National Children's Dental Health Month & Crayons

February is National Children's Dental Health Month!   Parents, you have a very important role in reducing your child's risk of dental decay (caries).  Often we think about brushing teeth as the way to reduce cavities, but there are other habits that can improve our dental health as well.  These habits truly apply to us all. 

Limiting between meal snacks - sticking to raw fruits and vegetables for snacks and only water as our beverage. 

Consume your sugars with your meals, and in moderation.  Why does it really matter WHEN sugary foods are consumed?  It has to do with the lasting effects after your last bites are swallowed.  After we consume sugary foods and beverages, the resultant acid sits on teeth for 20 minutes or more.  But even worse - the pH (acid level) in your mouth takes hours to return to normal.  What does this mean?  Well, your mouth is in a cavity-producing mode for 2-3 hours after eating foods harmful for dental health.  Wow!   So that 3pm candy bar may still be causing effects on the pH (acidity) of your mouth at 5:00 or 5:30pm! 

Limit that sugar contact.  You want to limit the length of time that sugary foods and beverages come in contact with your teeth.  If you are going to drink a sugary beverage or eat a sugary snack, do so in one setting.  In dental school we discussed research where people who sipped on a beverage all day long got more cavities than people that drank that beverage in one sitting.  This applies to food consumption as well - it seems to all come down to that pH balance in our saliva.  

Limit Diet sodas and sugar substitutes, as these still cause dental decay.  There is some misinformation on the internet stating that sugar substitutes do not cause cavities.  This statement was proven to be incorrect by dental student research at my dental college.  My classmates presented their research that cavity-causing bacteria eventually interact with a sugar substitute to cause cavities just like regular sugar.  The take-home message is, we need to limit our between-meal snacks, whether they are diet soda, regular soda, have regular sugar or a sugar substitute.  These items do have a place in our society, we just need to limit our consumption.  See the USDA website for more information about healthy meal choices and how the Nutrition Pyramid was replaced with Choose My Plate. 

Avoid introducing Juice into a child's diet until age 2, if at all possible.  Once they get started on juice, it is very difficult to reduce its consumption.  When a child falls asleep while drinking juice or milk, the sugary liquid pools around the teeth.  Often we do not realize that beverage is just sitting in the child's mouth until they wake up and swallow it.  This is seen all-too-often as Early Childhood Caries (cavities).  Milk and water are still the best choices for a young child's beverages.  Milk is a healthy drink, but even it has hidden sugars.  After each feeding, you will want to wipe the gums of a baby or brush the teeth of a child, who has their teeth. 

The Indiana Dental Association specifically talks about how our beverage choices impact dental health.  Read their article about how Fizzy Drinks make Fuzzy Teeth.    

So, after all that...

If you are into sewing and and looking for an easy non-sweet Valentine's Day gift, consider making a Crayon Roll.  It takes a very small amount of fabric, 1 button and an elastic hair tie. 

 You only need about 1/6 yard of the main fabric and if you are like me, you might have that amount sitting in your fabric stash at home.  This was my first project using a disappearing ink fabric marker.  It works pretty slick, as long as you are using a dark fabric marker on dark fabric.... so my lines are not perfect, but now I know better.  I did use the flannel to line it and was very happy with the results, as was my recipient!    

I used the tutorial and instructions from The Pleated Poppy. 

Happy Valentine's Day from Steckelberg Dental!

The dental office of Dr. Melanie A. Steckelberg located at 3201 South 33rd Street, Suite A in Lincoln, Nebraska 68506  (402) 489-7800.  Call us today for an appointment.