How to Teach Your Children Maintaining Good Oral Hygiene?

As a parent, you would better know how challenging it is to teach a child some new habits. It needs a lot of time, effort, and patience. You work hard with your best possible effort, and despite that, there is no guarantee whether your hard work is going to work for your child or not.  

Similarly, when it comes to teaching your children some good oral habits, it is a hard nut to crack. However, this is the real challenge and fun you come across when you become a parent. And it’s one of the most pleasant and satisfying things one can come across.

In this blog, we have put together some of the most useful tips by pediatric dentistry McKinney. These tips will help you teach your children to maintain good oral hygiene. Let’s check them out!

Some Useful Tips to Teach Your Children Rightly Brushing and Flossing

Brush Your Teeth with Your Children 

Children often observe and copy their parents and close ones. They closely see and observe what their parents do and try to perform the same thing. It would be best if you make the most of this nature of your children to teach them good habits. 

When you wake up in the morning, wake up your children too and motivate them to do brushing and flossing. Take them with you to the bathroom, do brushing and flossing in front of them and let them observe and copy you. It would indeed be effective to teach your children some good oral care habits. 

Be a Child with Your Child

You can’t teach your children good habits until you become yourself a child with them. So, while teaching your children some good oral care habits, rejuvenate your childish nature and make learning a fun for them. Your children will surely enjoy this, and it would become much easier for you to teach them dental care habits. 

Give Your Children Varieties of Cute Toothbrushes

Children love cute things. Give them varieties of toothbrushes and the right to choose a toothbrush of their interest based on color, cartoon, design, and grip. It helps in developing your children’s interest in learning good oral care habits. 

It is another very useful tip to teach your children how to maintain good oral hygiene. 

Reward them For Learning Faster

When you reward your children with cute and attractive gifts, it encourages them to learn good habits faster. You must use this tip. 

You just need to tell your children that they can earn some attractive rewards (like toys, dolls, clothes, eatables, etc.) if they learn oral habits faster. It will definitely work for you. 

Play Music

Everyone loves music, whether a kid or an adult. It is something that can make boring activities exciting and interesting. If you play music while teaching your children good oral habits, it will surely help your children developing an interest. And once your children start learning oral habits with interest, it would be easier to teach them.   

Some Useful Tips to Keep Your Children Away from Sugary and Junk Foods

Sugary eatables, like chocolates, candies, and cakes, and junk foods are harmful to your children’s oral health. They can cause cavities, tooth decay, tooth sensitivity, tooth warms, tooth stains, and paleness. So, it is crucial to keep your children away from sugary eatables and junk foods. 

Here are some useful tips you should follow to keep your children away from sugary eatables and junk foods. Let’s check them out!

Let Your Children Enjoy their Favorite Foods (except sugary eatables and junk foods)

Your children’s oral health is at higher risk if they eat sugary eatables and junk foods too much. You need to keep them away from sugary items and junk foods anyhow. Letting your children enjoy their favorite foods (except sugar eatables and junk foods) could be a great way to do that. It would be helpful if you follow this tip.

Promise them For a Special Treat

Children love getting special treatments from their parents. They often listen to their parents and do anything for getting that special treatment. So, promising your children a special treatment or a surprise reward is the most effective way to deal with them. You just need to tell them that you have a special treat or reward for them. And for getting that, they have to avoid eating sugary items and junk foods too much. It will also work for you. 

Reduce the Supplies 

We know that no parent would prefer to reduce the supply of chocolates, candies, and junk foods in the love of their children, but you have to do it for your children’s healthy oral health. It cannot completely keep your children away from unhealthy foods, but it would significantly impact your children.

Set an Example 

Children observe their parents and learn a lot of things from them. You need to keep this in mind. 

If you stop your children from overeating chocolates, candies, and junk foods, you also have to avoid eating those eatables; otherwise, your children will never listen to you. So, set an excellent example for your children; it will definitely work for you. 

Dental Developmental Milestones In Child’s Oral Health

We all have compared different milestones in our children’s lives in their early ages such as height and weight as well as when they first started walking or spoken a word. But do we ever care about their dental developmental milestones? Most of us remember when their first tooth erupted as well the problems they have to face due to teething. But does anyone of us remember those strange moments when they started drooling or when they started brushing? As per experts, children's milestones are measured through how and when they learn, speak, move, behave, and play. In oral health, dental developmental milestones are also significant to your child's ability to eat and smile.

