Tips to Ensure your Child’s Dental Health is Excellent
10th February 2016
- Brush twice a day for:
- 2 minutes for 6yrs+ (supervise twice a week)
- 1 minute for 5yrs and under (supervise every night)
- Use the correct toothpaste for the age of the child unless instructed otherwise by your dental health adviser.
- Keep fizzy drinks and sweet drinks down to a minimum. Only at weekends and during meal times.
- Fruit juices should always be diluted 50-50% with water. That goes for adults too!
- Keep sugary food, sweets, cakes, biscuits etc to a minimum. After a meal is fine but not as a snack in between meals.
- Brushing with an electric brush is different and more effective than using a manual one. Please ask your dentist to demonstrate how to brush properly.
- At night when brushing you should not rinse out with water after brushing! Spit the excess toothpaste out and leave a coating of the toothpaste in the mouth to protect the teeth for longer. If you prefer to rinse then use a mouth rinse.
- Brush before breakfast! Also after if need be. For example If you have ever brushed after eating cornflakes and then checked your teeth in the mirror then we all see that the cornflakes are still present on the top of the teeth. If you have not brushed before breakfast then the tooth under the flakes has millions of bacteria on them which have accumulated during the night. These bacteria are now feeding on the cornflakes and damaging the tooth enamel. This is made worse if the breakfast is sugary! E.gFrosties, Jam on toast, sugar in tea and coffee etc…
- A lot of sweets and drinks these days have ‘E numbers’ in. This has a profound effect on some children’s sleep patterns. i.e. they will wake a lot and not sleep well if ‘E numbers’ are consumed during the day.