It is important for every person to visit a dentist regularly, usually around two times a year but sometimes more in cases of severe tooth decay or other persistent dental problems. Visiting a dentist regularly is just as important for kids, not only to care for their teeth but to instill in them lifelong habits of good dental hygiene.
Tooth decay is becoming more and more of a problem seen by pediatric dentists. Some of the cause of this tooth decay is due simply to poor dental hygiene practices. It is important for every child to brush their teeth the recommended two times a day, as well as floss regularly. It’s also important that teeth are brushed as soon as they erupt, even in young babies. When babies are under a year old, it is often recommended that a toothbrush and water are used without any toothpaste, but small amounts of toothpaste can be introduced at a relatively young age.
Sugar is another cause of tooth decay seen by dentist. A family dentist will recommend limiting sugary drinks for children of all ages, but it is now recommended that very young children have only water and milk until they are two years of age or older. Even fruit juice contains more sugar than health benefits. It is always a better option to offer whole fruit. Sports drinks have proven to be harmful to your teeth as well. When people think of sports drinks, they typically think primarily of electrolytes and forget how much sugar one sports drink contains. It is best to drink water. Water often contains fluoride, which can help to strengthen teeth. Many people are unaware of the fluoride content in their bottled water, or are misguided about the affects of fluoride itself.
Energy drinks are also incredibly harmful to anyone’s teeth and should certainly never be offered to children. Energy drinks often cause enamel loss at twice the rate of sports drinks.
It’s important to take good care of your teeth and even more important to instill good dental hygiene in your children from an early age. Children’s dentists are seeing higher and higher rates of tooth decay in children than ever before and some of this tooth decay is leading to greater rates of dental sedation among children. Over 200,000 children are sedated for dental practices every year. Some of these invasive dental procedures can be prevented with better dental hygiene, as good dental hygiene can drastically reduce rates of tooth decay and tooth damage.