One of the best habits for keeping good hygiene is brushing your teeth. There are many reasons why you should brush your teeth and why, not brushing, can be harmful. As a parent, it is important to get your kids on the right track early on.
As soon as your child’s adult teeth (Permanent teeth) come in, their brushing habits become necessary for the long-term health of their teeth. Here are a few tips for managing your teen’s dental habits.
Understand What is Necessary
The first step to getting your teen to develop good dental habits is to understand them yourself. There are lots of adults out there who think they have good dental habits but are actually lacking.
If you don’t know what good dental habits are, you won’t be able to help your teens learn them. A little research can show you exactly which dental habits are healthy and which are not.
Good Dental Habits
Since learning good habits is the first step to helping your teen, here is a short list containing a few healthy habits that many have failed to learn.
⇝ Floss regularly. Brushing won’t get everything out of your teeth.
⇝ Don’t brush immediately after a meal. Some foods contain ingredients that can harm your teeth.
⇝ Replace your toothbrush on occasion. Old toothbrushes aren’t as effective.
⇝ Don’t brush too hard.
⇝ Brush twice a day.
Implement Teeth Brushing Early
Some parents think that they can wait until adult teeth have come in before fully teaching their children to brush. While their baby teeth aren’t permanent, the ideas that they learn are. You need to teach and tell your kids to brush their teeth when they are very young. Get them used to the process so that it will become familiar and normal for them to do. In the end, they will have better dental hygiene habits.
Warn them about the consequences of not brushing
One of the best ways to get your teen to have good dental hygiene is to warn them about what can happen if they don’t have good habits. You don’t want to scare them, you just want to prove to them that it is necessary.
Dental health tips for teens
Dental decay is the most common chronic disease in young people between the ages of 5 and 17, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Follow these tips to stop cavities before they start.
Play it safe Contact sports can cause oral injuries, but teens can prevent injuries by wearing a mouthguard while playing sports. A mouthguard should be custom-fitted by a dentist and teens should keep it clean by rinsing it often and storing it in a ventilated container.
Avoid oral piercings People with tongue or other mouth piercings can easily chip their teeth while eating, sleeping, talking and chewing. The fracture can be confined to tooth enamel and require a filling, or it may go deeper, which can lead to a root canal or tooth extraction.
Infections are also common with oral piercings. The tongue can swell after being punctured, and in some cases can become infected and swell to such a degree that it interferes with breathing. Unclean piercing equipment can cause other infections, such as blood-borne hepatitis.
Make time for healthy habits Teens eat quick meals in the form of "nutrition" bars and fast food to stay alert and on schedule between school, extracurricular activities and part-time jobs. However, these habits can permanently damage oral and overall health. Teens should have access to healthy snacks such as apples, carrot sticks and cheese and should seek low or no-sugar drinks. Keeping a travel-size toothbrush in a locker or backpack can help teens keep up good teeth-cleaning habits by brushing after meals and snacks.
Just like adults, teens should visit their dentist at least twice a year. Regular dental visits and cleanings not only help keep teeth bright and shiny (a boost to any teens self-esteem), they can also help catch minor problems before they become worse.
