Five Tips to Prevent Cavities in Young Children

Your child’s teeth will require the best care to ensure their adult teeth will fully develop and remain healthy, including preventing cavities and tooth decay. Pediatric dentists Dr. Jeni Kong and Dr. Sandra Oh, and the team at Apple Tree Pediatric Dentistry in Lawrenceville, GA, encourage all of our patients to maintain routine dental appointments to ensure good oral health. We recommend your child receive a dental exam and cleaning at least twice a year.

We understand that cavities may happen, and that’s why our expert pediatric dental team can find and correct dental problems in your child’s teeth to prevent further problems in the future. While keeping your regularly scheduled dental appointments is essential to good oral health, the work doesn’t stop there. Home maintenance is equally as important for your child’s dental hygiene and maintaining a healthy smile.

Here are five useful tips our dentists recommend your child follow:

1. Try to avoid foods with lots of starch or sugar (common snacks)

Sugar and starch may make foods taste better, but they aren’t ideal for your child’s smile. Fruit gummies, fruit roll-ups, and even a common snack such as Gold Fish, CheeZits, and potato chips are full of starch that can easily stick in between and on the grooves of teeth to cause cavities. These compounds can increase the production of bacteria and plaque around the teeth, increasing the chance for a cavity. Your child can brush their teeth after any meal that contains these ingredients.

2. Consume more vegetables and fruits with high water content

Many vegetables and fruits have naturally high water contents. Leafy greens, cucumbers, and celery are among the best vegetables that have high amounts of water. Citrus fruits and watermelons have plenty of water as well. These foods are healthy for you; plus, they help increase saliva production in the mouth. The added saliva keeps bacteria from sticking around the teeth. As a snack, try offering these vegetables with ranch, hummus, or peanut butter.

3. Avoid sticky foods

Various candies and some other foods may be too sticky. These foods can stick to a child’s teeth, making it harder for a child to remove them through brushing. Acid can form on the teeth if these foods are stuck for long. The acids will trigger tooth decay if not treated soon enough. Dr. Jeni and Dr. Oh at Apple Tree Pediatric Dentistry in Lawrenceville, GA recommend you watch what your child eats and that your child avoids foods that might stick or be hard to clear. Special Note: Sticky and sour foods, such as Sour Patches, are especially bad. **

4. Make sure your kids don’t share foods and drinks

It is easy for bacteria to travel between children when they share foods and drinks with one another. Various oral bacteria can add up on something if many children eat it at once. Be sure your kids avoid sharing these items to ensure they don’t transmit more germs than necessary.

5. Look at how dental sealants can work for your child: Try the Oreo test

To help with preventing cavities and protecting teeth, consider dental sealants. Our team at Apple Tree Pediatric Dentistry can help review whether or not your child requires dental sealants on their back teeth. These sealants can prevent food and bacteria from entering pockets of the back teeth that might be harder to maintain. These teeth won’t be as likely to experience other bacteria when managed well. As a home test, try feeding your child some Oreo cookies and have the child brush their teeth. If you see any of the "black specks" left over on any molars after they have brushed their teeth, those teeth will definitely benefit from having Sealants applied to help make those grooves less groovy.

Contact our team today for pediatric dental care in Lawrenceville, GA

Contact us at Apple Tree Pediatric Dentistry in Lawrenceville, GA for help with all of your child’s dental care needs. Board-certified pediatric dentist Dr. Jeni Kong and pediatric dentist Sandra Oh are less than an hour east of Atlanta, making it easy for you to access our branch. We also have after-school hours for service, so schedule an appointment for your child today.