Staying healthy is as important now as ever. Here at Kids Healthy Teeth, we want all our patients and their families to have as healthy a smile as possible. Similarly, there are other situations that will also require us to maintain good habits if we want to keep safe.

Let’s review together some of those habits you should teach your children to help them maintain good oral health.

Always Brush Your Teeth With Your Kids Before Bed

You wouldn’t believe how fast harmful bacteria reproduce in our mouths when we leave them to do as they please. General recommendations state you should brush your teeth at least twice a day, but we would insist that brushing your teeth after every meal is critical to success. Furthermore, if you really want to help your child, you should help them clean their teeth before bedtime to get rid of all the germs and plaque that accumulate throughout the day.

Brush Your Teeth For 2 Minutes

How long should you brush your teeth each time? The right answer is for about two minutes. Use circular motions, a soft-bristled toothbrush, and fluoride toothpaste. Try setting your favorite song, or watch a short video to help you pass the time. Here are 4 ways you can make brushing fun for your kids, and here you can find some apps to help you brush your kids’ teeth.

Don’t Forget About Dental Floss

Even though you might be really good at brushing your teeth, you should still use dental floss to eliminate all food particles left between your teeth. You can try using a flosser to make it easier for your kid, but you can also get some interdental brushes and mix things up.

The important part here is that you don’t let the additional work required discourage you from teaching your child about the importance of dental hygiene.

Drink More Water

Drinking more water washes away any germs in your kid’s mouth. Furthermore, keeping yourself hydrated helps you produce enough saliva and keep your mouth clean, not to mention that proper hydration helps prevent bad breath. Click here to learn more about the ways saliva helps keep your kid’s mouth clean.

Keeping Yourself Healthy During a Pandemic

As you may know, the COVID-19 Pandemic caused many changes and had many individuals going into self-quarantine and practicing social distancing. It is crucial for all of our Kids Healthy Teeth patients to keep up their healthy habits during this time to avoid getting sick. We want to talk about a few significant points in this blog, such as handwashing, covering your coughs, not touching your face and social distancing.

Wash Your Hands

Washing your hands is the most important healthy habit of keeping up. Daily, we touch hundreds of objects throughout the day. There are many germs and a lot of bacteria that are found on public surfaces and items. Germs from unwashed hands can either get onto your face or can get into food and drinks, which can lead to sickness. You never know what you are going to pick up or what germ you could be putting down. Washing your hands can help prevent diarrhea, respiratory infections, eye, and skin infections, as well as viruses.

Cover Your Coughing

We have all been taught since we were little to cover our coughs so that we do not cough on other people around us. Coughing is a very normal human body function. We cough so that we can push out mucus, microbes, and foreign particles from our mouths and throats. We cough to protect our lungs. When we are sick, we have to be careful about coughing out harmful germs onto others. For this reason, we have to make sure we are covering our coughs. You can cover your cough with your elbow, hands, shirt, or mask. After coughing, it is extremely important that you immediately go and wash your hands.

Do Not Touch Your Face

We touch our faces without knowing it frequently throughout the day. When we are out in public and touching objects, sometimes we do not realize we are scratching or touching our faces. We end up putting bacteria on our faces, which can lead to not only acne but also sickness. Again, try to wash your hands as much as possible and avoid touching your face the best you can.

Social Distancing

Another way to keep yourself and those around you safe is to practice social distancing and self-quarantine. We must think about those in our lives who are older or are more prone to illnesses. By practicing social distancing, we can still go to the grocery store to feed our families but also maintain a safe distance so we do not obtain the virus. Self-quarantine helps to make sure that those who need protection can stay in the comforts of their homes without worrying about contracting the virus.

Call Your Katy Pediatric Dentist

We hope you found our blog about healthy habits to keep up helpful. At Kids Healthy Teeth, we want to make sure our patients and their families are being safe! We cannot wait to see all of our patients in the future and look forward to seeing your smiling faces. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to give us a call.