|
How does your smile rate?
Healthy strong teeth and gums are important to our physical and mental health.
Looking after your teeth is important - you need good oral health and hygiene
practices, to visit a dental service regularly and to eat well.
Eating and drinking well for strong healthy teeth. 
As a parent - be a good role model. Eat healthily and brush your teeth and visit
the dentist regularly. Encourage your children to do the same.
Enjoy teeth friendly (protective) foods and drinks at meals and snacks. These
include cheese, vegetables, milk, fresh fruit, yoghurt, egg, nuts.
Encourage children to drink water as the main drink. Limit fruit juice/cordial
to only ½ to 1 glass per day and offer 2 to 3 glasses of milk a day.
Avoid frequent snacking on sugary sticky foods (such as lollies, fruit bars,
roll-ups, chocolates, and sweet biscuits) as these foods stay in the mouth longer
(they are sticky) and have been shown to harm teeth. If you do have these foods,
have them only occasionally and at a meal time or with other protective foods.
Although dried fruit and low fat muesli bars can be nutritious snacks, they
are also in a sticky form and can stay in the mouth longer, potentially causing
harm to teeth. Have these foods with protective foods and drinks (such as a glass
of milk).
What about babies?
After the age of 6 months, encourage your baby to start drinking from a cup
(apart from breastfeeds, that is). If your baby drinks from a bottle, don't let
them fall asleep with the bottle in his or her mouth. (The natural sugars in
the fluid will "pool" around the teeth and cause dental caries). If your baby
needs a bottle at night, remove the bottle once they have finished drinking.
If your baby has a dummy, don't put any sweetener on it, like
honey or sugar. If your baby has a bottle, avoid adding any sweeteners
such as honey or sugar to the milk and avoid giving cordials or
softdrink in a bottle to your baby.
Avoid putting dummys and bottle teats in your own mouth and then into baby's
mouth, or tasting baby food using the same spoon as for your baby. This habit
can transfer any tooth decay bacteria that you may have in your mouth to your
baby and can cause dental caries.
As soon as baby has teeth, clean them with a gauze cloth or soft toothbrush.
More information about good oral health for children can be found
in this brochure. |
