Lead: Children are more prone to dental caries than adults. According to the advice of professional dentists, fluoride can promote tooth remineralization, which is of great significance to prevent dental caries, so children should use fluoride toothpaste for children as soon as possible. Younger children should brush their teeth under the supervision of their parents to ensure that toothpaste is not overused and try not to swallow toothpaste.
Author: Baidu knows the netizen tape man (master of medicine, popular science writer)
Many nurses probably think that one or two-year-old babies don't need to brush their teeth, just rinse their mouths with water; Some parents also believe that children's toothpaste and toothbrush should be used as long as their teeth have grown. Some parents even think that it doesn't matter if the deciduous teeth are rotten, but they have to be changed anyway; Actually, these are all wrong!
The purpose of brushing teeth is to prevent dental caries, and there is too much knowledge in it.
Why do children get dental caries more easily?
Children are more prone to dental caries than adults, which is determined by children's behavior habits and dental characteristics. First of all, in terms of behavior, children prefer sweets and snacks, and infants consume more milk, while sugar in snacks and dairy products containing lactose can cause dental caries.
If parents do not pay attention to oral hygiene, children aged 2-3 are particularly prone to bottle caries. The main cause of bottle caries is that children sleep with a bottle, and the bottle mouth is directly attached to the front teeth of maxillary deciduous teeth. The teeth are soaked in milk or other sugary drinks for a long time, which is particularly easy to damage two front teeth.
Structurally, the enamel of deciduous teeth is thinner, with high organic matter content and less mineralization than that of adults. Simply put, it's not as hard as adults. Therefore, even with the same diet, deciduous teeth are more vulnerable to the acid produced by cariogenic bacteria. Once the caries of deciduous teeth get worse, it will not only cause pain, but also affect children's eating, digestion and beauty. If you have to pull it out, it is more likely to affect the eruption of permanent teeth, facial development and pronunciation, and the arrangement of complete teeth, which will bring a series of adverse consequences. Therefore, you must not pay attention to deciduous teeth just because you think they are temporary.
Permanent teeth that have just replaced deciduous teeth are also prone to caries, because the newly grown permanent teeth have thin enamel, low salt content, high solubility and strong permeability, and are more prone to acute caries; Moreover, the pulp tissue is loose and rich in blood vessels. Once dental caries develop into dental pulp, dental pulp and infection are easy to spread and must be treated in time. If the newly erupted permanent teeth are seriously decayed, think about it. Children have to keep going in and out of the dentist's office, filling their teeth and receiving treatment again and again. They not only have to endure all kinds of physical and psychological pain, but also spend a long life on the restored teeth, with endless future troubles. Therefore, for children's dental caries, prevention is far greater than cure.
Finally, children often don't brush their teeth, or they can't brush their teeth consciously every day, or they have no idea about the amount of toothpaste and the time of brushing their teeth. As a result, the effect of cleaning teeth can not be achieved at all. Therefore, to prevent children from dental caries, in addition to requiring children to develop good eating habits, the most important thing is to urge and teach children to brush their teeth, which is not only practical for parents, but also conducive to cultivating children's awareness of oral hygiene, so that children can develop good habits for life.
Anti-caries effect of fluoride
The anti-caries effect of fluoride has long been discovered. Decades of research shows that fluoride can effectively reduce dental caries and reverse early dental caries. The World Health Organization suggests adding proper amount of fluoride to drinking water, which is considered as the simplest, most economical and most effective method to prevent caries. As early as1945 65438+1October 25th, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city in the world to fluorinate drinking water. Since then, fluoride has improved the oral health of countless Americans, and more than 72.4% Americans have enjoyed the benefits of fluoride in drinking water. Fluorine caries prevention is also called "20%". At present, many developed countries have popularized drinking water fluorination, but in underdeveloped areas, there is no relevant policy for various reasons, and fluoride caries prevention has not received enough attention. According to the statistics in 2006, less than 20% people in the world benefited from fluoride caries prevention. The World Health Organization also suggests adding fluoride to salt and milk, but in developing countries, personal use of fluoride toothpaste is the easiest way to prevent dental caries.
The principle of fluoride caries prevention has three aspects: 1. Fluorine ions can be replaced by hydroxyl groups in hydroxyapatite, a tooth component, to form water-insoluble fluorapatite, which is acid-resistant and corrosive. 2. Fluorine can affect the storage of comprehensive polysaccharides produced by cariogenic bacteria, thus inhibiting the growth and metabolism of cariogenic bacteria. 3. Fluorine also has the function of inhibiting enzymes, which can inhibit bacteria and decompose sugar into enzymes of organic acids, thus reducing the generation of organic acids.
Do children need fluoride toothpaste?
Although fluorine is an essential component of human body, mainly distributed in bones and teeth, excessive fluorine will be toxic to people, leading to dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis. The main manifestations of dental fluorosis are irregular white fog spots on the teeth, yellowing and loss of luster. Normal people generally do not consume too much fluoride through diet. Patients with dental fluorosis mostly live in high fluoride areas during tooth development, which is caused by high fluoride content in drinking water. Adults living in high fluoride areas will not lead to dental fluorosis, but only to skeletal fluorosis; Even if children aged 6-7 move out of the high fluoride area in the future, their teeth will still be affected.
In the past, the age limit for children to use fluoride toothpaste was conservative because they were worried about the side effects caused by excessive fluoride (mainly because they were worried that children might easily swallow toothpaste by mistake). It is generally believed that fluoride toothpaste should not be used before the age of 6.
Recently, however, the American Dental Association has new guidelines for children to use fluoride toothpaste. The new guidelines point out that children should use fluoride toothpaste to prevent dental caries from the first teething, children under 3 years old should use rice grain size every time, and children aged 3-6 years old should use soybean size. This dose is safe and effective.
In addition to using fluoride toothpaste, parents can also take their children to the Stomatological Hospital to have their teeth painted regularly in fluoride varnish, usually once or twice a year/kloc-0. 1, 2, 3 years old can use. It can also play a good role in preventing caries by acting on anterior teeth, deciduous molars and full-mouth deciduous teeth.
Finally, according to the advice of professional dentists, fluoride can promote tooth remineralization, which is of great significance to prevent dental caries, so children should use fluoride toothpaste for children as soon as possible. Younger children should brush their teeth under the supervision of their parents to ensure that toothpaste is not overused and try not to swallow toothpaste.