Oral health considerations for preschoolers

1.Healthy and complete milk teeth are the basis of permanent teeth health A complete and healthy milk teeth can play a normal chewing function, which can guarantee the normal growth and development of permanent teeth and jaw and facial bones, which is conducive to the child’s accurate pronunciation and guide the normal eruption of permanent teeth, so that children can obtain healthy permanent teeth and use them for a lifetime. 2. Encourage children to eat more fibrous food to enhance chewing function A healthy diet structure and good eating habits are the basis of oral health and whole body health, and the development of good eating habits will benefit children for a lifetime. Children should pay attention to a balanced diet, not to be picky, especially to eat more vegetables and fresh fruits and other foods with high fiber content and rich nutrition, so that it is not only conducive to the self-cleaning effect of teeth, not easy to suffer from caries, but also conducive to the growth and development of the oral and jaw surfaces, so as to promote the alignment of teeth and enhance the chewing function. 3.No more food before bedtime after brushing teeth Because the oral movement is little during sleep, the saliva secretion is low, and the self-cleaning function of the mouth is poor, if you eat again before bedtime after brushing teeth, it is easy to get caries and gingivitis. In addition, children should develop the habit of regular diet, except for three meals a day, try to eat less snacks. If snacking should also be regular, snacking can be added between the two main meals. 4, children learn to brush teeth, parents should help and supervise From the age of 3 to 4 years old, children’s hands and limbs coordination is obviously enhanced, parents and kindergarten teachers can start to teach children to brush their own teeth with the simplest “drawing circle method”, the main point is to place the brush bristles on the tooth surface, light pressure to make the bristles flex, drawing circles on the tooth surface, each part repeatedly The toothbrush should be placed vertically on the lingual side of the front teeth, and all surfaces of the teeth (including the labial and buccal sides, the lingual side and the occlusal surface) should be brushed. In addition, parents should brush their children’s teeth once a day (preferably at night) until they go to elementary school so as to ensure the effectiveness of brushing. Children should choose a child toothbrush suitable for their age. 5, help children quit bad oral habits as early as possible Children’s bad oral habits are: finger sucking, biting the lower lip, tongue spitting, mouth breathing, etc., should be quit as early as possible, otherwise it will cause the upper jaw protrusion, narrow arch, crowded teeth and other oral and jaw deformities. If the above-mentioned bad habits still exist in children over 3 years old and cannot be stopped by persuasion, they should be promptly seen in a hospital and helped to stop the bad habits through appropriate orthodontic methods. For children with mouth breathing habits, check whether their upper respiratory tract is open, treat enlarged tonsils, enlarged adenoids, nasal turbinates and other conditions, and correct mouth breathing in a timely manner. 6.Advocate preschool children to receive oral health examination once every 6 months. 3~6 years old is the peak period of children suffering from caries. At this stage, the dental arch starts to change and a gap appears to prepare for tooth replacement, but it is easy to cause food embedment and adjacent surface caries. Early treatment of caries is shorter, less painful, more effective and less costly. Therefore, it is advocated that preschool children should receive oral health examination once every 6 months. In the oral health examination of children, doctors should provide targeted professional oral health guidance to enhance the oral health awareness of parents and children. 7.Early orthodontic treatment of anterior teeth “enamel” (anterior teeth backbite) malformation Insufficient development of the maxilla and genetic and other congenital factors are the causes of anterior teeth backbite, bad breastfeeding posture and bad habits of children can also cause anterior teeth backbite. The anterior backbite can restrict the development of the upper jaw, resulting in excessive jaw advancement, causing depression of the middle third of the face and obviously affecting the appearance. The best time to correct the backbite of the milk front teeth is 3~4 years old. 8.Preventing caries of milk teeth with local fluorine Fluoride toothpaste has a definite effect of preventing caries. Preschool children usually rinse their mouth and spit out the foreign substance in their mouth, so they can brush their teeth with fluoride toothpaste for children, but the dosage is the size of pea grain each time, and apply it under the supervision and guidance of parents or teachers to prevent accidental swallowing. Do not use adult toothpaste for children. In addition, you can receive dental fluoride application by professional staff in hospital and kindergarten to prevent caries. 9.Caries of milk teeth should be treated timely Caries affects children’s oral and general health. The initial manifestation of caries is the local discoloration of teeth, usually black, sometimes in the upper front teeth as chalky change, and then the hard tissue of teeth surface peel off, forming cavities, until the teeth completely disintegrate and fall off. Caries can cause toothache, swelling of gums and face, and even high fever and other systemic symptoms in children. Long-term untreated caries can cause children to chew sideways and bilateral facial development asymmetry; it can also affect the normal development and eruption of permanent teeth. Without healthy teeth, children will be reluctant to eat vegetables and meat containing more fiber, resulting in poor eating habits such as partial eating and affecting the normal growth and development of the whole body. Therefore, the view that “milk teeth always have to be replaced, the bad need not be treated” is wrong. 10, timely treatment of trauma to the milk teeth Trauma to the milk teeth often occurs in young children after the age of 2 years, mostly front teeth, usually caused by falls, trauma may touch the teeth loose, touch fracture, touch off, etc., trauma to the milk teeth may affect the development and normal eruption of permanent teeth in the future, should promptly go to a qualified medical institution.