Halloween!!!! How to look after your child’s oral health in the face of all the SUGAR!!!!!

Halloween!!! No matter how you feel about it, there’s no avoiding this spooky centered date.  With children’s partys, adult parties (for the big kids amongst us) trick or treating and perhaps the odd scare – if you haven’t seen the Halloween episode of Motherhood, please do, it perfectly encapsulates the chaos that Halloween brings to parents – our teeth and skin can really go through it at this time of year.

Our teeth because of the endless sweets, lollies and general stuff our children’t don’t get to eat all year round and our skin because of the make up, the face paint and overall rubbish cold weather.

Never fear! we’ve got you covered below with some helpful tips on how to avoid dental cavities when the sugar is literally calling your name…..

How to maintain good oral health in the face of sugar overload….

There’s no going back once you’re out trick or treating, or at a party.  There will be sweets.  There will be the fear enducing lolliopops.   But don’t worry, you can still make sure your little ones don’t open themselves up to cavities or gum disease by following these nifty dental tips below.

1.  As they are going round make sure they have water to drink and get them to take a few mouthfuls every now and then to wash away the sugar – the less it sits in their mouth the better.

2.  Ok they’ve had the sweets, the frantic night is all over and they are wired, so very very wired…… give them some cheese.  This could seem a bit odd but cheese not only has a natural amount of phosphate and calcium in that helps strengthen teeth but it also helps balance the PH level of the mouth (a PH of 7 is optimum), which means less harmful acid, more cleansing saliva thus fewer cavities – take that sugary sweets!

3. Don’t allow your children to go to bed without cleaning their teeth.  They will have had Haribo all manner of squishy sugary materials stuck to their teeth and gums, don’t allow it to do it’s dirty work overnight.

4.  If they are old enough, see if you can floss their teeth before brushing.

5.  Give them extra help brushing if they need it.

6. If they are over 3 years old, see if they can use a tongue cleaner, my little one’s love them, even if they use it just once it will help get any bacteria or sugar off of their tongue so they don’t sleep overnight with it in there.

7.  Sorry, I have no extra tips on how to get them to sleep…. if you have any tricks on that please let me know 🙂

With gum disease being at an all time high (more than any other reason actually) for hospital admissions for children in the UK I thought I’d focus on children’s teeth but the same also applies to you and looking after your teeth, gums and general oral health.  A good dental routine is as important as a skincare routine.