Baby Oral Health Program Fundamental for Infants and Toddler’s Dental Health

Parents wishing to maintain dental hygiene for kids must learn about how the baby oral health program or BOHP, as it is also known, helps break the unfortunate events associated with early childhood caries. It helps parents reach their children sooner than expected, especially children at a higher risk of this problem. Unfortunately, many barriers exist in providing infant and toddler oral health care. Parents must learn to overcome these challenges without relying on time-tested techniques of visiting any dentist near them with their children whenever needed.

The BOHP program proposes to train dental health care providers on the demands of infant and toddler oral health, providing them with the essential tools to become suitable and responsible in providing preventive oral health services for younger children. For example, the kid’s dentist in Phoenix, AZ, has implemented the BOHP program into their practice to help establish early oral health values among children to ensure a lifelong patient.

Starting early dental care for your kid is essential for their health. Early dental care helps children eat and speak clearly besides helping their permanent teeth to erupt into proper position. Children may retain some baby teeth until 12 or 13. Parents must ensure they clean the child’s gums even before the first tooth erupts in the mouth to maintain appropriate child dental health. Keeping your child’s teeth and gums clean is the most convenient method of keeping your child healthy.

What Is Early Dental Caries?

Early dental caries refers to cavities development in the child’s mouth from six months to six years. Your child is at risk of tooth decay after they develop teeth. Left untreated, childhood caries spreads deeper into the tooth. In addition, the pollution causes pain, infection, and even damages to the underlying permanent tooth. In such cases, the baby’s tooth or teeth may need removal.

Primary Contributors to Dental Caries

The factors mentioned below are contributors to early childhood dental caries:

• Snacking frequently on sticky and starchy foods.
• Continued using a baby bottle or a sippy cup with milk, juices, or formula at bedtime.
• Not cleaning your child’s teeth every day.
• Neglecting the use of fluoridated toothpaste.

The pediatric dentist near Phoenix, AZ, mentions the damage caused by sugar to children’s teeth depends on how much sugar the child has and how long it remains in the mouth. When your child has sugary foods or beverages, the bacteria in the child’s mouth mix with the sugars to make mild acids. The acid attacks the enamel of the child’s teeth to create cavities.

If your child frequently sips juice or snacks between meals, their teeth are coated in sugars, continually making it challenging for you to maintain appropriate pediatric oral health. Dental caries also affects children going to bed with a milk bottle or juice because the liquid remains in the mouth, bathing the teeth in sugar for long.

Shifting Bacteria from Your Mouth to Your Child’s

Your child can get bacteria from other family members through saliva. You can prevent the chances of passing cavity-causing bacteria from your mouth to your baby by avoiding sharing toothbrushes, licking soothers to clean them, avoiding feeding your baby with utensils that you have used, and ensuring all family members have healthy mouths.

Poor child dental health combined with bacteria and inappropriate eating habits increase the risk of your child developing early dental caries.

Child Dental Care Tips Parents Must Follow

Parents must ensure their child practices good dental care, including cleaning and checking their child’s teeth and mouth daily. Parents can lift the child’s lips to see along the gum line for white or brown spots indicating early signs of tooth decay. Baby gums are better cleaned with a wet face cloth. When the child develops their first tooth, parents can use a baby toothbrush to clean the child’s teeth in the morning and at bedtime using a tiny grain of fluoride toothpaste.

Children must be encouraged to learn to drink from a lid-less cup between 6 to 9 months. Giving water to children between feeding times for thirst is also suggested by the Phoenix kids dentist. Parents must learn how to teach the child to give up the baby bottle or sippy cup at bedtime by visiting the kid’s dentist in Phoenix, AZ, a professional who has incorporated the BOHP guidelines into their practice and learn about how they can care for their child’s teeth appropriately.