Preventing Tooth Decay: 9 Oral Hygiene Tips For Kids

April 02, 2018

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DISEASES AND CONDITIONS

If you take care of your teeth right, they can last a lifetime, and it’s best to start caring as soon as they start appearing. If you want to keep your child’s teeth healthy forever, then it’s imperative to establish good oral health routines right from the beginning.

Do you know that tooth decay is the primary reason behind the dental problem, which ultimately leads to tooth loss? It’s an infectious disease that is caused by bacteria. If these bacteria take hold, then it will be able to make a cavity in the enamel (the outer coating of the tooth) and afterward grow deeper into the tooth by destroying dentin layer. Now it might result in the difficulty in speaking and eating, cause discomfort and your child probably need a filling or root canal treatment. Tooth decay is also called as caries, and the good news is that it is entirely preventable.

Primary Reasons Of Tooth Decay

The major reason behind tooth decay is the increased use of foods containing carbohydrates (starches and sugars), such as cereals, bread, soda, fruits, milk, candy, or cakes that remain attached to the teeth. These foods are digested by the bacteria that live in the mouth and turns them into amino acids. The acid, bacteria, saliva and the food debris coalesce to make a plaque that sticks to the teeth. Now the acid contained by plaque will start dissolving the enamel of the teeth and ultimately make holes in the teeth known as cavities.

So, if you want to keep your teeth healthy, remove the plaque first. Plaque is whitish, sticky film that makes up on teeth if you can’t maintain proper oral hygiene. The bacteria (decay-causing) flourishes in the plaque and keeps on breaking down any sugar that remains in the mouth – and producing acids that will corrode teeth. So, this is how your child starts developing cavities. Are you looking for the effective tips or routine habits that will help your child from plaque removal and tooth decay prevention? No worries! Let’s have a look at some of the useful oral hygiene tips for kids;

Oral Hygiene Tips for Kids

1. First of all, make it a habit of brushing your child’s teeth at least two times a day with fluoride-contained toothpaste. Or ask them to brush their teeth after every meal, particularly before bedtime.
2. You can ask your children to use inter-dental cleaners with Reach Stim-U-Dent, Oral-B Inter-dental Brush or Sulcabrush or do dental floss every day.
3. Let your child rinse mouth with a fluoride-contained mouthwash. These rinses contain antiseptic ingredients that help to kill bacteria that forms plaque.
4. Limit snacks within your child’s diet and gives them nutritious and balanced meals. Decrease the intake of carbohydrates such as chips, candies, pretzels as it clings to the teeth’s surface. If your child eats such foods, ask them to brush their teeth instantly.
5. Consult your dentist about the use of supplemental fluoride as it helps to strengthen your child’s teeth.
6. You can also ask your doctor about dental sealants. It’s a protective coating that can be added to the chewing surface of the back teeth also called molars. It protects your child’s teeth from decay.
7. Give your child fluoridated water to drink. As per the doctors, a pint of fluoridated water is a must, especially for the kids to prevent tooth decay.
8. Give your child sugarless chewing gum containing the Xylitol as a sweetener. It helps to retard the growth of bacteria that causes tooth decay temporarily.
9. Take your child to the dentist regularly for oral exams and professional cleaning.

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10 Health Conditions Linked To Poor Oral Hygiene

April 02, 2018

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DISEASES AND CONDITIONS

Trips to the dentist can be a traumatic experience for many of us.

Although dentistry has moved on leaps and bounds in the last decade, it still conjures up images of a Victorian dentist armed with a big drill and no anesthetic for plenty of people. Brits are often known for having bad teeth, and it looks like we really are living up to this stereotype.

In fact, for some people this fear is so strong, they abstain from visiting the dentist completely.  Some of their phobias are so bad “they haven’t seen a dentist for years. It’s common for us to hear from someone in their twenties or thirties who hasn’t been to the dentist since childhood”.

Conditions Associated with Dental Health

The fact you get fillings as a result of not brushing your teeth should not be news to anyone, but there are far more health problems linked to poor oral hygiene than you may think. A toothache left untreated could end up having some serious implications. Here are just some of the illnesses and ailments which are directly linked to bad oral health:

• Heart Disease – numerous dentists have argued that gum disease is often a precursor to heart disease.
• Stroke Risk – as above, plaque enters the bloodstream due to gum disease and can clog arteries in the brain, leading to stroke.
• Dementia – people with dementia forget about oral health, which leads to further deterioration of health in other areas.
• Respiratory Problems – bacteria and plaque can inflame breathing airways. And let’s not forget about bad breath.
• Diabetes – Oral infections such as gingivitis and gum disease can spread much more easily among diabetics.
• Erectile Dysfunction – men with chronic periodontal disease (CPD) have damaged endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels (where it matters).
• Premature Birth – tooth and gum disease has also been linked to early childbirth, due to an increase in the production of prostaglandin, a hormone which can induce labor.
• Female Fertility – a woman with gum disease take an average of 2 months longer to fall pregnant than those without.
• Pancreatic Cancer – significant associations between the antibodies of oral bacteria and pancreatic cancer were discovered in a study by the journal Gut.
• Kidney Disease – medical research has also documented a link between periodontal disease and kidney disease, suggesting there is a connection between the two.

This list is not intended to frighten you, but to illustrate just how serious the impact of untreated tooth problems can be. A toothache alone will affect productivity, cause headaches and can affect someone’s behavior at work. As an employer, it can end up affecting your company’s productivity as a whole, and as Nigel Carter from the BDHF says, it is “an important factor in a healthy workforce”.

Dental insurance can be built into a company’s benefits scheme, and can greatly improve retention, decrease absenteeism from a toothache and keep people smiling for long. Companies such as Elect Employee Benefits offer group dental insurance as part of their complete employee benefits solution.

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