Simplyhealth and Denplan sent us a few back to school goodies to celebrate Ethan going into Year 2 but they also sent us some information about children’s dental health. It’s amazing how much little we seem to know about dental health even as an adult.
Did you know 1 in 10 British Children have missed a FULL day of school to receive treatment due to tooth decay.
It is a staggering fact that 1 in 5 children have needed a total of fourth teeth extracted due to tooth decay. When I was at school we got taught about tooth brushing and they did yearly talks about it but I still ended up with a lot of fillings. I hate the dentist as an adult but that is due to previously bad experiences as a child.
Ethan loves the dentist and is very well behaved but does sometimes have issues with brushing his teeth. He finds it boring, he says it hurts or just that he wants to get going either with his day or to bed. We have tried the apps, the different brushes and the different toothpaste but what really sealed the deal was to do it together. Ethan loves to do anything that mummy does as he can do it better.
I have to say though a new toothbrush either manual or electric has 100% helped in the toothbrush wars and Simplyhealth provided us with a couple more to keep us going for the year.
Whilst reading through the paper I found this staggering fact that 30% of parents said their child are allowed to take a drink to bed with them. However that is not the scary bit, its stated that 1 in 10 are allowed a fizzy drink to take to bed with them. I was never allowed to take anything other than water to bed so the idea of taking a fizzy drink to bed is madness. It is something I don’t do as an adult and wouldn’t even dream of letitng Ethan do. Futhermore to that fact it was found that 24% said their child takes squash to bed and 15% take fruit juice and are allowed to drink it after brushing their teeth.
I have the worst sweet tooth and Ethan is following in my footsteps but I am hoping with proper dental check ups and good oral health that he will not have to suffer. This report really highlighted to me the importance of oral health and installing it in kids at a young age to make sure they carry it through to their adult life.
If you would like to read more about how we can help kids prevent tooth decay here are some websites:
