A survey recently carried out by YouGov has found that, when it comes to oral health education, children in the UK are at the bottom of the class, with less that one in three being taught about the importance of looking after their teeth and gums. Whilst some might say that this is a political issue and some subjects have to be prioritised over others, the reality is that this lack of early years oral care education can only have negative consequences for the children involved, as they grow up.<\/p>\n
There is a saying that \u2018old habits die hard\u2019 and many of the habits that we have in our adult years stem from our early life. If teachers, and parents, aren\u2019t teaching their kids about oral health care, there is every chance that they will neglect their teeth. Evidence of this can be found in the record number of children having to go to hospital to have teeth extracted<\/a>.<\/p>\n What can we do as parents?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are a number of routes that can be taken to start to address this problem. The most obvious one is political pressure. This can be hard work though and can take many years to achieve much progress at all. You could also try contacting your child\u2019s school and raising this issue and there may be ways that teachers can incorporate elements of oral healthcare education into other lessons. Ultimately though, the only surefire way is to make sure that you teach them yourself, from an early age, how to look after their teeth and gums, and make sure that they understand why they need to do so.<\/p>\n This is easier said than done, of course. Not only can children be wilful and often see their parents as a source of authority that needs to be challenged (this seems to be less the case with teachers), but also, many parents are not always up to date with the latest dental care information.<\/p>\n Get the basics right<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For parents, we recommend that you read up information from reliable sources such as the NHS etc about how to care for your child\u2019s teeth properly. You may even find some information that can benefit your own regimen too. We would advise that you don\u2019t use other \u2018unofficial\u2019 resources that are available on the internet. These may be well-intentioned but are not always accurate and may be out of date.<\/p>\n All children need to brush their teeth twice a day, both morning and last thing at night and parents have a role in making them do this. You may need to brush their teeth for them when they are very young, and should continue to supervise them until you are confident that they are able to do this correctly themselves.<\/p>\n Make sure that they use a fluoride toothpaste too as this helps to protect the enamel of their teeth. You may wish to allow them to choose a toothbrush that they like if this encourages them to brush. We recommend an electric brush as this makes it easier for them and avoids the need for too much \u2018elbow grease\u2019 and should result in better cleaning.<\/p>\n