It’s no secret that your children’s teeth are hugely important aspects of their health. Something that a lot of people overlook is that good dental health is not only important for the teeth and gums themselves, but also for a person’s overall health. For instance, gum disease is very common – but if you have it for an extended period of time, it can lead to heart problems as well as a range of other issues. Likewise, plaque has been found to be related to dementia in later life – even if you have it young.
Clearly, it’s important for many reasons to look after our teeth. As a parent, you are going to need to make sure that your children are doing that. Here are some ideas for how you can make that a little easier in general.
Start Young
One of the most important things you should bear in mind is that you need to start your children looking after their teeth as young as possible. The earlier you start, and the sooner you encourage them to take proper care of their teeth, the more of a chance you have of them looking after them properly in later life. That is clearly very important, so it’s something to think about, and you might want to make sure that you are starting it as soon as you can. If nothing else, this will help to give them a head-start.
Warn Them About The Consequences
A highly effective way to ensure your child looks after their teeth is to make sure that they are fully aware of the consequences of not doing so. Although you might have been careful to instill this in them, have you done it appropriately, and have you made it really crystal clear just how important it is? If you are like most parents, you could probably still do some work here. When they know about the consequences of not looking after their teeth, they are just so much more likely to stay on top of it. That doesn’t mean that you need to scare or frighten them, but you should make sure that you are being perfectly clear from the get-go.
Teach Them Proper Technique
Clearly, one of the most essential things is that they are brushing their teeth regularly, and properly. That means that you are going to have to teach them the proper brushing technique – and here is where a lot of parents fail to really know what to do, perhaps because they themselves are not fully aware of what good brushing and rinsing looks like. Be sure to use kids mouthwash when doing so. However, it’s important that you learn properly so that you can then teach them, and doing so is going to make all the difference when it comes to ensuring that they have great dental hygiene in the future. This is absolutely something that you should be spending time on if you really want their teeth to be in good shape as much as possible.
Alleviate Their Anxiety
Many people of all ages have anxiety around teeth. The trouble with that is that it doesn’t actually help in the long run, as if you are anxious you are only going to find it harder to actually look after your teeth properly. Children often have these worries and concerns too. If your child seems particularly anxious about dental hygiene, you need to try and find ways to alleviate that anxiety by any means necessary. As it happens, there might be a few key ways in which you can do this, and it is a good idea to consider them all if you are looking at this situation in your household.
First of all, do whatever you can to remind them that, even in the worst case scenario, there are still things that can be done about poor teeth and unhealthy gums. Many people eventually need to seek out affordable dentures, and while you would rather not have to do this, at least it’s a possibility. Remind your child that there are always solutions to be found. You might also find that being calm about it yourself is going to help them to remain calm, so you could look into that as well if necessary.
The Sugar Problem
Most parents will run into the sugar problem at some point or another. The trouble is that it is incredibly bad for your teeth, but children are obviously wont to eat it, and you need to try and work out what you can do about this as soon as possible. One of the simplest solutions is to make sure you are not using sugar as the be-all and end-all of treats, and that you don’t therefore mark it out to be something that they will desire more of. It’s far better to simply not talk about sugary snacks that much, and not to use them as rewards.
If you still want to give your child some sugary sweets here and there, just make sure that you limit them as much as you can. That way, you are going to be doing a lot of good for the future of their teeth, and it’s something that you will see the results of very soon indeed. It’s definitely worth it, even if you find it to be somewhat challenging at first.
Make It Fun
As we all know, it is always easier to get your kids on board for an idea when you have made it fun. As it happens, there are many things you can do to make dental hygiene fun, so this is something that you should definitely think about if you are trying to keep your kids as healthy as possible in that department. For instance, you can brush and floss together, make games of it, use a special brush or toothpaste, and generally just treat it as a joy rather than a burden. That is going to make a huge difference in the long run to how they feel about it, and that in itself will help.
This is a contributed post and therefore may not reflect the views and opinions of this blog or its author.
