Table of contents:
- How can cavities occur?
- How to prevent cavities?
- 1. Be diligent in brushing your teeth regularly
- Tooth brushing rules for children
- 2. Pay attention to the food that the child eats
- 3. Checking children's teeth to the dentist regularly
Children really like sweet foods, such as candy, cotton candy, ice cream, milk, and so on. However, sometimes children forget to brush their teeth after eating sweet foods. This triggers the growth of bacteria on the teeth and the child's teeth become cavities. These little things are sometimes forgotten by children and parents, only then realized after a child's tooth has a cavity. Come on, take a look at your child's teeth.
How can cavities occur?
Normally the tooth surface is covered with dental plaque. The bacteria in dental plaque will metabolize sugar from food and produce acids. Please note, sugar is food from bacteria. This acid will then erode the minerals from the tooth surface or commonly known as enamel.
On the other hand, saliva or saliva which consists of calcium and phosphate will reduce the acid attacking the teeth by neutralizing it and preventing it from removing minerals from the teeth. However, saliva takes quite a while to do this.
If your child is constantly eating and drinking, especially those containing sugar, the saliva will not have enough time to do its work. The cycle of bacteria producing acid and then saliva helping to reduce acid will continue. Because too much acid is produced, the saliva doesn't have enough energy to fight it and eventually the minerals on the tooth surface will be eroded. White spots on the teeth will then appear, indicating that the mineral has been lost. This is the first sign of cavities.
The progress towards cavities can be stopped at this point. Tooth surfaces can repair themselves by using minerals from saliva and fluoride from toothpaste. However, if the lost minerals are still irreplaceable, the process for cavities will continue. Over time, the tooth surface will weaken and crumble, forming a hole.
How to prevent cavities?
Cavities occur due to the loss of minerals in the teeth caused by bacteria. These bacteria produce acids that will erode the surface of the teeth. In fact, the saliva in our mouths is working hard to protect our teeth from bacteria and acids. However, because we eat a lot of food, saliva needs help to do its work.
To help saliva prevent cavities, you should teach your child to:
1. Be diligent in brushing your teeth regularly
Brushing your teeth regularly with toothpaste that contains fluoride is important to prevent cavities. Fluoride can prevent cavities by preventing the loss of minerals from the tooth surface, replacing minerals lost on teeth, reducing the ability of bacteria to produce acid.
Brushing your teeth should be done twice a day, namely after breakfast and before bed. When you sleep, you produce very little saliva, so brushing your teeth before bed helps your teeth to repair itself from acids.
Tooth brushing rules for children
When children brush their teeth, you should pay attention to:
- There is no need to add toothpaste for children under 2 years of age when brushing teeth, water alone is sufficient to brush a child's teeth at this age. For children aged 2-6 years, you should give toothpaste on a child's toothbrush. Give it only the size of a peanut, not too much because it will also damage the child's teeth.
- Teach children to throw away their toothpaste after brushing their teeth and not to be swallowed by children. The high fluoride content in children's toothpaste if ingested by children will cause fluorosis. Children under 6 years of age usually tend to swallow toothpaste when brushing their teeth, especially when the sweet and fruit-like taste of a toothbrush makes them want to swallow it.
- If your child is not yet able to brush their own teeth, you should help brush their teeth. Try to help your child brush their teeth at the beginning of brushing their teeth and let them continue it alone.
2. Pay attention to the food that the child eats
Food greatly affects children's dental health. Foods and drinks that contain sugar trigger bacteria to produce acids from the sugar. This acid then erodes the minerals on the tooth surface. Although saliva can fight acid, but if too much acid is produced by bacteria, saliva is unable to cope with it.
Therefore, you need to pay attention to what foods and drinks your child eats and how often they eat and drink sweet things. One thing that is often overlooked is whether children brush their teeth after eating or drinking sweet, this is very important to do to prevent cavities, especially if your child likes sweet things. Make sure the child does not eat again after brushing their teeth before going to bed.
Some sweet foods and drinks that should be limited for consumption by children are:
- Chocolate
- Cake and biscuits
- Sweet cakes and fruit pies
- Pudding
- Cereals
- Jam
- Honey
- Ice cream
- Syrup
- Soft drinks, such as soft drinks and bottled tea drinks
It's a good idea to give your child time to enjoy these sweet snacks, between main meals. This is useful for reducing the child's habit of eating sweet foods continuously and also to give time for saliva to repair teeth.
3. Checking children's teeth to the dentist regularly
Don't forget to always check your child's teeth regularly to the dentist, at least once a year. This is done to maintain the health of children's teeth, so that if there is damage to the child's teeth, it can be detected as early as possible. Slowly explain to the child that they don't need to be afraid of the dentist.
