Your child’s dental health is important not just for their baby teeth, but also for their future oral health. When baby teeth come in, they serve as placeholders for permanent teeth. If those primary teeth are prematurely extracted, the permanent teeth may fill in the missing spot of a neighboring tooth causing the permanent tooth to come in crooked. This could lead to expensive orthodontic care in the future. There are certain steps you can take that will help ensure that your child has good oral care and future dental success. However, knowing what to do is not the only important thing to know. You should also know what to avoid as these could result in trouble down the line. Here are three things to avoid to help your child avoid tooth decay and cavities.
Avoid Giving Your Child Sweets Between Meals
Whether it is to keep them happy or as part of a reward system, many parents give their children sweets throughout the day between meals. While this is typically seen as bad for the child’s overall health, giving a child candy, sweets, and sugary drinks throughout the day is a key way to cause decay in your child’s teeth. Rather than having your child snack on candy, sweets, and sugary drinks between meals, encourage them to have healthier snacks that feature complex carbohydrates such as fruits. If you do decide to give your child a sugary treat, offer the treat with a meal. The saliva that is produced to help digest a larger amount of food will help to keep their teeth free of bacteria caused by the treat. However, your child will still need to brush their teeth as usual.
Avoid Giving Your Child Drinks Before Bed
A lot of parents will give their children a sippy cup to help them sleep, but this can have dangerous consequences. The sugar that exists in juices, or even milk, will linger on the child’s teeth if the teeth are not brushed thoroughly before bed. This can lead to tooth decay and cavities for the child. If you feel as though you must give your child a drink before they go to bed, try to stick to plain water. And if you do give your child a sugary drink before they go to bed, make sure that the child’s teeth are thoroughly brushed before they go to bed so that the sugar from the drink does not linger on the teeth throughout the night potentially causing tooth decay and cavities.
Make Sure Your Child Attends Regularly Scheduled Dental Appointments
Your child should begin attending dental appointments prior to their first birthday, usually when their first tooth begins to erupt. From the time of their first appointment, it is important for everyone to have routine dental appointments every six months. These appointments will typically include a preventative cleaning and a discussion of good oral habits. Additionally, by having your child attend these appointments at an early age, your child will become more comfortable with the idea of attending dental appointments and it will be much easier to get them to attend appointments. Overall, these appointments are meant to help your child avoid tooth decay.
Your child’s oral health is of extreme importance, even at a very young age. Practicing good dental habits will not only positively impact them at a young age but will keep them from having future orthodontic problems. But it is not just practicing good habits that will allow your child to have future dental success, you also have to make sure that you avoid the potential pitfalls that can come with raising a child. Allowing your child to eat sweets or sugary drinks between meals, allowing your child to drink juice or other sugary drinks before bed without brushing after, and skipping regularly scheduled dental appointments all have the potential of causing tooth decay and cavities that could result in the extraction of baby teeth. Avoiding these problems will help to ensure that your child will have their ideal smile as they continue to grow toward adulthood. If your child is in need of a pediatric dentist to ensure their dental health, call on the professionals at Pediatric Dentistry of Central Florida.
