We are accepting new patients!! Here is what to expect at your first visit.

The Importance of Teaching Your Children About Dental Hygiene

The first few years of a person’s life is an important formative period for lifelong oral health habits. Studies have revealed that habits surrounding brushing their teeth to food choices find their roots during the first two years. Those who experience cavities in their primary, or baby, teeth show a higher tendency to have oral health issues later in life. These facts make it crucial for parents to take a central role in developing good oral habits in their children as soon as possible. Praise for good habits, setting good examples and discussing the long-term effects of good dental hygiene are important steps they can take in improving their child’s lifetime oral health.

Developing Good Oral Hygiene Habits Early Saves Teeth

Most children will experience the arrival of their first teeth within six months of being born. By the time they reach 30 months of age they’ll have received all their primary teeth. These teeth are more prone to developing cavities due to their less dense nature, but that doesn’t make them less important. These teeth help to promote proper chewing habits, and therefore smoother digestion, as well as aid the child in learning to speak clearly.

Protecting Their Primary Teeth Promotes Health Permanent Tooth Development

The loss of a primary tooth has impacts on dental development that are not immediately apparent. Primary teeth help the adult teeth grow into place properly, with proper spacing and alignment resulting from their presence. Caring for primary teeth ensures that they will develop well and stay in place long enough to serve as guides for their adult teeth. Developing good dietary habits that are low in sugar is just one way parents can help children protect their teeth moving into adulthood.

Your Role In Dental Hygiene As A Parent

Good oral hygiene habits form early, forming roots in the first few years of a child’s life. Supervising your children while brushing their teeth and ensuring they do it twice a day, morning and night, will help these habits become set in stone in later years. Brushing as a family and making it a fun experience have been shown to be the most effective way of maintaining these habits past age 3. If these habits have been maintained until the child reaches six years of age, the chances of them continuing on their own into adulthood are much higher.

Children developing good oral hygiene is about more than saving their primary teeth, it’s about setting up good habits that will last a lifetime. If you want help in developing your child’s oral hygiene habits than give your dentist a call. Dr. Sam Bullard and his team help families in the Noblesville, IN area, start their kids on the dental health path that will have them sporting beautiful white smiles for their whole lives. Make a call to the clinic or stop by Smiling Kids Pediatric Dentistry for an appointment today, your children will thank you as they experience the pride of a perfect smile.