Dental Checkups For Children During Summer Break

The Importance Of Keeping Your Child’s Teeth Healthy Throughout Summer Vacation

Summer vacation is almost here for many children. If you live in Ohio, that means yours are going to be done with school and ready to hit the pool. You want to keep them from having dental emergencies during that time, which is why you must know the importance of keeping your child’s teeth healthy during the summer. Seeing a local dentist in Ohio is a must.

Even In Summer, Dental Care For Kids Is Important

This can be a difficult time of year, since summer tends to be more unstructured. Kids sleep late or stay up late and it can be hard to get them into a rhythm of brushing their teeth at certain times. That’s why a visit to your Ohio dentist is a good idea – they can catch any possible problems with the tooth or gums in their early stages and possibly prevent cavities from forming.

Also, by doing this, you can help keep your kids in school. Dental problems are one reason that kids miss school and by having the check-up during the summer, you can possibly prevent them from having to make an emergency dental visit during the school year. There’s nothing you can do about an accident in gym class, though.

The Benefits Of Summertime Dental Visits For Your Kids

While the summer is unstructured, it also offers you a great opportunity to schedule your appointments, since there is no school to take into account. This is great if you have several kids, since you can get them appointments on the same day or close together. Should your child need to have dental work done, like a filling for a cavity or wisdom tooth removal, then you will have built-in recovery time too.

Dentists are often very busy right before school starts. If you take your kids in June, then you will avoid that rush and eliminate at least one stressor before the school year starts. Unfortunately, you can’t buy school supplies at the dental office, otherwise that would be two things.

Preventing Cavities & Tooth Decay In Children

This is the time of year when there are a lot of temptations in the form of junk food and soda. Your kids can’t hear you tell them to clean their rooms but they can hear the jingle of the ice cream truck from five blocks away. These foods can be quite yummy, especially on a hot day, but they also are loaded with sugars, which can be detrimental to their oral health. Cavities can also affect their speech, their social life since they are reluctant to smile and their self-esteem can plummet.

Soda is even more risky, since the sugar and the soda interact with the saliva in their mouth and make bacteria that attack their tooth enamel for 20 minutes at a time… each swallow. On a hot day at the pool, kids often drink several sodas, which poses a big chance to create havoc with their teeth. If they want to have it, make sure that they have water too, which can wash away a lot of the bacteria.

Teach Them Good Oral Hygiene Habits While They’re Young

You want to teach your kids the importance of brushing their teeth for two minutes at a time, getting every part of their mouth. Electric toothbrushes that beep every 30 seconds are excellent for this. If you stress this to them at a young age, then it will continue for them as they get younger. You want them to have this down pat when their adult teeth grow in.

Another benefit of having a summertime check-up around June is that six months later will be around the Christmas/winter break, which is when your kids will be out of school again. That will keep your kids on a great dental schedule and also possibly help prevent cavities from getting too bad.

The importance of keeping your child’s teeth healthy throughout summer vacation cannot be stressed enough. Not only can they enjoy the hot weather and the times spent at the beach or the pool, they will be able to then start the school year with healthy teeth – just don’t mention the going-back-to-school part to them yet.

Contact Our Professional Teeth Cleaning Dentists In Columbus, OH

The staff at US Dental Medical are delighted to see kids during the summer. They will make sure that their teeth and gums are in great shape for the rest of their vacation. Give us a call today to make an appointment: 614-252-3181.