Several unhealthy dental behaviors might cause damage to your child’s teeth. The most prevalent are avoiding dental appointments, tooth grinding, improper brushing practices, thumb sucking, and a high-sugar diet. As a parent, it is essential to support excellent general dental care for your kid as they grow and develop, such as identifying how to prevent tooth decay or keep a teething infant’s gums healthy.
Avoiding Visits To The Dentist Is A Bad Habit
If your kid is particularly opposed to dental checkups, you may choose to postpone their next appointment. However, next week may evolve into next month, leading to abandoning an appointment entirely. This is the most heinous of all poor oral habits. Avoiding a dentist checkup might lead to minor problems becoming major ones.
Rewiring these negative connections might be a problematic effort at first, but it will get simpler for both you and your kid as time goes on. By utilizing positive visuals or phrases, you may train your child’s mind to link dental appointments with “fun” and “education.” However, light dental sedation is the most effective technique to make going to the dentist a pleasant experience.
Your kid should see the dentist within six months of the appearance of their first tooth and then have regular, consistent check-ups at least every six months after that.
Teeth Grinding Is A Bad Habit
Teeth grinding, also known as bruxism, affects 2 to 3 out of every 10 youngsters and may increase with poor oral hygiene. This medical condition typically occurs during deep sleep phases or times of stress, which is why common treatments such as wearing a mouthguard at bedtime or practicing simple stress-reduction techniques, such as exercising or getting your child to open up about their feelings, help to alleviate these symptoms and protect them from further damage.
According to Pediatric Dentistry Indianapolis IN, bruxism may lead to premature tooth wear and, ultimately, discomfort in the teeth and jaw, making everyday tasks like smiling, talking, and eating difficult and unpleasant. If you feel your child is grinding their teeth, read more about how to treat teeth grinding in children or visit your dentist if the condition continues.
Incorrect Brushing Techniques Are A Bad Habit
If you do not teach your kid how to clean their teeth properly and prevent tooth decay, they will develop negative dental habits as they grow older. According to Children’s Dentist Indianapolis IN, Brushing too hard may wear down the gums and create a recession. Instead, instruct your youngster how to clean their teeth in gentle circular strokes using a soft toothbrush.
Thumb Sucking Is A Bad Habit
Thumb sucking may cause permanent teeth to be misaligned in children between 4 and 6. If your kid does not grow out of this habit, medical practitioners suggest using a reward system to help with behavior adjustment.
Lip sucking is less common than thumb or finger sucking and frequently leads to badly chapped lips. However, if done too often, it might cause the upper front teeth to flare out or the lower front teeth to lean towards the tongue. When the mouth is closed, the teeth may no longer be in contact after some time.
Chewing On Hard Things
Many youngsters acquire the habit of chewing on hard things such as ice, pencils, pen tips, and even their fingernails. Because this is generally a subconscious habit, it may be much more difficult to cure! It’s critical to identify and treat the underlying reason for this behavior, whether it’s boredom, nervousness, or a desire for diversion. Biting down on these hard things may chip away at the enamel of the teeth or even shatter the tooth and irritate the sensitive tissue within.
The COVID-19 epidemic has provided us with the ideal opportunity to stop unhealthy behaviors like nail-biting! Biting your nails provides bacteria and germs that grow beneath your fingernails with an easy entry point directly into your mouth, so specialists advise us to keep our hands away from our face and mouth to help avoid infection.
If you have a kid that loves to chew on items or bite their nails, there are various things you may do to distract them from their habit! Older children may react favorably to sugarless gum or sweets, but younger children may like healthful foods with a pleasing crunch, such as carrots and apple slices. These are also beneficial to their teeth!
What Causes Decay In Children’s Teeth?
What causes kid tooth decay? Bacteria and other factors contribute to tooth decay. It may occur when carbohydrates (sugars and starches) are left on the teeth. Milk, soda, raisins, candies, cake, fruit juices, cereals, and bread are examples of such foods.
Ice Chewing, Pencils, And Pens
When focusing or studying, some youngsters automatically nibble on their pencil or pen, while others like chewing on ice after completing their cup. However, chewing on items other than food might harm their teeth. Chewing on a pencil end may bring germs into the mouth. Meanwhile, biting ice may shatter or break their teeth or erode their enamel, causing dental discomfort in children.
Consumption Of Hard Sweets And Sugary, Sticky Snacks
Kids like sweets and consume them regularly. Sucking on hard sweets and biting sticky sweet delicacies like gummy bears may lead to tooth disease. Bacteria can feed on the sugar in their mouth. These bacteria can create acids that erode at tooth enamel. Although it may be difficult for youngsters to resist sweet snacks all of the time, make sure they wash their teeth soon after eating them.
Bags And Packages Must Be Opened. Making Use Of Teeth
Some children open potato chip bags and other plastic items with their teeth. Unfortunately, utilizing the teeth as scissors might cause them to get damaged. If your children tend to open bags and pack with their teeth, stop them immediately and teach them to open tough things using genuine scissors.
