The importance of optimal oral health in childhood

The importance of children’s oral health and good dental care begins at the start of your child’s life. Tooth decay in a baby’s teeth can impact their eating, nutrition, and jaw and speech development. A child with dental caries may also become anxious when visiting the dentist.

Like achieving success in most areas of life, oral health depends on developing the proper habits.

If your child has poor oral health habits from a young age, it can have lasting effects. Dental health impacts everything from eating, diet, and nutrition to school performance, productivity, sleep quality, self-image, social interactions, and overall quality of life.

If you teach your child healthy dental habits early on, these habits will likely last throughout their lives.

Children’s oral health is not just about their present; it also affects their future. It impacts their development and can have long-term effects on their overall health. This underscores the urgency of ensuring optimal pediatric oral health.

Three crucial habits for children’s oral health care

Children’s dental health habits, like a proper diet and regular exercise, begin forming early. Just as a healthy diet and exercise habits can prevent a lifetime of obesity and its medical complications, instilling healthy oral hygiene habits in your child can significantly reduce the need for complex dental treatments later in life. 

Here are the three essential oral hygiene habits to help your child have healthy teeth and gums:

1. Toothbrushing

Brushing twice a day with fluoridated toothpaste is foundational to oral health. Here are the critical aspects of toothbrushing:

• Use the proper technique depending on the age. 

Before age 3, parents play a crucial role in brushing their children’s teeth. To stay within the optimal total daily intake of fluoride, specialists* advise to apply a grain-of-rice-sized amount of toothpaste on the toothbrush until the age of 2. Ask your dentist or hygienist for guidance. 

*Recommendations by the American Dental Association, MouthHealthy

Between ages 3-6, children should use a circular motion technique. Use a pea-sized amount of toothpaste for supervised brushing to minimize swallowing. Please consult a dentist or doctor if you need fluoride from other sources or need further guidance.

* Recommendations by the American Dental Association, MouthHealthy

After age 6, children should use the Bass brushing technique. Watch our video here.

• Choose a toothbrush suited to your child’s age. Different head sizes fit a child’s mouth at each development stage. Look for a toothbrush with soft bristles for gentle care of teeth and gums.

• Select effective toothpaste. Choose a fluoride toothpaste with an adapted concentration of fluoride, depending on your child's age.

• Make brushing fun and effective. Help your child brush for 2 minutes with our flashing GUM® Crayola™ Kids' Timer Light Toothbrush. This creates a fun atmosphere conducive to effective brushing with an appropriate duration of 2 minutes.

2. Interdental cleaning

There may be no need to clean between the teeth if a child’s “milk teeth” have spaces between them. However, once the teeth begin to touch around age 2, and as children grow older and become more dexterous, you can show your child how to floss and clean between their teeth—provided your dentist has demonstrated this to you first.

3. Regular dental check-ups

Nobody brushes and flosses perfectly. Children need to know this and learn the value of a yearly (at least) professional teeth cleaning and check-up. Consider taking your child with you when you visit the dentist to familiarize them with the dental office environment.

Your child’s pivotal stages

Your baby is born with no visible teeth, but all twenty of them lie beneath the gums. You might think of delaying oral health care until some teeth appear, but your habit of caring for your child’s teeth begins at birth. As your child goes through these various stages, you start helping them develop the habits and skills to care for their teeth and gums. It’s necessary to be aware that the recommended fluoride levels do periodically change and differ according to age.

Oral hygiene for babies (0-2 years old)

It is important to begin cleaning a baby’s gums after feeding with a gauze pad to establish a habit of cleaning the mouth after eating. When the first tooth starts erupting around six months, brush with a toothbrush. As they erupt, baby teeth have tiny pits and grooves that are exposed to the oral environment before eruption. It is vital to prevent caries by keeping these clean as the teeth erupt. A specially designed toothbrush for babies can help you achieve this.

Your child’s first dental visit should be, at the latest, when they are one year old, within six months after the eruption of the first tooth at six months.

Oral hygiene for kids (3-6 years old)

Now is the time to begin teaching the circular brushing technique while you continue assisting them to ensure their habit forms correctly. Remember to make this a fun time. Our GUM® Crayola™ Kids' Marker Toothbrush is ideal for this stage. Using a pea-sized dab of toothpaste adapted to this age group is enough, as they may still swallow the toothpaste if they cannot spit it out.

Parents can also start telling their children about the risks of certain foods (sugary drinks, candy, etc.) to raise awareness.

Oral hygiene for juniors (6+ years old)

At six years of age, your child should brush their teeth using the Bass technique under your supervision as they acquire more refined motor skills. By this age, your child should have established excellent oral hygiene habits and be monitored more closely by the dentist as the first adult teeth erupt. Our easy-to-use solutions can help your child maintain a lifetime of healthy teeth and gums.

Take charge of your child’s oral health

It is self-evident that health is a fundamental human right. Everyone also has a right to dental health from birth, especially considering the mounting evidence of the relationship between oral health and general health. When you take charge of your child’s health by helping them establish healthy habits, you impact more than just their smile; you affect their overall health into adulthood.

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