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Are you ready to make your child’s oral health a priority this year? There’s no better time than the new year to make new or renewed commitments to helping your child maintain their beautiful smile for life.
By creating realistic goals you can do together as a family, you can keep your child’s pearly whites healthy and looking great for years to come. Pediatric dentists Staci Brunell, DMD, and Priyanka Patel, DMD, and orthodontist Gina Gill, DMD, at Yorktown Pediatric Dentistry in Yorktown Heights, New York, recommend starting with these 3 New Year’s resolutions to support your child’s dental health.
Maintaining your child’s beautiful and cavity-free smile starts with regular care at home. This year, commit to doing your child’s oral health routine every single day.
Your child always needs to make dental care a priority, even when you’re on vacation, your family is busy, or your child is tired. Your child’s oral care routine typically needs to include:
Make sure your child isn’t just brushing and flossing, but is doing so in a way that most effectively removes plaque. Our team can help make sure your child is brushing correctly.
Set a good example by maintaining the same dental routine and your child, and brushing and flossing every day as a family. You can make this task more fun by tracking your child’s progress and rewarding them for sticking to the routine.
Eating sugary, sticky, and starchy foods regularly makes good tooth care an uphill battle. These kinds of foods tend to stick to and between your child’s teeth and gums for a long time and are harder to get off teeth than healthy foods.
Instead, make healthy, tooth-friendly meals together as a family, and keep snacks around that are delicious and less likely to cause cavities. Great foods for your child’s teeth include:
In addition to eating foods great for your child’s teeth, you can commit to good food habits. For example, to give your child’s teeth time to recover between meals, make food available at set times rather than throughout the day.
Instead, encourage your child to chew sugar-free gum or drink water or low-fat milk between meals. These practices help your child keep producing enough saliva when they’re not eating.
Your child can, of course, enjoy an occasional sweet or sugary drink. Have your child enjoy these special treats as part of a meal or right after a meal to minimize potential harm to their teeth.
Even the best home dental routine can’t remove 100% of plaque. There are specific issues only regular professional cleanings can address.
To keep your child’s teeth in their best shape and keep cavities away, they need to attend dental cleanings every six months. Making these appointments a priority helps your child’s oral and overall health.
In addition, your child can benefit from other preventive dental care. Our team can advise you if your child is a good candidate for sealants or orthodontics, like braces.
Setting New Year’s oral care resolutions is a fun and effective way to get your child involved in their dental health. Contact us to schedule your child’s dental appointments this year.
