Dental Tips for Your Young Ones

Contributed by the Specialist Dental Group

Your mouth is the window to your overall health! Make sure that your children have an early start with positive oral habits to prevent future dental and other health problems.

Primary or milk teeth play an important role for the growth of permanent teeth, retaining space for adult teeth to make sure they erupt properly. They are also important in children’s speech development and to ensure that they are able to eat nutritious food so that they can grow up healthy.

Pediatric dentists place a significant importance on the maintenance of the primary teeth and in preventing tooth decay. They also monitor the growth and development of the dentition and jaws.

A few tips for parents to keep your children’s teeth healthy and cultivate good habits in them:

·   Your child’s first visit to the dentist should take place between 1 and 2 years of age, ideally, when there is no pain or major dental treatment to be done.

·   Bring them along when you have your own dental appointment to ease their anxiety, manage their expectation and become familiar with the environment of the clinic.

·        Always get your child to rinse their mouths or drink water after eating snacks.

·   Do not let your baby or child fall asleep at the breast or while drinking milk from a bottle. Rinse, wipe or ideally brush their teeth after the bedtime milk feed.

·   If your child is a thumbsucker or on the pacifier, try to wean him or her off this habit beginning when they are about 3 years old.