Strong and Healthy Teeth from a Young Age

Strong and Healthy Teeth from a Young Age

How you can help your children get off to a good start to having healthy teeth.

Although, as most parents will attest, children like to think that they know best, this is rarely the case. This applies even to dental care. Arguments such as ‘but my teeth taste nice’ after eating sweets and not wanting to clean their teeth will only result in dental decay if given in to. Our role, as parents, is to guide our children through life, setting good examples and teaching them as we go along.

At the Smile Dental Practice in Bromley, we offer ways of helping you to do this when it comes to looking after their teeth.

The sugar trap

You may have read reports that state that the main cause of hospital admissions for young children is to have treatment following dental decay. Whilst there have always been sweets available, they are probably more so now. Perhaps more worryingly though, many products that parents presume to be healthy are extremely damaging to teeth. One of the biggest causes of tooth decay in children is now thought to be fruit juices. This is often given to children as it is deemed to be healthy, but the high natural sugar content is extremely damaging to the enamel of young teeth.

Education

Our Bromley family dental team offer customised programmes aimed at helping children to both understand the need for good oral care and how to put this into practice. Not only will this help them clean their teeth correctly and understand why they should limit the amount of sweets that they eat, but regular contact with our dental team also helps to give them the confidence to overcome any anxieties about dental visits, and will hopefully encourage them to keep regular appointments throughout their lives.

To encourage the children to not simply listen to us, but also interact and take responsibility themselves, we make use both of models of teeth and puppets so that the children feel a part of the day and are able to have fun whilst also still learning about oral health. The day may end with an examination by one of our child friendly dentists who may also apply a fissure sealant on the biting surface of the teeth to help protect them from decay.

Parents

We also encourage the participation of parents in these programmes. This also helps them to, perhaps, gain new knowledge. Many parents teach their children to clean and look after their teeth in the same manner that they themselves were taught. Whilst this is done with the best of intentions; in many cases, it is not the most effective, and our programmes for children will also be of benefit in bringing parent’s knowledge up-to-date.

To find out more about our children’s oral health care programmes, please call the Smile Dental Practice on 020 8462 2473.