2 Simple Tips For Protecting Your Toddler's Teeth From Demineralization

20 May 2016
 Categories: Dentist, Blog

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Your toddler's baby teeth serve as the formative building blocks for their more permanent teeth. These teeth create a solid foundation that helps to guide their future teeth. Demineralization can cause this foundation to weaken. When the foundation weakens, this can result in early tooth loss and may cause their more permanent teeth to grow in crooked. These issues can cause a number of difficulties for your child's dental health later on down the line. Therefore, it is important to protect your toddler's teeth from demineralization. Fortunately, there are a few tips that you can use to do this.

Avoid Allowing them to Sip Sugary Drinks Throughout the Day

Sipping sugary drinks throughout the day will do more harm to your child's teeth than drinking it all at once will. Sipping on the drink throughout the day causes your child's enamel to remain in a weakened state for an extended period of time. Weakened enamel is more susceptible to bacteria and infection. This state is what eventually strips the minerals from your child's teeth causing demineralization. Therefore, limit their consumption of sugary drinks to only around meal time. This will give their enamel enough time to harden and for their teeth to be cleaned of all remaining food and bacteria.

Give them a Light Oral Rinse After Eating

Brushing your child's teeth too often can cause irritation to their gum line. While brushing your child's teeth after every meal they eat may not be the best option, it is still important to keep their mouth clean after eating snacks and meals. Snacks that are high in acid and sugar will often disrupt the acidic levels in the mouth. This interferes with the way your child's mouth fights off bacteria and leaves their teeth more vulnerable to infection. In order to avoid this, give them a light oral rinse after each snack or meal. This will help to remove contaminants immediately after they are done eating. You can create a light rinse by steeping peppermint or spearmint in a cup of hot water for an hour. Instruct them to move the rinse around their mouth for at least a minute. This rinse is not too aggressive; therefore, it can be used several times throughout the day.

Demineralization can go undetected for long periods of time and by then it may be too late. Therefore, use these tips and check out the site to help protect your child's teeth.