Your Child's Dental Health

Introduction:

Enforcing good dental habits in your child’s day-to-day activity is the most important thing in their development. Poor dental health leads to halitosis, caries, infection, or other diseases and also leads to the development of low social confidence, which may affect the development of their personality.

Yellow teeth, bad breath, or pain in teeth hamper the social bonding of kids and may make them isolated or lower their social confidence. Habits of dental hygiene should be an interesting activity for your kids. Things and activities should be planned so as to make dental hygiene fun.

What Tricks Should Be Followed to Make Kids Develop Interest?

Some tricks and fun activities for kids to develop interest:

• Let children choose their own toothbrush of their favorite color and favorite shape or favorite cartoon character.

• Let them also choose their favorite flavor and color of toothpaste.

• Develop their interest in brushing or dental hygiene habits by telling stories about it or reading books or videos about dental hygiene habits.

• Kids should be taught a technically correct way of brushing right from the beginning.

• To start with, kids might find it difficult to make circular motions while brushing, so initially, make the activity of creating big circles in the air using hand, then after that, make small circles. These will improve their fine motor activity. So brushing in circular motions will be easy for them.

• Make sure kids brush their teeth for two minutes. So for that, keep some interesting timer or play some song or play any fun activity for two minutes.

• After performing good dental habits or brushing, reward them. Do not give sugary treats; instead, offer healthy food things such as apple slices or peanuts, or stars on hands, etc.

What Are the Ways To Improve Dental Health?

The role of fluoride in making stronger dentition:

• Fluoride plays an important role in the development of a child's dental health. Dentition right from their developing stage needs to be taken care of with utmost care. When developing teeth are strong and healthy, then they will last longer without any dental problems.

• Fluoride plays a major role in making teeth stronger by hardening the outer layer of teeth called Enamel.

• Fluoride reduces caries in deciduous as well as permanent dentition.

One can get fluoride from:

- Drinking water.

- Or one has to add fluoride to tap water.

- When drinking water does not contain fluoride, then one has to take oral fluoride supplements from dental offices in the form of fluoride varnish or fluoride applications on children’s teeth.

- When thinking of water filters then one should not use reverse osmosis water filters.

Fluoride level:

When using fluorides or fluoride supplements, the quantity of fluoride must be controlled. Excess of fluoride may cause fluorosis that leads to staining of teeth and is also harmful to a child’s health. So it is important to monitor drinking water fluoride levels, and also children should not swallow toothpaste containing fluoride.

How To Maintain Dental Hygiene?

Dental or oral hygiene should begin when your child is a baby. It is a myth that practicing dental or oral hygiene should be started when your child is having a full set of teeth. The practice of dental or oral care starts with taking care of the child’s gum pad, tongue, palate, and lips. One should do the cleaning of gum pads with a wet cotton ball or cotton cloth after feeding infants or newborns. Massage of gum pads with fingers is beneficial.

Start brushing and cleaning a tooth when your kid has the first tooth in the oral cavity. When a child is 1 to 2 years old, then one should start using a kid-size soft bristle toothbrush of their choice. Let kids choose their own color and shape of the brush so that they will develop an interest in brushing. When children are unable to spit out at an early age, then it is better to use non fluoridated toothpaste. Later, when your child starts spitting out, then one can use a fluoride-containing toothpaste with an appropriate fluoride percentage for that age. Use pea size toothpaste and make them brush their teeth at least for two minutes. On visiting a dentist, make sure your child learns the correct technique of brushing from your dentist. After having sweet sticky food, make a habit of rinsing your mouth with water, as it will not leave any food residue on teeth that may lead to caries on teeth.

Children will need your help in brushing their teeth until 7 to 8 years of age. When bristles of brush get worn out or around 4 to 6 months, you should change their toothbrush. Flossing is an important part of dental hygiene care; it helps in cleaning in between the teeth. Make a habit of flossing at least once a day as a part of a routine hygiene procedure. Dental floss with a handle will be easy to use. Cleaning of the tongue is also important as it reduces food debris on the tongue and it reduces the number of bacteria in the oral cavity. So make sure that your child cleans your tongue while brushing. Children should brush their teeth every morning and evening before going to bed right from the beginning.

What Are Caries Or Cavities?

Caries are decaying of teeth that lead to blackish discoloration and hole formation on teeth. Caries occurs because of prolonged accumulation of food particles on teeth surfaces that cause acid formation on teeth surfaces that eat away the tooth surfaces, leading to cavities. Caries, even on deciduous teeth, should be taken into consideration and should be treated on a priority basis. Many of us listen from the parent's side that it is fine if caries on deciduous teeth are left untreated, but it is not good for your child’s dental health.

