By Peter Saner, Clinical Director.
As the evenings draw in and the kids settle back into something of a school routine, we thought it might be useful to pass on some advice about making sure your children or grandchildren have healthy teeth. In the Year 6 oral health survey last year, 16% of year 6 pupils in England had experience of tooth decay. Tooth decay is caused by eating sugar, which feeds the bacteria that live in your mouth and turns into acid and eats into the tooth, allowing the bacteria to move into the tooth and continue the process of decay further. Left long enough, this will cause pain and eventually infection in the bone around the tooth. The best way to avoid decay is to reduce the frequency and amount of sugar intake. Sadly our 21st century diet is built around regular sugary meals and snacks, but it is possible to beat the system and choose to eat healthily.
The second thing to reduce the risk of decay is to brush your teeth and your children’s teeth with a fluoride toothpaste at least a couple of times a day. Most toothpaste contains fluoride, so just check the label when you are buying it. You don’t need anything special, as long as you are using it. People often ask if an electric toothbrush is worth it for children, and it can help, but the risk is that they just enjoy the noise and waving it somewhere near the teeth. Whatever brush you have, it needs to be used on every tooth and every surface of every tooth, which takes time and skill. As they say – “Brush the ones you want to keep”. Let your child have a go, but until they have the skill to write with joined up writing go over the brushing for them.
The third thing is to get your children’s teeth checked regularly. Access to dental care has become very difficult in recent years for all sorts of reasons, the politics of which I won’t get into, but we need as parents to invest in our children’s health and get them used to regular dental visits. At Ferring Dental Practice, we have a Children’s Membership which is just £6.63/month and includes all check-ups, x-rays and preventive treatments. In addition, as a benefit for our Adult Subscription Members, we don’t charge for their children’s check-ups. If going to the dentist has been something you thought you’d get round to sometime, and it’s been niggling you that you haven’t yet got round to it, please give us a call on 01903 246858 and book in. Maybe get the whole family back on track and avoid being one of those suddenly suffering in pain because they didn’t know what was going on. If you’re worried, we won’t tell you off, we’ll just be glad to help.
Half term is coming up soon. Why not sort it out now, for then.