2 Tips To Help Your Child Improve Their Oral Health While Wearing A Tongue Thrusting Appliance
Teaching your child proper oral health care habits is extremely important. However, this becomes even more important when your child begins to wear a dental device like a tongue thrusting appliance. The appliance can make it difficult for your child's teeth to be cleaned as easily as if they weren't wearing an appliance. Bacteria buildup that goes unnoticed can result in early tooth decay. This can lead to premature tooth loss in young children. Children whose teeth fall out too early will have to wear space maintainers in order to prevent their permanent teeth from growing in crooked. This process can feel endless; therefore, it is important to teach your child good oral care habits now in order to prevent the issue. Fortunately, there are a few tips that you can use to help improve your child's oral health while they wear a tongue thrusting appliance.
Instruct Your Child to Brush After Each Meal
Brushing immediately after eating is a good way to quickly remove contaminants from the surface of your teeth. This is a good habit to form since it helps to prevent tooth decay and bacteria infection from forming. While wearing a tongue thrusting appliance, food debris can get caught in the device and can stay unnoticed for hours. If you instruct your child to use a toothbrush following each of their meals this will help to remove some of these contaminants. You should instruct them to brush their teeth for at least a few minutes to ensure that their teeth are cleaned. In order to make the process more enjoyable, you can time them by playing their favorite song. This will make it seem less like a task.
Incorporate Antibacterial Rinses into Your Child's Daily Routine
If your child is still fairly young, then you may not have taught them how to use an antibacterial rinse in order to help prevent bacteria development. However, teaching them while they are wearing their tongue thrusting appliance is a good time. A tongue thrusting appliance involves adhering brackets to your child's teeth. The debris that collects around and under the brackets cannot be thoroughly removed with just a toothbrush. If your child adds an antibacterial rinse to their oral care routine, this will help to clean the areas around their appliance that are difficult to access. Instruct them to use the antibacterial rinse after their meals in order to catch leftover food debris.
Monitoring your child's oral health while they wear their tongue thrusting appliance can be a bit more difficult. Therefore, use these tips to help improve their dental care routine and maintain healthy teeth.
For child dental care, contact an office such as Brit E. Bowers, DDS.