A Kids Guide to Teeth

Your teeth are part of a healthy smile and have a lot to do with how you look, but they also serve an important purpose to help you be able to chew and eat food. Teeth are found in most omnivores, animals that eat plants and meat, because teeth help them cut up food into smaller pieces for easier digestion. Your teeth are also there to help you form words and talk in a certain way. If you’ve ever lost a tooth, you may notice that you sound a bit different. That’s because your teeth also help you speak properly. It is important to take good care of your teeth to avoid getting cavities or having other health problems. Proper dental care can help ensure that you have a great smile for many years to come.

Keeping Your Teeth Clean

When it comes to making sure your teeth are clean, brushing and flossing are both very important things you should do. Brush your teeth in the morning when you wake up and at night before you go to bed. If you can, brush after every meal, too. Flossing is also important because it helps to get food particles out from between your teeth. If food stays in your mouth, it can cause plaque buildup that will create bacteria and cause cavities to form. What you eat can also affect your teeth. If you eat a lot of sugary foods or candy, that promotes the growth of plaque in your mouth and causes you to get cavities. Eating healthy snacks like carrots or apples is not only good for your body, but they can also help to scrape the plaque off of your teeth as you eat. It’s also important to keep your gums and tongue clean and healthy. You can use a tongue scraper to remove bacteria from the surface of your tongue. When you brush, you can also brush the tongue and pay special attention to your gums to keep them extra clean. Use a soft toothbrush so you don’t irritate your gums. Cavities form when the enamel on your tooth begins to wear away. The enamel is there to protect your teeth, so be sure you brush and floss regularly so you won’t have to go to the dentist to get a cavity filled, or even worse, have a tooth pulled.

How Your Teeth Change

As you get older, your baby teeth will start to fall out, and your adult teeth will grow in their place. Most people lose their baby teeth from the ages of six to 12 years old. You should not feel any pain when you lose your baby teeth, and soon, your adult teeth will grow in to take their place. Once they’ve all grown in, you will have 32 adult permanent teeth. It’s important to take good care of your adult teeth so you won’t have to worry about cavities or other dental problems when you grow up.

Sometimes, teeth can grow in a little bit crooked, and your dentist might recommend braces. Braces are a thin metal device that your dentist will put on your teeth to help “train” them to grow in more straight. This will help improve your smile and make sure that all of your adult teeth are growing in correctly. If you need braces, don’t worry. They will not be there forever, and over time, your dentist will allow you to get them removed once your teeth correct themselves. Be sure to take great care of your adult teeth just like you did with your baby teeth so you can have good oral health throughout your lifetime.

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