Help your kids kick bad dental habits, for healthier teeth

February is National Children's Dental Health Month – a good time to focus on teaching kids how to take good care of their teeth. Start by helping your children avoid the four most common bad oral habits. If your kids have already picked up some of these bad habits, don't fret! 

1. Baby Bottle Tooth Decay

The challenge: Babies are in constant contact with sugar, found in milk or formula. Mouth bacteria feeds on sugar and causes tooth decay.

How to prevent it: Don't give your baby a bottle to calm them down when they're cranky. Instead, offer them a pacifier. Never give your baby a bottle when they are going to bed. If they suck on it throughout the night and don't swallow completely, the leftover liquid will decay teeth. You should also use a wet cloth or gauze to wipe your baby's teeth and gums down after they eat or drink.

2. Thumb sucking

The challenge: When kids 5 years and older still suck their thumbs, their permanent teeth can grow in unaligned, leading to an overbite, a misaligned jaw and/or pronunciation problems.

How to prevent it: Encourage your child to decide to stop on their own, but don't scold or punish them when they don't follow through. Your child can get defensive and suck their thumb even more because it's their security mechanism/stress reliever! Instead, provide positive reinforcement and rewards when they go a certain amount of time without sucking their thumb. Gradually increase the time needed to go without thumb sucking to get the reward.

3. Tongue Thrusting

The challenge: Tongue thrusting is the habit of pushing your tongue forward against your front teeth and lips when swallowing, or even when relaxing. This can cause protruding front teeth, an overbite, and even improper speech development.

How to prevent it: Teach your child the proper way to swallow, which includes not licking your lips, keeping your back teeth together while swallowing, moving your tongue upward instead of forward, and never allowing the tongue to rest against the front teeth. As a test to see if your child is swallowing right, have them put liquid in their mouth and swallow while smiling. If they swallow correctly, no liquid should come out. If water shoots out, they are a tongue thruster (this is always fun to try at the dinner table). At that point, they can practice swallowing right until they adopt the correct way, or there are appliances that can correct the problem.

4. Bruxism

The challenge: Children that bite their nails, grind their teeth, or chew on pencils or other objects are at a greater risk of getting bruxism − unintentional teeth grinding that can lead to jaw pain, chronic headaches, tense facial muscles and sensitive teeth.

How to prevent it: Don't let your kids chew on anything that isn't food. If your child already chews on objects or grinds their teeth often, have them put their tongue between their front teeth so they can train their jaw to relax. If you think your child is biting their nails for stress-related and/or emotional reasons, talk to them about it and consider therapy options.

Bad habits can affect your child's oral health. The good news: by addressing them early on, you can prevent long-term problems. Do that, and both you and your child will be smiling.