Tooth decay in children is no longer a strange problem today. This type of disease greatly affects the baby’s health, but new parents do not know how to handle it. To help parents have directions for oral care for children who eat candy with tooth decay. My Auris Dental Clinic will share all the necessary information about the causes and most effective ways to treat baby tooth decay right in the article below.
Why do babies get tooth decay when they eat candy?
Candy is a favorite dish of many children, especially sweet candies with colorful, eye-catching decorations, etc. However, this food – eating candy and causing tooth decay is the cause of headaches for parents.
All types of candy from lollipops, marshmallows, soft candies,… contain a huge amount of sugar. Although sugar is not the ingredient that causes tooth decay, it is a premise that creates a favorable environment for bacteria that cause tooth decay to multiply and grow quickly.
When children eat candy, sugar will stick to the teeth or gaps between teeth. If your baby doesn’t brush their teeth or clean their teeth after eating, this sugar will turn into plaque, made from a mixture of saliva and bacteria. Over time, plaque will erode tooth enamel and lead to tooth decay in children.
A small part of what makes children who eat candy susceptible to tooth decay is because their tooth enamel has not yet been firmly formed. Therefore, their structure is easily destroyed by harmful bacteria, thereby leading to dental problems, including tooth decay.
Effects of tooth decay on children’s health
Tooth decay is a common disease that occurs in children and adults, in fact it is quite a dangerous problem. If children eat candy that causes tooth decay and is not handled properly, it can have significant health effects such as:
- Causing pain, making the baby unable to eat and drink and affecting the baby’s overall health and psychology.
- Pain will make the baby uncomfortable, tired and irritable, affecting the formation of the baby’s personality.
- Tooth extraction at a young age or baby tooth decay can cause tooth abscesses, affecting the development of permanent teeth. and develop complications such as pulpitis, lymphadenitis, etc.
Therefore, mothers should pay attention to their baby’s oral health and take proper treatment early, if the baby has symptoms of tooth decay such as:
- Yellow and brown stains appear
- Tiny white holes appear and gradually turn black.
- Tooth roots gradually wear down and change color over time.
- Children often have tooth pain or sensitivity, loss of appetite and skipping meals, and even high fever.
Measures to prevent tooth decay for children
Tooth decay not only causes pain, sensitivity and discomfort, but also makes children lose their appetite leading to rickets and malnutrition. Not to mention, Cavities in children who eat candy also prevent them from sleeping well, affecting their health. Therefore, prevention is better than cure, parents should prevent tooth decay in their children before this condition occurs:
Teach your child proper oral hygiene How to
From an early age, parents should practice good oral hygiene habits for their children at least twice a day, every morning and evening before going to bed. In the beginning, parents should pay attention to teaching their children how to brush their teeth properly and monitor them regularly until they can brush their teeth on their own.
Because the baby’s gums are still weak and sensitive, parents should give the baby a soft-bristled toothbrush to avoid damage to the gums and teeth. After a few months, parents should remember to replace the baby’s toothbrush with a new one.
Practice forbaby gargles with salt water
Salt water has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties and can help limit the growth of bacteria that cause tooth decay. Therefore, parents should train their children to gargle with salt water to prevent tooth decay and let them eat candy.
You can buy physiological saline at pharmacies or make your own diluted salt water to use at home. One thing to note is to mix less salt and more water to avoid salt water gargling that is too salty and will numb the child’s tongue. Ideally, parents should take their children to the dentist to be examined by a doctor and instructed on how to properly use salt water for oral care.
Regular dental check-ups every 6 months
Every 3 months or 6 months you should take your baby for a dental check-up. This will help parents detect their baby’s dental problems early and take timely intervention measures. During a regular dental check-up, the doctor will scale your teeth and clean long-term plaque on your teeth.
Bacteria that cause tooth decay will no longer have an environment to grow. Regular dental check-ups also help the process of forming permanent teeth in babies, preventing underbites and crooked teeth from affecting aesthetics.
In addition, babies with tooth decay should be examined by a doctor for timely treatment, without having to wait for 6 months. Through that, the doctor can firmly grasp the baby’s condition and provide the safest treatment that will not affect future health.
At the same time, parents also need to pay attention to their child’s eating every day. Specifically, it is necessary to control the amount of snacks children eat, avoid letting them eat too many sweets and avoid eating before going to bed. This not only causes indigestion but also creates favorable conditions for plaque to form, causing serious tooth decay.
Through the information provided by My Auris dentistry, I hope it can help you know the reason why your child eats candy and gets tooth decay. In general, protecting your baby’s oral health from tooth decay is something that cannot be ignored. Therefore, parents should train their children to maintain better oral hygiene every day, limit sweet foods, drink ice-cold drinks and chew hard objects,… to help their teeth stay strong and shiny.
Yen Nhi
