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Important Children Dental Care Practices

Brushing and Flossing: Important Children Dental Care Practices. Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics of San Antonio recommends the following dental care brushing and flossing techniques to promote healthy teeth for your children.

Brushing
Children Dental Care Tip: Brushing Children’s Teeth. It is best to use a soft bristle toothbrush and toothpaste containing fluoride. When brushing the teeth of children younger than 3 years old, limit toothpaste to an amount the size of a grain of rice. Parents should still supervise brushing after age 3. Make sure that children do not swallow any excess toothpaste and limit the toothpaste used to the size of a pea.

The doctors at Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics of San Antonio recommend that while brushing your children’s teeth, move the brush in small circular motions, so as to reach the food particles that may be under the gum line. Brush slowly and carefully while holding your toothbrush at an angle. Be sure to cover the surface of each tooth and the areas between all teeth. To brush your teeth thoroughly will take several minutes. Brush the inside, outside, and chewing surface of all front and back teeth–brushing down on the upper teeth and brushing up on the bottom teeth. More about family dentistry Milton, here
There are three times that you should brush your teeth each day, to avoid cavities and other problems caused by food particles and plaque accumulation. The first of these three daily brushings should be in the morning after breakfast. The next brushing should be after lunch or right after school, and once more before bed.

The best time to replace your toothbrush with a new one is as soon as you notice that the bristles are starting to wear down or to fray.

Flossing
Children Dental Care Tip: Flossing carefully daily is of great importance for optimal oral hygiene. There are some areas between teeth that a toothbrush is simply unable to reach. To remove food particles and plaque from these areas, dental floss is used. Dental floss is a thin thread of waxed nylon that can reach below the gum line and clean in between teeth. It is very important to floss between your teeth on a daily basis.

Proper flossing technique is to pull a small length of floss from the dispenser and tightly wrap the ends of the floss around your middle fingers. Gently guide the floss between all teeth down to the gum line. Doing this will pull out any food particles or built-up plaque that has built up in these spaces that are unreachable with a toothbrush. As you floss moving from tooth to tooth you will unwrap clean floss from around your fingers, this ensures that you use all of the floss from beginning to end and that a clean portion of floss is used on each tooth. Be sure to floss behind all of your back teeth as well.

The best time to floss is at night to make leave your teeth squeaky clean before going to bed. Your gums will likely bleed a little when you first begin flossing. If bleeding continues beyond the first few flossings, let your dentist or staff member at your dentist’s office know at your next appointment.

To learn more about dental hygiene, Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics of San Antonio services, view locations, or learn more about the doctors, their accomplishments, and how they are actively involved in the dental community visit them on the web at www.PDOVA.com. To schedule an appointment at their Midlothian location call us To schedule an appointment at the San nAntonio location call