As a parent, one of the things you always have to be mindful of is the health of your children. An important area of health parents should take care of is their child’s oral health care. Is oral health important? Good oral health care is important to anyone’s well-being. Not being proactive on your child’s oral health care could lead to your child developing issues within their mouth or to their physical, mental and social well-being.
Here are some helpful tips for best oral health care to be proactive in your child’s health.
1. Clean Those “Pearly Whites”
Brushing your teeth and flossing in between your teeth is the first line of defense in maintaining your oral health. Teeth should be brushed for about 2-3 minutes at least two times daily. Brushing and flossing your teeth and using mouthwash can help to prevent tooth decay and gum disease. This step in oral healthcare does not have to seem boring or as though it is a chore.
Where your children are concerned, there are a few things that can make brushing your teeth with your kids more fun. You can make up games to play that are based around brushing your teeth. You can play their favourite music or you can also make up a song to sing to help your kids learn how long they should be brushing certain areas of their mouths. Even having your child pick out their own oral healthcare items could make cleaning their teeth more fun.
2. Eating Well
Having your family eat a well-balanced diet is a great way to maintain your oral health. Eating foods that include whole grains, fruits and vegetables and lean meats helps to maintain healthy teeth and your family’s overall health. You can get your child excited about eating a well-balanced diet by getting them involved with making meals or packing their lunch and picking some of the healthy foods and snacks they will be bringing to eat at school.
If they are too young to help make meals or to pack their lunches, you can make their meals or lunches look interesting. You can make faces out of the food you use, or give them food or snacks that are very colourful or in a certain pattern. Certain items can even be made into fun shapes by using cookie cutters. The possibilities in making healthy foods fun for children are endless!
3. Gear Up When Playing Sports
Playing sports can get a bit more physical than you or your child can realize. Elbows, knees, balls or other objects can accidentally hit you or your child’s face, resulting in damage to their mouth. One of the best ways to prevent injuries to your mouth is to wear a mouth guard to protect your teeth. Mouth guards buffer some of the impact you receive from getting hit in the mouth and having to get your teeth repaired.
4. Cut Out Other Risks That Can Cause Oral Health Issues
There are other factors that can cause a person to have oral health issues. Some of these factors are stress, smoking and using drugs. These factors can affect your mouth and body physically or mentally by reducing your body’s ability to heal itself, allowing for illnesses to occur. Oral cancer, gum disease or other illness or condition can result if these factors are active in your life.
5. Visit Your Dentist Regularly
Making regular visits to your dental clinic helps to keep oral health issues at bay. Dentists can see if there may be issues developing in your mouth that can cause oral health issues, or can see if there is something else that could be happening in your body by checking your mouth regularly. By making these regular visits, dentists can also advise you as to what needs to be done about potential issues before they get worse.
Now that you have these helpful hints on how to maintain oral health care, you can try them all out for yourself and your family! If you have not done so already, you should make an appointment to your dentist to have you and your family make sure you have no oral health issues, or to help take care of issues that may have arisen. If you do not have a dentist, you can check out a listing of the Ontario Dental Association or the Canadian Dental Association to see which dentist is closest to you to make an appointment!
Good oral health is so important
Hi kathy! Good oral care is so important! It can really help to indicate if something is wrong elsewhere in your body as well as in your mouth!
That is so true,regular Dentist visits also are a must,in our town a Dentist picked up on something in a patients throat and send a patience to a Dr.who later found out it was cancer.
These are all great tips
Hi again, kathy! Thanks! This information is important to have so people can take care of their families as well as themselves.
All awesome tips. I suppose my only oral health risk is stress. lol
Hi Stephanie! Yes, it is hard to avoid stress, especially when you are a parent! Here is the link to a post on the OMG blog from another author that can help reduce stress and reconnect with yourself: https://ottawamommyclub.ca/10-simple-ways-to-reconnect-with-yourself-and-reduce-stress. I hope these tips can help!
I follow all recommendations but have one trouble spot on my gums at the top back. I think I am brushing too hard there?
Hi Brenda! This query would be best answered by your dentist or dental hygienist. They will be able to give you tips as to how to clean that trouble spot!
It is very important that children learn from an early age to brush their teeth and take really good care of them – they’ll appreciate it later on in life 🙂
Thanks Elizabeth! My younger kids love having a toothbrush, but it is another thing to actually use it as it was intended. Hopefully, they will see why a toothbrush is more than a cool plastic stick with bristles!
Great article! I think it’s important to start early making regular brushing a habit.
Thanks Victoria! As with a lot of habits, getting kids on board with a good oral care routine is a great start to care for themselves.
I say start some new oral care and carry it thru the year
Oral health is so vry important and the earlier you get kids started the better.