Three Ways To Protect Your Child's Oral Hygiene While They're At School
Posted on: 30 January 2019
What starts out as simple food debris and bacteria can quickly become a much bigger problem without good oral hygiene. During the many hours your child is away from home at school, the bacteria between their teeth and under the gums can proliferate freely, increasing your child's risk of cavities, gum disease, and bad breath. If you want to do what you can to keep their oral hygiene in good shape while they're away from their house and toothbrush, here are three ways to go about it.
Start in the Morning
If your child isn't already brushing their teeth both at night and in the morning, you should start at home.
Brushing in the morning washes away bacteria that's grown overnight. It also removes plaque before it can turn into tartar. Without this step, these primed ingredients will greedily latch on to whatever your child eats for breakfast and lunch. By the time they get home and brush their teeth at night, there could already be well-developed tartar without a morning brushing, too. Make sure your child never leaves for school without cleaning their teeth first.
Avoid Sugar
If you're not packing a lunch for your child yet, it's a good idea to consider doing so. Even if you don't make it yourself and buy pre-made lunch items instead, you can still control what ingredients your child is coming into contact with at lunch.
Obviously, sugar is a big problem for oral hygiene and one that children are getting far too much of on average. Avoid putting sugary snacks and drinks into your child's lunch. If your child wants a sweet drink, try switching to a low-sugar or no-sugar variety that utilizes artificial sweeteners instead. This will prevent the bacteria in your child's mouth from using the sugar as fuel and creating more plaque.
Add Cheese
Lastly, if your child isn't lactose intolerant, make sure to include cheese in their school lunch.
Believe it or not, cheese has been shown to have a beneficial effect on oral hygiene. It changes the pH balance of the mouth and slows down the progression of plaque and bacteria, making it a great mid-day snack for your child to enjoy. Adding cheese to their sandwich or including a small cheese stick will provide your child with oral health benefits that they otherwise couldn't get without coming home and brushing their teeth after lunch.
No child wants to experience cavities, so make sure that you follow these tips and bring your child in for regular teeth cleanings with a dentist like John S. Lyon DDS. With these tools in hand, your child's risk of cavities and gum disease will go down, and they'll be less likely to get bad news during their next examination.
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