Sunday, August 21, 2011

Caring for your Child's Teeth

By Aishwarya Jayadeep

Many believe that caring  for a child's teeth isn't as important as caring for secondary or permanent teeth. As they think that milk teeth or primary teeth are going to be replaced by nature with another set of teeth soon.If that's what you  thimk that's one big mistake on our part as parents. I believe that Milk teeth or primary teeth is that set of teeth kids get to practice on how to take care of  permanent teeth . That way, when the time comes for them to take care of  their permanent teeth they are well practiced in tooth care. Thus, they won't make any mistakes and can  have  them life long .
Ways to care for your babies teeth
1. Clean your infant's gums with a clean damp cloth.
2. As soon as the first teeth come in, begin brushing them with a small soft-bristled toothbrush and a pea-sized dab of fluoride toothpaste.
3. To avoid baby bottle tooth decay and teeth misalignment due to sucking, try to wean your child off of the bottle by one year of age and monitor excessive sucking of pacifiers, fingers and thumbs.  Never give your child a bottle of milk, juice or sweetened liquid as a pacifier at nap-time or bedtime.
4. Help a young child brush at night- the most important time to brush due to lower salivary flow and higher susceptibility to cavities and plaque.  What I advice is to let the child brush by themselves in the mornings to build self-confidence. This is so, as in the mornings there won't be any food debris or plaque to remove as the child was given a brushing by the parent in the night.  Usually by age five or so, the child can learn to brush his or her own teeth with proper parental guidance.
5.I also have found dental floss with holders very helpful in flossing a  child's little teeth with your big hands.
6.  Finally, the best way to teach a child how to brush is to lead by good example. Allowing your child to watch you brush your teeth teaches the importance of good oral hygiene. Yet another reason for you to brush twice a day.

2 comments:

  1. yet another winner of a post vidhya and aishwarya's drawing has me hooked !

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  2. Caring for your child's teeth is very important, especially when they are very young and can't do it themselves. When you set up healthy habits by caring for your child's teeth, they will often be able to continue these habits on their own as well.

    child teeth

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