A Dental Care Houston Observes National Children’s Dental Health Month

February is celebrated around the world as National Children’s Dental Health Month. This worldwide event is sponsored by American Dental Association (ADA) and this movement aims to raise awareness among adults and children regarding the significance of improving and maintaining dental health in children. This time dental clinics of Texas help you take a deeper look at the National Children’s Dental Health Month:

What is the National (NCDHM)?

Commonly abbreviated as NCDHM, it is essentially a month-long program that is observed throughout the globe to promote national health. Since it is endorsed by the American Dental Association, it is celebrated on a large scale. NCDHM aims to bring thousands of dedicated dental professionals such as dental clinics, healthcare providers, educators, and parents together to encourage the benefits of maintaining good oral hygiene among children, their teachers, caregivers, and others that work with kids.

In the year 2022, the slogan of the National Children’s Dental Health Month campaign is “Choose Tap Water for a Sparkling Smile.”

The American Dental Association supplies information on how to make better beverage choices that can help your children in improving their dental care. ADA promotes this information in the form of coloring pages, press releases, PDFs, and posters on their website. This year’s theme promotes the importance of drinking water instead of sugary drinks such as juice, and soda since they can prove to be detrimental to the oral health of your kids.

History of National Children’s Dental Health Month

• The National Children’s Dental Health Month started as a one-day affair and took place for the first time on February 3, 1941, in Cleveland, Ohio.
• The American Dental Association on February 8, 1949, held its first national observance of the Children’s Dental Health Day.
• In 1955, this single-day observance turned into a week-long event.
• In 1981, this program was expanded into a month-long observance which is known today as the National Children’s Dental Health Month.
• From 1941 onwards, this observance grew from being just a two-city occasion into a national program. Today the message conveyed by NCDHM reaches thousands of people and hundreds of countries in various communities across the globe and at multiple armed services stations.

10 Useful Tips to Help Your Children Get a Healthy Smile

1. Encourage your children to have water rather than sweetened juice or soda.
2. Don’t put your baby on the bed to sleep with a bottle.
3. When the first birthday of your child approaches, encourage them to start drinking from a cup instead of a bottle. There are many training cups available that are baby bottles in reality. Your child starts to consume the filled liquid when they suck on the cup, just as with a baby bottle. Additionally, toddlers are generally quite unsteady when they have not started walking on their feet properly. Falling when they drink from a cup can be potentially dangerous as they may injure their mouth.
4. If your children chew gum, you need to ensure that it is sugarless. When they chew sugarless gum right after having meals, it can boost the flow of saliva and help in washing out any residual food and acids that can cause teeth decay.
5. Encourage flossing daily along with brushing from an early age.
6. Help your children in developing good brushing techniques. You should brush for them in the beginning, then allow them to brush their teeth after you.
7. It needs to take around two minutes when they brush their teeth. There are even apps that can help your kids in keeping their time in check and these also make brushing teeth fun. You can also utilize an everyday kitchen timer and get your child to brush for the length of some songs that you can play or sing along while they brush.
8. Make sure that your children wear a protective mouthguard when they play sports.
9. If your kids are craving a snack, you should offer them healthy foods such as fruits.
10. And, of course, ensure that you schedule routine dental visits to keep their oral hygiene in check from an early age. If you want to schedule a dental visit soon, February is an excellent time to get it done.

Conclusion

We all know the importance of developing good habits from the beginning. However, you need to make sure that their oral health is also included in their development right from the beginning. You should aim to develop good oral habits from an early age to help your children in getting a head start for their life ahead to maintain healthy gums and teeth. You can work with your dentist to help you in building these healthy habits in your kids. As your kids grow up, the best dentist in Houston can even give you some useful advice on developing healthy eating habits, using sealants, the effects of tobacco, and how piercings can disrupt their oral health.