As a mom and a dentist, I have come to realize that taking care of our little’s teeth is harder than ever before. These new easy snacks and juice options are so prevalent that it’s difficult to reign in a schedule that will keep everyone fed and happy… without leaving sugary snacks all over their teeth. 

I’d like to preface this by saying, managing mom life and all of our kiddos needs is tough! One bad “dental” day is not going to make or break their overall health. It’s about doing your best and trying to build good habits early on! This post is to help educate you on ways to help manage oral bacteria and keep your child’s teeth strong and healthy! 

1. Water. Whatever your child is drinking, dilute it with water. Water alone is the best option for between mealtimes. Keeping your child hydrated will keep healthy saliva flow and also rinse your child’s teeth through the day.

2. Sugar. Bad oral bacteria that lives in our mouth thrive on sugar. It’s super hard to avoid completely, but try to minimize the grazing on sugary foods. A great grazing snack would be something like carrots or nuts, if your child doesn’t like those things then cheese and fruits are a good options too. Natural sugars are far easier for your saliva to take care of than other sugars. Poor choices are raisins, crackers, cookies and fruit snacks.

3. Timing. Set meals are better than snacking all day. Everything we eat, our oral bacteria also eats, which causes an acid attack. Constant acid attacks in our mouth all day is super hard on our teeth. If you can condense the number of meals, that also condenses the number of attacks. Simply limiting juices/milk to mealtimes only will significantly reduce the acid attacks. The second suggestion is to brush after breakfast and before bed to remove built up bacteria and extra food particles. 

4. Brushing. Children should begin brushing as soon as they get teeth. They should also have their first dental visit at age 1. Everything besides water can cause tooth decay (this includes breastmilk). I suggest using an extra soft kids toothbrush or washcloth with a tiny (2 grains of rice size) bit of kids fluoridated toothpaste to clean your child’s teeth twice a day, minimum once a day. Most days/nights, my kids put up a fight. I promise, all those fights are worth saving yourself and your littles from tooth decay. 

Why do we care so much about baby teeth? Really, we don’t. We care about our kids and their well being. Infections on baby teeth can spread and cause problems for their adult teeth. Dental issues in children, if unattended can lead to large systemic infections. Treating cavities in children is difficult and often requires general sedation. Sedation for dental procedures is safe and is common, but I promise that every parents wishes that they would have been more diligent to avoid dental surgery. 

All things considered, we all do the best we can. If you can’t do as well as you would like, you can always bring your child into the dentist for help!

Whitney B. March 2022