this age, your child’s teeth are yet to develop. Therefore, they should not be engaged in crushing hard food products such as sugarcane, cereals, and nuts. As a parent, you’re likely to be happy that your kid can now eat hard food products, but you end up destroying their oral health. Some teeth are likely to crack, bleed, or get weakened. Stick to soft food until a dentist allows your kid to eat hard food.
6. Introduce Toothbrush and Fluoride Paste
After several years of using infant toothbrush, it is high time for you to introduce the common toothbrush and fluoride paste. By this time, your child is feeding on almost anything, which means that the growth of bacteria in the gums could have multiplied. This explains why you need to introduce fluoride toothpaste. For optimum oral hygiene, make sure that your child brushes twice a day or after meals.
7. Avoid Sweet Products
Anything sweet such as juice, sugar, sweet medicine, and other sweet-tasting products should be far away from your child. Sugary products stick to the teeth, which increases the chances of teeth cavity. Tooth decay also occurs due to the accumulation of bacteria around the gums, which are given room to thrive by sugar. It is necessary to consult kids orthodontics before giving your kid sugary products.
These are some of the few techniques you can use to enhance oral hygiene in your child. As you can see, most of it depends on what you do because the child is yet to make a personal decision. In case of complex situations such as bleeding and gum pains, you need to visit pediatric dental care immediately.
