Why it’s important to develop Good Dental Hygiene Habits Young

It’s easy to imagine the effects that sweets and sugary drinks have on children’s dental health. Genetics play a major role in a child’s oral health as well. If you have gum disease, it is more likely your child will develop it too. Teaching children proper dental hygiene habits is the most effective step a parent can take to help children learn prevention care.  February is Children’s Dental Health Awareness Month, making it a great time to start, if you haven’t already.

For infants, you can start to teach cleaning habits as soon as the teeth emerge by rubbing the appearing teeth using a warm washrag. By six months the bottom row of teeth begin to appear, and by twelve months the top teeth will grow in, if they haven’t already. It’s recommended that children see the dentist by the first birthday to ensure the teeth are growing in properly.  As children grow are older they can begin brushing teeth more and more on their own.

Did you know if you are just brushing your teeth, you are only cleaning 70% of teeth surfaces? That is why it is also important to teach children to add flossing and a fluoride rinse to their routine. You can start teaching your child flossing habits as soon as the teeth start touching to make sure all the nooks and crannies are kept clean.

Having children visit the dentist while they are young will also help prevent dental anxiety.  Establishing a routine, as well help to ensure the teeth are growing in healthy.

Tips on teaching better dental hygiene habits:

• Supervise a child’s brushing to ensure proper technique is being used and implemented.

• Pick a song that lasts about 2 minutes to make brushing fun and meet the recommended time for brushing.

• Let kids pick out their own toothbrush

• Try an electronic toothbrush with a built-in music player or timer that can be set to 2-minutes

• Take turns and show children how you brush

Not sure if you’re brushing your teeth the right way? Stop in to have our dental staff give you and your child a quick lesson up on proper brushing and flossing techniques. It may take some time to get the routine down but investing the time and effort teaching children good dental have will have lasting results and lead to a healthier life.

The Effects of Poor Oral Hygiene on your Health

Many people see the mouth as a part of the body that is fairly isolated from health problems that may plague our other organs. In fact, it’s probably commonplace to feel that way. We visit the doctor for checkups and any bodily problems we may be having, be they sickness or disease, and we see the dentist for checkups on the state of our teeth and gums. Rarely is there an overlap in appointments.

However, as the “gateway” to the rest of our body, our mouths can often link to many other health problems that ail us. As WebMD explains, as bacteria builds up, it makes our gums susceptible to infection. This, in turn, leads to our immune system utilizing its resources to fight infection and cause inflammation. That same inflammation can have severe ramifications to many other parts of the body, and cause severe gum disease.,.

Be it diabetes ("Periodontal disease further complicates diabetes because the inflammation impairs the body’s ability to utilize insulin”) or heart disease (gum inflammation has been theorized to cause inflammation in the blood vessels), inflammation in the mouth is by no means isolated.

, The state of your oral health can also often be a predictor of other health problems throughout the body. In an article describing the effects that gum disease can have on other areas of your body, the Mayo Clinic describes the mouth as a “window to your overall health.”

For these reasons, it’s incredibly important that (through healthy brushing and flossing habits, as well as regular visits to the dentist) we do not let bacteria buildup to dangerous, unhealthy levels within our mouths. It’s not just a pearly white smile that you might be compromising, it could be your overall wellbeing!

Do Raisins Cause Cavities?

As we say good-bye to another holiday season filled with rich meals and goodies, and get back to eating more regularly, it’s a good time to consider the foods that are good and bad for our teeth. One of the most heavily contested of these foods is raisins, a staple snack for many children

In the past, it was fairly simple to categorize the types of foods that would be most likely to promote cavities – those that are especially sticky, and those rich in sugar. Raisins hit both of these classifications, and as such were considered to be cavity culprits.

However, Dr. Christine Wu led a study at the University Of Illinois College Of Dentistry in an attempt to better understand exactly how raisins affected oral health. In an article on Registered Dental Hygienist, Stacey Bell acknowledges that in Wu’s study “Even though raisins contained the highest sugar content of all foods tested (68% sugar), they were less acidogenic than bran cereal with raisins and added sugar. When raisins were added to bran, the acidity was lower than bran flakes alone, suggesting that raisins help enhance clearance of chewed bran particles from the teeth.”

Despite their bad reputation, Bell points out that raisins are a food that rank relatively low on the cariogenic (cavity causing) spectrum, and one that in many studies are known to combat plaque-causing bacteria buildup on the surface of teeth. Additionally, one of the worst things to be done after eating sugar-heavy foods involves letting the remnants linger on the teeth.

So, when it comes to transitioning back to your year-round diet, you might want to take a look at the hidden benefits of one of nature’s sweeter snacks. With Children’s Dental Awareness Month just around the corner, it’s important we impart these great habits early on.