Children also have their share of oral care checklists like the grownups. Dental hygiene and oral health care starts at infancy, and as they grow we should help them learn how to properly brush their teeth and take care of their oral health. We should know by now that children and babies are not immune to oral health problems. If we take a look at many studies, we can see that one of the most common ailments of children is tooth decay or cavities.
Proper dental hygiene and oral care would mean encouraging healthy eating habits, brushing and flossing, and making an appointment with a pediatric dentist. These three should be part of a parent’s checklist regarding a child’s health and wellness. Babies and kids usually like to eat anything and stick anything into their mouths. Until the time comes when they can brush their teeth on their own and learn how to take care of their health, it is the job of the parents, with the help of pediatric dentists, to guide the children with the correct practices and habits.
What we eat affects our teeth, and the same goes for the children. Tooth decay, for example, is mainly caused by the food we take in. Those with sugar and starch, like sweets and cakes, are the big culprits of this dental ailment. We should encourage our children to minimize their intake of food like these. It is inevitable for kids to like sweets and other damaging food, however, and so enforcing proper brushing and flossing after eating is important.
With a baby that doesn’t have any teeth yet, all we need to do is wipe the mouth gently to clean it. When you child grows teeth, there’s brushing and flossing to take care of. Make sure that your child brushes his or her teeth for more than two minutes, and the brush used is personally his or her own. Sharing of a toothbrush is not recommended. As for flossing, this is especially helpful for children with broken or jagged teeth. For the young ones that can’t do all the flossing on their own yet, the parents can floss the back part of their teeth while the children is learning how to floss the front.
A trip to the pediatric dentist is also heavily recommended. There may be many things you are uncertain about as to how to take care of your child’s oral health, and the dentist is the right person to ask. Even a mere dental consultation can be very significant to your child’s oral hygiene. There may also be serious dental attention that your children needs. For example, there are some babies that are born with neonatal teeth, and this will require certain dental hygiene or a removal. The pediatric dentist can also help you if you have problems with your child in his or her teething stage.
After our children have learned how to brush and take care of their teeth and mouth on their own, all we need to do is check if they are keeping up with the oral care practices everyday. It is important that dental hygiene and oral health care become a daily habit for our children.
Most national governments, especially those is least developed countries, place a low priority in promoting preventive measures for oral health. That’s probably because oral health is not exactly life threatening and that teeth are seen as expendable. Most dentists are not exactly keen to be involved in advocacy efforts that promote good oral health. Many actually prefer to treat patients than promote preventive measures. Yet, according to Dental Arlington dentists, tooth decay is one of the most prevalent health problems globally. They said that a recent report showed that some 90 percent of the global population has had dental problems or tooth decay, and that five to 15 percent of most populations are suffering from periodontitis. In Southeast Asia, for instance, oral cancer is the most common form of cancer among men (largely due to smoking). Oral cancer is listed as the eighth most common form of cancer worldwide.
A dentist in Arlington said that the disparity between wealthier countries and poor ones can be seen on the dental healthcare workforce, which is spread unevenly throughout the globe. In countries like the United Kingdom and Germany, for instance, there is a dentist for every 1,000 people. This figure can go as high as one for every 50,000 people in low income and middle income nations. But in regions like Africa, the figure is pegged at one dentist for every million. Dentists are most often needed in rural areas, especially in poor countries. But since this is not exactly a practical solution to address oral health problems in least developed countries, prevention has become the best strategy so far.
Dentists in Arlington, some of whom have taken part in promoting preventive measures to promote oral health in least developed countries, said that the most cost-effective approach to prevent tooth decay in rural areas is the daily use of fluoride toothpaste. “It’s the best approach for governments that aim to improve the oral health of the populace,” said one of the dentists. “But that depends on the infrastructure of the country and the political will of the government.”
A Dentistry Arlington dentist said that while fluoride toothpastes might come across as the most cost-effective, it can also be prohibitive because some governments impose as much as 50 percent for tariffs on toothpastes. “These governments should take a look at their oral care programs and cut those taxes on fluoride toothpaste, if not eliminate them, because it limits the ability of manufacturers to lower costs. If this happens, the populace, especially the poor ones, won’t be able to afford fluoride toothpastes,” said the DDS in Arlington. He cited a study done on the Philippines which showed that a government program that has been implemented to promote daily hand wash with soap and subsidized fluoride toothpaste has become effective in terms of improving the oral health of children in the Philippines. Promoting good oral health could also help countries achieve their child-related development goals. That’s because a child who has tooth decay can affect his or her ability to eat, sleep and do school work. It could also contribute to problems related to nutrition
Smoking is associated with a very wide range of health problems ranging from lung cancer to delayed wound healing. Plenty of anti-smoking campaigns highlight the harmful affects of smoking and work hard to encourage people to give up smoking.
