The importance of pediatric dental care

When it comes to the health of your child's primary dentition, there is no better time to start good oral hygiene practices than now. Pediatric dentistry ensures that your child's first teeth remain healthy and free from decay and other dental conditions.

Introduction to good oral hygiene for children

Good oral hygiene begins as early as childhood. If you are breastfeeding or using bottle feeding to feed your child, you should incorporate some type of dental hygiene regime as soon as possible. Before the teeth are born, wipe gums with gauze or a soft moist handkerchief. As soon as the teeth begin to rise, keep them clean. Using the right tools is essential to the daily routine. For example, it is important to get a child-specific toothbrush, with the smallest head to their mouth.

If you have not done any of these yet, take your child to your first dentist appointment as soon as he or she completes one or two years. Your pediatric dentist will keep your child's teeth healthy by removing plaque buildup and leftover food that may be trapped in your teeth. This is an important part of dental care as it prevents bacteria from growing and may eventually lead to other diseases (for example, dental caries or inflammation of the gum tissue). Make regular dental consultations a fun affair that always provides some kind of reward.

Professional Care Tips

The professional pediatric dentist will provide good tips on how to care for your child's teeth at home. Suggestions generally include the correct way to floss and brush your child's teeth and additional information based on the specific condition of your child's teeth.

Other topics typically covered are your child's eating habits and what parents should do to help protect your child's teeth and gums. As a general precaution, parents should stay away from foods rich in sugar and starch. In addition, a child should never sleep while breast or with juice or milk in the bottle.

Your child's first teeth are important. The stages of development that are critical to your child's future oral health depend on them. Children's Dentistry provides parents with a guide to oral care so they have excellent dental hygiene as they mature. To learn more about pediatric dental care visit the Colgate Oral Health Information Center.

Ensure pregnancy and healthy sex with these exams

When a couple decide initiate sex or intend to have children, maximum health care is essential. Partners need to avoid habits that impair fertility - in the case of the desire for a pregnancy - such as smoking, alcoholism, drugs, stress and excessive pollution. The adoption of new habits is also necessary, such as cultivating good eating habits, exercising and controlling BMI, all with medical follow-up.

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Drop this pacifier! Saliva harbor caries-causing bacteria, says ADA response to pacifier study

Stop there, says the American Dental Association Licking a pacifier can transmit the caries-causing bacteria from parents to their children - increasing the likelihood of dental caries when children grow up. The ADA published a statement May 6 in response to a study on the immunological benefits of adult saliva recently published in Pediatrics, a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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