Children’s Dental Health

You should start caring for children’s teeth at an early age. This will help them grow up with healthy teeth and gums. Children start developing teeth before birth. There are two sets of teeth: milk teeth and permanent teeth. Milk teeth develop at about six months and they are twenty in number. Permanent teeth start to develop at the age of six years old and most of them are in by the time they reach thirteen years. Wisdom teeth erupt around the age of seventeen. All these teeth need proper hygiene and health.

The following are specific areas to help in achieving good dental health for your children.

1. Visiting a dentist. It is advisable to take your child to a dentist routinely for dental check-ups. This should be done before the developing teeth have broken through the surface. The dentist will look at the child’s gum and/or teeth and count the teeth that have erupted and spot any early signs of decay. This will also enhance the relationship of the child with the dentist in later stages. Regular check-ups will be recommended by your dentist.
2. Diet. As parents, you should care about the foods you give to children. Sugar should be avoided as it encourages tooth decay. How often does your child eat sugary foods? Also acid foods and drinks like sodas should be controlled.  Keep fizzy drinks, candied sweets and cakes to the minimum as they lead to decay; but emphasize fruits, vegetables and milk. They contain natural sugars that don’t lead to the fast decay that processed sugars do. However, you should never allow a baby to go to sleep with a bottle of milk. If milk is allowed to stay in a baby’s mouth and not swallowed it can be bad for tooth development.
3. Tooth brushing. Your children’s teeth should be cleaned as soon as they start erupting from the gums. This should first be done with special tooth brushes for babies and should be done regularly in the morning and before bedtime for about two minutes. When the child is old enough you should encourage your child to brush his/her teeth.
4. Toothpaste to use. Use toothpaste with fluoride as this will make the tooth enamel resistant to decay.
5. Fissure sealants. A child may have deep crevices in their permanent teeth. This will make it difficult for them to clean; therefore it is advisable to seal the fissures with a resin film to protect the surface from decay. Ask your dentist if this is something your child needs.