How Sugar Can Affect Your Child’s Oral Health | Sprout

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How Sugar Can Affect Your Child’s Oral Health

As a parent, you may worry about your child having a serious sweet tooth especially if they can’t seem to get enough sweet treats. Generally, children have a stronger affinity for sugary and salty foods than adults, and they don’t need to learn to like these flavors. According to recent research, children’s sweet tooth and desire for sugary foods may increase during growth spurts, when their bodies require more calories and energy. Although there’s no harm in giving your kid a treat occasionally, constant access to sugary sweets might damage their teeth and gums. Let’s dive into how sugar may damage kids’ teeth and how you can help them develop lifelong, healthy dental routines.

How Sugar Impacts Dental Health

Although it’s commonly known that overeating sugar may cause cavities, this mechanism may be unclear. There are a lot of bacteria in our mouths. Therefore, if your child doesn’t brush their teeth thoroughly after consuming something sweet, the bacteria will utilize the sugar to latch on to the tooth’s surface and feed. As these bacteria feed, they rapidly multiply, creating plaque and producing acid that gradually erodes the tooth enamel. Cavities arise when these acids bore through the tooth’s surface, creating holes. If cavities go untreated, they can progress beyond the enamel and into the deeper parts of the tooth such as the nerve resulting in pain and potential tooth loss.

Tips For Safeguarding Your Child’s Oral Health

Maintaining good dental hygiene is essential for everyone, but it’s especially critical for children because of the sugar and corn syrup they ingest in their meals and beverages, respectively. The following are some measures to safeguard your child’s teeth and smile from tooth decay and cavities if you’re concerned that their sweet tooth may put them at risk for developing cavities.

Increase Their Water Intake

Water is the healthiest beverage option for your toddler. It’s fantastic for their teeth and overall health and keeps them hydrated. Also, your child may reduce their risk of developing cavities by drinking fluoridated water after eating sugary or acidic meals.

Encourage Flossing

Plaque doesn’t pick and choose where it attacks; it builds up equally on the teeth’s surfaces and the spaces between them. Therefore, by helping your child to floss daily, you will assist them in breaking up all that plaque and removing it before it develops into cavities or possibly gum disease.

Regularly Brush Their Teeth

You can effectively eliminate plaque from your child’s teeth by encouraging them to brush twice daily for two minutes with fluoride toothpaste. An electric toothbrush can work wonders if your child is willing to use one. In addition, remember to remind your kid to clean their tongue to eliminate germs that may lead to foul breath and other dental problems.

Use Fluoride

According to the American Dental Association, fluoride is an effective and safe way to prevent and treat tooth decay. Thus, ensure your kid gets lots of fluoridated water, uses a fluoridated mouthwash nightly, and routinely brushes with fluoride toothpaste.

Set Up an Appointment

Taking your child to the dentist early improves their long-term health and happiness and also helps to catch and prevent dental issues early. Give Sprout Kids Dentistry a call today or submit an online form to schedule an appointment with Dr. Anderson.

Dr. Anderson

Dr. Michelle Anderson is a pediatric dentist board certified by the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry.

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