Having good oral hygiene is important for a person to live a healthy life. Therefore, it is critical for parents to get their children started down the path to having healthy teeth and gums as early as infancy. It does not matter if you are feeding your child with a bottle or nursing, you need to start a regimen of dental hygiene. Here is why pediatric dental care is so important.
Cleaning
Prior to any teeth erupting, you should use a soft washcloth or some gauze to wipe down the child’s gums. After the teeth finally appear, monitor them to make sure they are always clean. In order to do this properly, you will need to be certain you are using the correct tools. You will need to purchase a toothbrush that is specially designed to be used in the mouth of a baby. These toothbrushes have smaller heads than regular toothbrushes.
First dental visit
It is important to take your child to the dentist for the first time when he or she is between the ages of one and two. Food remnants and plaque will be removed from your child’s teeth by the pediatric dentist. It is critical to make sure these things are not allowed to linger on the teeth. If they are not removed on a regular basis, it is possible that a large amount of bacteria could form. If left unchecked, this bacteria could eventually cause gum inflammation, tooth decay and other dental problems.
A learning experience for adults
Taking your child to visit a pediatric dentist is not only about making sure your child has a healthy mouth, it is also to teach the parents how to better take care of their child’s teeth in this critical stage of their dental development. Obviously, a child that is less than two years old is not going to be brushing his or her own teeth. Therefore, the parents need to be educated on the best ways to care for their child’s first teeth. This is especially important if the parents have never had a child before. Dentists at Kool Smiles are happy to give parents friendly advice.
Knowing what to avoid
One of the common things that many pediatric dentists see all the time is young children who have developed cavities because their parents allowed them to sleep with a bottle in their mouth. The dentist will tell them to avoid such things from happening, preventing the problem from occurring in the first place. It is also critical that the parents know what usually causes a child’s teeth to decay. Proper teeth brushing methods are taught to the parents, enabling them to pass these methods on to their child when he or she is old enough. When a child is around one year old, he or she should begin drinking from a cup. Women should also stop breastfeeding once their child begins to grow teeth.
Tooth decay is an epidemic
The problem with children having tooth decay in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. As far as children are concerned, it is now the most chronic disease in the country. When children are kindergarten age, over 39 percent of them are suffering from tooth decay. This is according to data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This sobering statistic just shows how important it is for parents to make the dental hygiene of their children a top priority.
