Make Oral Care a Lifelong Habit at an Early Age

Instilling good oral care habits from an early age is essential in maintaining your children’s teeth for the rest of their lives. The sooner you teach your children about dental health, the more likely they will be to regard good dental hygiene as a lifelong commitment. So when should you start teaching about oral hygiene? According to Board Certified Pediatric Dentist Yury Slepak of Pediatric Dentistry in New York City, you can begin showing them how to properly care for their mouths from infancy.

Infants: Make sure you never send your infant to bed with a bottle. Drinking a bottle in bed can cause baby bottle tooth decay. Your infant may fall asleep before all of the milk or formula is swallowed, creating an explosion of bacteria that can cause cavities, particularly in the front teeth.

Toddlers: As soon as that first tooth appears, begin brushing your children’s teeth. They are too young to do it themselves, so you will have to monitor their brushing until their hand/eye coordination develops. Let your children see you care for your own teeth and model proper brushing techniques by covering your toddler’s hand with your own and guiding his or her brushing.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentists recommends a toddler see his dentist within six months of the first tooth erupting or by one year of age. Then continue with regular checkups every six months from that point forward.

Child: As your child grows, he or she may still need help with proper brushing techniques. You should also introduce flossing and rinsing at this age. Continue taking your children in for regular checkups with your pediatric dentist and receive fluoride treatments as recommended by your provider. Encourage your child to brush his or her teeth twice a day for at least two minutes and floss once a day.

Teen: Once your child reaches his or her teen years, sugary snacks and sodas can make dental hygiene more difficult. Continue to model good oral care yourself and encourage your teen to brush and floss twice a day. Regular checkups every six months with your dentist is essential to maintain dental health.

The sooner you begin to instill proper dental hygiene in your children, the greater the chance is that they will make dental care a permanent part of their lives.