February is National Children's Dental Health Month

 

 

Learn about our dental artwork contest...

 

Each February, dentists across the nation partner up to help promote awareness for oral health. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry encourages parents to help establish a dental home by 12 months of age. This helps allow pediatric dentists to provide preventative care, dietary counseling, and comprehensive assessment for oral disease and conditions. The big push here is prevention. To recognize February as National Children's Dental Health Month our office is holding a dental artwork contest. We want all of our patients to participate and help raise awareness. Post the artwork to our facebook page and encourage all of your friends and family to like it for a change to win. We will give away a grand prize, group prizes, and a chance to have your child's artwork decorate our office! The break down for the age group prizes are as follows: 6 and under, 7-12, and 13 and up. One grand prize winner with the most likes will win an IPad Mini. Winners will be selected by posting the artwork to our page and sharing it with your Facebook friends to acquire likes. The artwork with the most likes will be our grand prize winner! Best of luck to all of our patients from The Watertown Pediatric Dentistry Family!

 

 

Visit The American Dental Association for more information about the National Children's Dental Health Month Campaign !

4 Tips To Stay Cavity Free This Halloween

Halloween is right around the corner!  We want to help keep your kids’ teeth healthy WITHOUT giving up all the sweet treats. 

Don’t eliminate candy completely
After your children get back from trick-or-treating or a party, go through their bags of Halloween candy together. Pick out a small number of pieces – the ones they like the best – and get the unpicked treats out of sight. You can donate them or freeze them if you can’t bear to throw them out.

Letting children help decide what is a reasonable amount of candy to keep has benefits beyond good oral health. The message isn’t “candy is bad,” but that candy and other sweets, in excess, can lead to cavities.

Set a “Treat Time” to help prevent cavities
Make it a ritual and establish a “treat time”.  This may last long after Halloween and help promote healthy thinking about treats.  Knowing they have a specific sweet time can help make children less inclined to think about eating sweets at other times of the day.  Children learn that eating sweets shouldn’t be an all-day feast.  Moderation is key. 

Set up a teeth brushing and flossing schedule
Have a “treat time”?  Then make a “teeth brushing time”!  Whether it’s day or night,  brushing and flossing after “treat time” will help sweep away the recent sweets and prevent cavities. Until a child is 7 or 8 years old, a parent should help with teeth brushing, not simply supervise. Even after age 8, parents should supervise brushing. That includes friendly reminders to older children to brush and floss until they get to high school, when it should be a habit.

Keep Teeth Brushing Fun
Make Halloween a time to get a new toothbrush!  Making this part of the holiday can help keep kids excited to brush regularly. 

Rethink Your Drink!

 

 

"Rethink Your Drink"

 

 

As summer is approaching we are all looking forward to spending time outside with our families and friends, we want to remind everyone that drinking water has many benefits.  Water not only is great for our bodies but is the beverage of choice for our teeth!  Reason being... WATER HAS NO SUGAR! 

 

Take a look below as we compare the sugar content of some of our favorite drinks.

 

A 32 ounce bottle of Coke has 65 grams of sugar
which is about 17 sugar cubes!!

 

A 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade has 52.5 grams of sugar
which is about 13 sugar cubes!!

 

A 12 ounce container of Chocolate Milk has 45 grams of sugar
which is about 11.5 sugar cubes!!

A 13.5 ounce container of Orange Juice has 41 grams of sugar
which is about 10.5 sugar cubes!!

A 6 ounce container of Kool-aid Jammers has 24 grams of sugar
which is about 6 sugar cubes!!



Just remember everyone deserves a treat, but by limiting the frequency of sugar in your diet it will help keep your teeth healthy and cavity free!!