How Does Diet Play A Role In Maintaining Healthy Dentition?

Diet plays an important role in keeping dentition healthy. Following foods are responsible for increasing the risk of cavities:

• Sugary foods.

• Sticky food.

• Soda.

• Fruit juice.

• Sweet snacks.

• Drinks between meals.

Fibrous food, vegetables, fruits, and dry fruits should be preferred. Milk and milk products, Vitamin C, are good for the health of teeth and gums. In most of the situations when these foods are unavoidable, then make a habit that your child brushes his or her teeth or rinses their mouth thoroughly after eating this food.

In slightly older kids, chewing gums is useful. It provides benefits such as:

• It acts as a mouth freshener, so it prevents halitosis.

• It balances acid-base balance.

• It cleanses the food particles that were accumulated on teeth surfaces.

• Continuous chewing action with chewing gum increases the production of saliva.

• It strengthens the jaws to some extent.

As chewing gums also contain sugar, sweet chewing gums should be avoided in children as they are caries prone. Sugar-free gums should be preferred in kids.

How Is Dentition From Deciduous To Adults?

Teeth start erupting between 5 to 7 months of age. The most commonly erupting tooth is the lower front teeth. In deciduous dentition, kids have 20 teeth by about three years of age. Twenty teeth contain:

• Central incisors.

• Lateral incisors.

• Canine.

• First molar.

• Second molar teeth.

Deciduous dentition does not contain premolars in it. Permanent dentition has 32 teeth. That contains premolars and wisdom teeth in extra than deciduous dentition. Permanent dentition starts to appear at around six years of age. Children start losing their deciduous teeth from 6 years of age till 12 years of age. During this age, they will have both sets of dentitions in the oral cavity that are deciduous dentition and permanent dentition, so it is called the mixed dentition phase. In this phase, your dentist can appropriately tell about your child’s dentition and can tell possible dental problems. He may tell whether your child needs orthodontic treatment or not. Dental checkups at this age may prevent you from future complicated dental treatments.

What Are the Malfunctional Habits That Needs To Be Considered?

• Babies suck their finger or thumb, that is normal, but when this habit continues beyond 3 to 4 years of age, then that may cause problems in dental alignment. Persistent finger sucking habits may alter the alignment of teeth that cause malalignment of teeth that lead to the development of malocclusion. So the habit of thumb or finger sucking should be immediately withdrawn if it persists beyond 3 to 4 years of age. Consult your dentist for the same. The dentist will treat it depending on the root cause and plan treatment to prevent further complications.

• When you notice that your child breathes through the mouth, that means along with nasal respiration, there is oral respiration by keeping the mouth open. You should consult your dentist as mouth breathing habit is dangerous for your child’s dental and physical health. It is one of the reasons for the development of malocclusion.

• When there is blackish discoloration of teeth, then that is a sign of caries.

• When there is bad breath and bleeding from gums, then that is a sign of gingivitis.

• Nail-biting habits are also hazardous to child dentition.

• When you see extra teeth or teeth coming from the side of an already erupted tooth, then you should consult a dentist as it may cause irregularity in the alignment of teeth.

When To See a Dentist?

Ideally, when your kid is one year old, then you should visit the dentist on their first birthday. Your dentist can see for probable early dental problems in your kid so as to prevent further complications and also explain to you about proper oral care. Pediatric dentists are specialists in kid's dental care. The child should visit the dentist twice a year. An early dental visit at a young age will help the child to be more comfortable with a dentist and the dental environment. There is a dental emergency in the following conditions:

• Pain in teeth or pus or infection in gums or teeth.

• Trauma to dentition, when there is loss of a permanent tooth. If you find the permanent tooth, then keep it in cold milk or saline water after cleaning outside dirt from it and take it to the dentist, as they may be able to reattach it.

What Are the Questions You Should Ask a Dentist For Your Child?

1. Need oral fluoride supplements?

2. The best type of toothbrush for my child?

3. Is my child at high risk for cavities?

4. What is the current status of caries?

5. Are dental X-rays safe for my child?

Conclusion:

Seeing the dentist before the child's first birthday or within six months of the eruption of their first teeth. Establishing a healthy dental habit and identifying any abnormalities early on are both benefits of routine check-ups. Keep in mind that each child is different, and they may have different dental needs. Maintaining your child's dental health at its best requires regular communication with the dentist and heeding his or her instructions.