How to Keep Your Children’s Teeth Healthy

by | Sep 21, 2015

Keep Your Children’s Teeth Health!

As summer comes to an end, we escape the summer days of ice cream treats and summer snacks. Now, we approach a new threat to our children’s teeth: Halloween candy! Now, candy isn’t going to destroy your kid’s teeth. Not necessarily, anyway. However, if you want to keep your children’s teeth healthy, keep brushing, flossing, and more in check.

It’s not too early to review a brief checklist for your children in terms of keeping their teeth healthy through proper diet and dental care. There are lots of things to consider. While many can be second nature, it’s worth reviewing these tips. Doing so ensures your child’s dental health is adequately maintained in the months to come.

These are the things that Keep Your Children’s Teeth Healthy:

keep your children's teeth healthy

Brushing

Brushing should be done twice a day minimum and is one of the most important steps to keep your children’s teeth healthy. The morning after waking up and before going to bed at night is the best times. However, it’s worth considering a midday brush. This is especially true if your kid consumes a decent amount of snacks. Especially snacks heavy in sugar.

Even if you’ve grown to be comfortable with your child’s brushing habits without observation, don’t be afraid to watch them once in a while to ensure they aren’t rushing through it. It’s important that children spend at least 2 minutes brushing their teeth. Depending on your child’s age, sometimes setting a song to play while they brush their teeth that concludes around that time is a good option.

Flossing

Flossing is a commonly skipped oral care action for both children and adults. Unfortunately, it’s one of the most important things that keep your children’s teeth healthy. Young or old, you should be flossing your teeth at least once a day. If flossing is not a strong point for you, do your best to ensure your children have better habits than you do! A good way to make flossing more enjoyable for your children is to use flavored dental floss. Many flavors are very tasty and child-approved, such as mint and bubblegum.

Diet

Diet is important on several levels. It should be obvious, but ensure that your children limit their intake of sugary and unhealthy substances such as candy, ice cream, unhealthy snacks, and treats. This is even more important to pay attention to during holidays where this rule is likely to be ignored such as Halloween.

As mentioned previously, if your children do have an excess of sweets in their diet for whatever reason, having your children brush and floss an extra time over their usual routine is beneficial and just a good way to prevent cavities.

While diet is often looked at in terms of avoiding cavities through avoiding sugar, it’s additionally important to understand that developing a balanced diet for your children also will make them healthier, allowing their teeth to be stronger and more resistant to cavities in the first place. Don’t just avoid the things that make your teeth less healthy, but also seek out the behaviors that will make them stronger!

Maintain an Active Lifestyle For Yourself and Your Children

To keep your children’s teeth healthy, take care of yourself and set a good example! The more fit and active your children are the less interested they will be in foods or sweets that are not conducive to an active lifestyle. Due to the crash associated with sugars, most children will develop over time an aversion to them if they are presented with a lifestyle that does not allow them to simply crash midday. Additionally, keeping your kids active also keeps their bodies healthy, and that includes their teeth.

Teach your kids as early as possible the correlations between a healthy diet, dental care, exercise, and well-being. The sooner your children can understand how all of these things relate, the better off they will be in making healthy, informed decisions on their own as they grow older.

Watch Out For Grandma!

To keep your children’s teeth healthy, keep an eye on people who spoil your kids. Grandparents are notorious for excessively feeding sweets to their grandkids. It’s not like most of us haven’t experienced this growing up as kids and turned out okay. However, ensuring children learn to moderate themselves even if they are in the care of extended family who may enjoy spoiling them a bit. There are always going to be times when children go overboard with sweets.

As a parent, it’s just something you should learn to expect once in a while. However, you can counteract this by teaching your children personal responsibility. Also, set limits with babysitters, playmates’ parents, and family members during sleepovers.

Choosing a Children’s Dentist

Finding a dentist that specializes in caring for your children’s oral health is another important consideration. City Dental Centers is a dental center that focuses not just on dentistry for adult patients, but also on providing the perfect dental experience for your children as well. At City Dental Centers, we treat patients like family, making for a comfortable experience for not just adults, but children as well.

We run multiple offices in the Southern California area. Because they manage multiple locations, they are a convenient choice for just about any patient in the area for all your dentistry needs for the entire family.

Convenient Dentist Offices in Southern California

Doctor Sam Shahovesi and the team at City Dental Centers are here to provide our patients with the best dental services and dental surgeries for children and adults of all ages. From toddlers to seniors, City Dental Centers offers six convenient dentist offices in Southern California.

Contact The Nearest Dentist to You

Ready to experience the best dentists in Los Angeles? Choose one of the convenient dental offices we have surrounding LA. We have dental practices in AzusaCoronaLake ForestMontclairPico Rivera, and West Covina. You can call our main line at (888) 624-8933 or reach out to an office directly with the information below. We’re so happy you’ve chosen City Dental Centers. We can’t wait to help you along your dental journey and brighten your beautiful smile!