Be Good to Their Teeth & Yours

Disclosure: I’m an ambassador for CHPA Educational Foundation’s KnowYourOTCs program. All thoughts, stories and opinions are purely my own. I have a confession to make. I failed. Like big time. As a parent, I try to dot all the I's and cross all the T's but I admit that I failed miserably in something.

It took me years to take the Frog Princess to the dentist. Go ahead. Judge me. I've judged myself plenty of times.

When I finally took her, she had a cavity! HOW?! I feel bad enough about possible tooth genes being passed down to her so, this was heart-wrenching for me.

The dentist let us know that a lot of times, these things are a function of not just brushing but flossing. Y'all, we were lacking in the flossing area.

Thankfully our dentist handled it and my high stress over my own childhood trauma with a dentist subsided. We got her cavity taken care of without too much issue (except: don't believe them if they say they can feel their mouth after the filling because they are lying and will maybe end up chewing their lip without realizing because they're too impatient to wait!).

February is National Children's Dental Health Month. Since it is also Valentine's Day and you may or may not have sweets in your house this weekend, I thought I'd share this.

The Frog Princess is okay with brushing (why do we have 4 toothbrushes in the bathroom?). I will say that lately she has been rushed. So we got one of those brushes that has sound so she has to brush for the entire time. We may or may not have a lightsaber because...geekery. That helps. Constant reminders do as well.

I had so many questions after reading up on teeth. I'm glad to have a resource like the fluoride ingredients page to answer some of my questions. After reading these facts, I was glad to have this info readily available.

Did you know that at least 20% of children ages 5-11 have at least one untreated decayed tooth or that tooth decay is the most common chronic disease in kids age 6-11 and adolescents age 12-19 ? I know I did not have great oral care as a child so, I am happy to pitch in to make sure that the Frog Princess does.

Something else I read? I should supervise her tooth brushing shenanigans. Yes, she's brushing for the right amount of time but I want to make sure she's doing it right. I read that the age where kids master tooth brushing is 8 so, we have a couple more years left. Some other tips for you:

• Fluctuations in acidity in the mouth accelerate this. After eating or sipping anything with a sugar source (carbohydrates of any kind, milk, juice, fruits, etc) there is a change in the mouth that increases decay. It’s always better to have a cup of juice all in one sitting and not sip on it all day long. The same is true for my cafe! Drink it all at once because every sip causes a 20-min change in the mouth.
• If you only brush, you miss about 40% of the junk in the mouth that flossing supports. So yeah, this applies to the kids as well.
• Preferred snacks for oral health: fresh fruit, cheese, nuts. We are good here though she has developed an affinity for sweet treats.

And the big shocker that totally surprised me when I read about it because why would I ever think about this but I totally should?

Parents with dental decay pass on their bacteria to their babies when they kiss them. So keeping our own mouths healthy is EXQUISITELY important for our babies and young children.

Yup, you read that right! Brush your teeth and kiss accordingly, folks! Did any of these surprise you? What do you do to make sure your kids are brushing and flossing?