We all know smoking effects not only the smokers but the people around them due to passive smoking. Hence, plenty of non-profit organizations and government funded campaigns have cropped up which aim to get people to give up smoking by highlighting the harmful effects of smoking on general health.
What these campaigns tend to ignore is the effect of smoking on dental health. Neither there exists any campaign nor any awareness in the general public on the harmful effects of smoking on dental health. Cigarette smoke is as good as poison to the oral cavity.
Let us discuss the harmful effects of cigarette smoke on dental health.
Nicotine and Tar are two major components of cigarette smoke. These chemicals have a tendency to stick to the teeth as residue. This heavy residue is responsible for discoloration of the teeth. The discoloration can range from yellowish to dark brown. When a cigarette is being smoked, not all the smoke is being expelled out. Some of the components remain in lungs and some in the oral cavity. Nicotine and Tar are heavy and get settled on the teeth as dark residue. This discoloration is not easily removable. Vigorous brushing can not help the cause either. However, brushing with the tooth whitening pastes in the market tends to lighten the dark stains.
Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer but we can’t ignore the fact that over 90% of oral cancer patients are also smokers. This can be attributed to the carcinogenic capacity of cigarette smoke. A study published in the Journal of Periodontology also proves direct correlation between the number of cigarettes and incidence of oral cancer. People who smoked less than a half a pack a day were three times more likely to get oral cancer and people who smoked more than one and half packs each day were six times more likely. Cigarette smoke contains many carcinogens (cancer causing agents).These irritate the oral cavity and initiates cancer formation.
Smoking also hampers wound healing and hence is responsible for failure of many dental procedures. The success of many oral surgeries is affected to the delayed wound healing caused by smoking as smoking hinders the body’s defense mechanism.
Recent studies have pointed an increased success of dental implants in non-smokers than in smokers.
A very obvious and annoying effect of smoking is bad breath. The contents of the cigarette smoke cause a typical bad breath known as smokers breath. It also causes Halitosis which is the common bad breath. This is because cigarette smoke causes drying of the mouth and hence reduced salivation. Saliva is an effective anti-microbial agent which fights bad breath. Reduction of salivation causes the bad breath causing bacteria to thrive.
Smoking is held responsible as a causative agent for many cases of advanced Periodontitis.
With so many harmful effects of smoking on oral health, it is best to call it quits today.
Oral hygiene is very important in children as poor oral hygiene may lead to poor health and other kind of dental diseases. The cavities and gum diseases not only affect the physical appearance of a person, but also lead to serious health problems such as insomnia, stroke and even hearing defects. It has been found from the studies that the poor oral care can contribute to the clogging of the arteries, problem of the lungs and even can damage the heart valves. This might be seen when an expectant woman having gum disease, makes a pre-mature deliver or the baby is very much in weight etc. Hence, it is very necessary to start a regular and good dental regime at the early age during childhood to avoid health problems and diseases at a later stage. For taking proper care of the teeth the child should be taught how to brush, clean and floss the teeth properly.
Ways to keep the child’s oral health in pink:
To keep the oral health at its prime, the child should follow all the fundamental steps recommended by almost all the dentists. This avoids the incidence of dental problems like gingivitis, halitosis, tartar and gum diseases. Apart from proper brushing, the other hygienic methods like the right method of flossing and using the mouthwash have to be taught. The American Dental Association even advises the parents of a new born to start cleaning their newborn child’s mouth within few days after birth. It is very important for the clarity of speech and chewing action in the kids.
Parents of young children schedule regular oral health checkups around the first birthday of the kid. A pediatric dentist should be ideal choice for children. The baby’s gums and teeth can be wiped with a wet washcloth after each meal to help removing plaque that gets accumulated on the gums and teeth. Soft bristle toothbrushes with pea sized fluoridated toothpaste can be used to brush the teeth. Also the children should be taught to spit the toothpaste at a very early age and until then the children should use toothpaste without fluorine. Till the kids are good and comfortable doing flossing and brushing, the parents should assist the children.
The children should be fed with calcium rich foods and supplements along with a good oral hygiene to maintain good oral health of children.
The children can be encouraged to brush by changing the color and appearance of toothpastes. Most of the children do like to brush with a fluoride toothpaste but they should be able to spit after brushing. Also, the children need to brush twice a day. Eating snacks made of sugar and carbohydrates needs to be avoided if not at least the teeth should be brushed properly after eating them. It is a good idea to eat nutrition rich food like vegetable, fruits etc instead of sugar candies as they both provide the required nutrition and also strengthens the teeth due to the chewing action.