Teeth Eruption in Babies

The primary (baby) teeth compete for their development in your infant's jaw even before their eruption. The eruption of the first baby tooth lays the foundation for future dental checkpoints. From baby teeth to wisdom teeth, how much you take care of your child’s oral health will decide the quality of your child's smile, and eventually their overall health. Experts believe that parents should begin dental care of their children as soon as their first tooth erupts. They also suggest that parents should take their children for regular dental visits and continue in suggested intervals to observe homecare and further development. Taking proper care of teeth in infants is important as they hold space for the permanent teeth, enable speech and nutrition, and should be maintained fully until they naturally exfoliate.

Bottle-Feeding, Thumb-Sucking & Brushing Habits

Once the teeth start arriving in your baby’s mouth, protect them as they let the jaw grow. If you take your child to the dentist from the beginning, regular monitoring will help in the early diagnosis of early problems and abnormalities in your child’s growing dental structure. It's important to monitor the following:

·         Administered and supported brushing and flossing

·         Thumb- or finger-sucking effects and cessation

·         Nutrition and baby bottle habit

·         Additional fluoride treatments

Cavities are common in children which is due to lack of proper home care or an improper diet that is high in fructose sugars, mainly when your child is on a bottle feed. Your dentist or dental hygienist can guide you on what should be put in a bottle and when should you discontinue bottle use. Furthermore, they can offer education on oral hygiene and fluoride treatment to avert tooth decay. Finger- and thumb-sucking and use of pacifiers are all normal to some extent, but all these should be instantly stopped if it affects the proper development of proper dental structure including both teeth and jaw. By seeking dental care early, your baby will be on the right track for healthy oral development.

Diverse Dentition

Once your child starts losing baby teeth or primary teeth and the permanent teeth start erupting, then in such a situation, they have a "mixed dentition," which brings specific fears. Your child may begin to take part in sports, show signs of teeth crowding, and make poor selections in their diet. Again, a dental expert will distinguish what preventative or interventional treatment is essential. This may include:

·         A sport's mouth guard to safeguard the teeth and jaw.

·         Recommendation to an orthodontist.

·         Nutritional psychoanalysis to help your child make healthy dietary selections.

·         Fluoride treatment and dental sealants to avoid further decay.

Braces and Wisdom Teeth

Once your child enters his or her teen years, the connection between a healthy mouth and a healthy body starts building up. Teenagers who consider their smile important and make efforts to keep it that way or making it healthy, they should be appreciated. Teenage is ideal to get braces or go for orthodontic treatment for better dental structure and shape. The oral hygiene habits in teenagers for the prevention of gum disease and infections should be a major concern. Moreover, being a parent, you should keep a check on the eruption of wisdom teeth. Your dental expert will provide the tools required to shift to a healthy adult mouth. Apart from this, their major focus will be on the following:

·         Proper diet, nutrition, and exercise.

·         Brushing, flossing, and fluoride use.

·         Monitoring the eruption of wisdom teeth.

·         Referring to an oral surgeon if required.

The most common problem that teenager has to experience is not having enough space in the jaw so that third molars can easily erupt. If this is the case, it is important to get them removed to avoid future problems. Tooth removal can also be performed during infection, pain, and physical effect on adjacent teeth. For those who have had braces, the orthodontist will lookout these teeth by taking a special x-ray and suggesting oral surgery.

Conclusion:

All the above mentioned age-wise procedures show that developmental milestones are important in your child's life, from babyhood to young adulthood. If you understand the significance of these milestones and let your child’s dental health proceed under the guidance of a dental expert, then you will witness a smooth transition in their oral developmental health from infancy to young adult. By beginning dental care at an early age and upholding regular visits to the dentist McKinney, you will be setting your child on the right track for a lifetime of healthy smiles.

Pediatric Dentistry- The Early Oral Care Ensures the Bright Future of Your Child

Pediatric dentistry is a specialized branch of dentistry that mainly deals with examination and management of children’s oral health. It provides comprehensive therapeutic and preventive dental care to children. According to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, every parent should take their child for a dental examination to a pediatric dentistry clinic when their children are six to 12 months old. It is very important for good dental care of children. Pediatric dentistry is different from adult dentistry as it not only gets in action after the dental issues found but it also takes precautionary and preventive care of children. It is actually a special part of dentistry that ensures good dental care for infants, children, and teenagers from the beginning. 

