With the summer holidays over for yet another year, parents up and down the country have been preparing to get their children ready for going back to school. Having to prepare school uniforms, shoes, sports kits, school bags, stationary and many more essentials can be overwhelming for many, so much so that one of the really important measures could easily get overlooked.
In the morning school rush, many children might not spend enough time brushing their teeth. If this is the case, it can soon lead to poor oral health and dental decay – the most common childhood disease! The good news is that this is completely preventable. So just follow some of the back to school tips and make sure you send your child off to school smiling!
Dental HelplineTop Tips
- Teaching your children good habits early on will help them throughout their childhood and into their adult years. Get it right and you could save hundreds of pounds on unnecessary dental treatment in the future.
- Let your child choose their own toothbrush. Make it has small-to-medium-sized brush with soft to medium bristles and don’t forget to replace it when the bristles are worn and splayed.
- Children are often particular about flavours of food that theyeat, and the flavour of toothpaste is no different. Find one they like and stick to it, they will be less likely to oppose brushing.
- Make sure they brush their teeth for two minutes twice a day with fluoride toothpaste. It is a good idea to monitor them until you are confident they can be trusted to brush for the full two minutes unsupervised, usually until the age of around 7.
- Pack a nutritious lunch & snack for school. Breadsticks, vegetables, and cheese are great choices as they are good for teeth because they help neutralise acids. Try to stay clear of fruit juices and fizzy drinks because they are very acidic and erode tooth enamel.
- Get them to use a straw when drinking as this helps the acid to go to the back of the child’s mouth and reduces the number of acid attacks on their teeth.
- It’s unlikely that kids can brush their teeth after lunch. But a quick trip to the water fountain to rinse their mouths is almost as good! Teenagers can also chew sugar-free gum after eating to help make more saliva and neutralise the acids which form in their mouth after eating.
The final point to make here, and one of the most important, is to ensure that a dental check-up for your child is on the horizon, as regular checkups, at least one a year, will make sure their smiles are healthy an bright.
Until next time,
Oral Health Foundation
The Oral Health Foundation is a charity that works to improve oral health by providing education, advice, and support to millions of people every year, changing lives for the better. Our mission is to support others in achieving a healthier life through better oral health. Our vision is to live in a world where everybody has a healthy mouth and is free of dental disease. Poor oral health can have a harmful and devastating effect on a person’s life – both for their physical health and mental wellbeing. We are determined to help more people achieve good oral health and have a better quality of life. Sadly, oral disease remains common, across the life course. We are taking the challenge to reduce the harm caused by poor oral health and the responsibility to create a healthier future for everybody. We do this because we believe that everybody deserves to have good oral health. To make sure this happens, by 2024, we will:
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• Work towards decreasing the prevalence of oral disease across communities.
• Increase the number of people accessing our help and information services.
• Diversify our range of resources to reach more communities.
• Successfully campaign for policies which help people achieve healthier lives.
• Generate new and nurture existing income streams that enable us to deliver our charitable objectives.
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• Running awareness campaigns like National Smile Month and Mouth Cancer Action Month.
• Giving anybody who needs it direct support through our Dental Helpline.
• Influencing policy on subjects like dental access, sugar, and tobacco.
• Providing consumer advice on oral health care products and working alongside manufacturers to make sure products do what they claim to do.
• Creating resources and information that communicates positive oral health messages.
• Working alongside others who share our passion for health and wellbeing.
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