Oral hygiene for children

Your friendly Dentist Epping team at Rawson Dental would love to talk with you about your children’s oral hygiene.

If you realise that you haven’t been actively caring for your toddler’s teeth, it’s not too late to start! Of course, the earlier you start the better – but after a while is definitely better than any time later than that.

But what does oral hygiene for children involve?

There are five elements to it: brushing, flossing, healthy eating, drinking fluoridated tap water and visiting your Dentist Epping team at Rawson Dental.

Children need to brush their teeth twice a day using a soft brush and a pea-sized blob of a fluoride toothpaste. They shouldn’t swallow the toothpaste, so if your child is too young to manage spitting it out, use a child-toothpaste instead. Brushing should take two minutes – perhaps your child can wind up an egg timer for this? You’ll probably need to help them with this brushing until your child is seven or eight, as it’s a bit tricky.

They’ll also need to floss at least once a day and you’ll especially need to help with this probably till they are about ten, as this is very tricky.

Of course, eating healthy foods helps too – including plenty of fresh vegetables, whole fresh fruit, meat and cheese and a minimum of sugar-dense foods such as sweet biscuits and muesli bars.

Drinking plenty of fluoridated tap water is a must for healthy strong decay-resistant teeth! That way your children will be well hydrated without having their teeth bathed in sugary liquids or missing out on regular small amounts of extra fluoride.

Visiting your Dentist Epping team at Rawson Dental for six monthly dental visits gives you added insurance that your child’s teeth are in tip-top shape. We can check that everything in your child’s mouth is going to plan and give you on-the-spot dental advice. If your child’s teeth do harbour any tooth decay despite your best efforts, we can deal with that as soon as possible to minimise its effect.

So these five things are what you do to ensure your children’s teeth are in the best possible shape to last them their life-time!