For parents, it is very important to take care of the oral health of children from starting so that their children can avoid serious oral health problems in the future. Pediatric dentistry in McKinney educates all parents that if as a parent, you see your child having a habit of sucking thumbs every time then you should consult with a certified pediatric dentist. He/she will suggest how to break this habit of your child. It is very important to prevent your child from repeatedly sucking thumbs as this habit can lead to an eruption of unaligned and crooked teeth in your child which is not good for your child's oral health. With the consultation of a certified pediatric dentist, you can get rid of this kind of habit of your child. And ultimately you will save a huge amount of money in the end. 

Infants Dental Care

Being a parent, when your child turns six months old then you should start taking care of the oral health of your baby. See whether the eruption of teeth in your child happens properly and timely or it seems there are some problems. If you feel that teeth are delaying erupt then you should immediately visit your concerned pediatric dentist. The dentist will deeply examine the mouth of your child and suggest you either wait or get your child treated. Whatever will be better for your child, go for that. On the other hand, sometimes teeth timely erupt but not erupt in appropriate alignment. This can happen because of thumb sucking habits of a child or genetics. In this case, you should consult your doctor as soon as possible so that your child never faces oral health problems in the future. So, these two things are major in infants which you must take care of as a good parent. 

As a child grows, being a good parent, you should teach your baby to regularly brush his/her teeth and avoid eating sugar-rich and unhealthy foods. Try to teach your baby in a childish and funny way as this will help your baby quickly learn taking care of oral health. Herein you should visit pediatric dentistry in McKinney or your concerned dentist with your child after a continuous specific interval as suggested by dentists to ensure the dental health of your child.

Tooth Decay

When a child is 2 to 4 years old then he/she can have certain minor dental problems which can turn into serious dental problems if they are not treated in time. One of those dental problems is tooth decay. Children who regularly drink breast milk, tooth decay is very common with them. Being a good parent, you should take care of this aspect. You should consult with your concerned pediatric dentist, he/she will give your child the best treatment. 

Don’t ignore teeth decay in your child considering that they are milky teeth that will be eventually replaced by solid teeth. If you ignore teeth decay then it can turn into serious dental problems like bleeding gums. Pediatric dentistry in McKinney strongly suggests that tooth decay should not be ignored in children but it should be treated by taking some necessary preventive steps so that it does not become painful for children and problematic for parents in the future.

Malocclusion Teeth 

Malocclusion teeth are another major dental problem found in children between 2-4 years old. Malocclusion of teeth refers to when upper jaw teeth and lower jaw teeth do not appropriately meet together when the mouth is closed. It can happen due to problems with shapes and sizes of jaw and teeth. The most common cause of malocclusion teeth is either having too much or too little room in the jaws. 

If a child has too little room in the jaw then his/her teeth may erupt crooked and crowded while on the other hand if he/she has too much room in the jaw then teeth may erupt unaligned. Both cases lead to malocclusion of teeth. This dental illness can create so many problems such as difficulty in eating and speaking. It is also the reason for the sudden bite inside the mouth which is sometimes very painful and leads to injuries inside the mouth. So, being a parent, if you find this dental illness in your child then you should get it treated as soon as possible by visiting a certified pediatric dental clinic. Treatment is very important for this dental problem. If it is not treated in time, it can turn into a serious problem. 

Pleasant Dental Treatment For Children 

Children often hesitate and are afraid of visiting a dental clinic. It is a very common thing. Today, modern pediatric dentistry understands this aspect of children and prioritizes to make children feel safe and pleasant in the premises of the clinic and during the treatment. Pediatric dentistry in McKinney strongly emphasizes this aspect and puts every possible effort to provide a comfortable and pleasant atmosphere for children. They try to take the attention of children to other interesting things during the treatment that helps children not to think about treatment. Unlike the early dentistry when dentists used to depend on the traditional methods, tools, and technologies to give dental treatments to children, today, the technologies in pediatric dentistry have changed. The painless and pleasant dental treatment of children is possible in this era with the help of the latest technology-based tools and equipment.