 Hello everybody, Andrew Majeski here with dental and mobile hygiene. So this week I've been talking about kids and you know, infants and just how to look out for their oral health because their teeth are so important. What they eat is so important not only for their overall health but for their teeth as well. And typically when I see a young child in the dental office with five, six cavities they could use it usually easily be prevented. So I like to kind of talk about prevention and it's not as simple as just limiting their sugar. It's not as simple as brushing their teeth, but it's about brushing the teeth. Well, it's about you will probably have to brush the teeth for them if they are kicking and you know, saying no, no, no, you still have to get in there to brush the teeth and you need to start young because yes, they're not going to like it. They're not going to like you, but it has to be done. I typically like to see children in the office anywhere from age two to three because even if I can't polish the teeth or do too much, they can still see me. They can meet me. They can have a nice positive experience even at the age of even one or two. They're not going to remember me or say, but they're going to have a good experience. And and I can look inside the mouth to make sure that I don't see any early problems that if we catch them early enough can actually stop them or I might have to say to you, you know what, it looks like they have a cavity already. So you need to kick it up a notch and you know, do this, this and this to stop more from happening. So it does help for me to look at them for you because you don't necessarily know what to look for, right? Or even if you see something inside a two year old's mouth and say, oh, I think that's a stain. It could be a cavity. I don't know. Well, I can let you know. And the nice thing is, is that any anybody from the ages of one, two, three, I do see them and I do not charge for that. So because I do understand that I can't do anything. Like I can't polish typically, clean the teeth, anything like that. But I can at least look in there for you. So money shouldn't be a a, you know, a when I try to say money shouldn't be the issue of why you're not coming to bring your one year old and two year old and three year old in just to make sure that everything's OK. I I I do, depending on the child, I'd like to see the child age three to actually start to hopefully clean the teeth. So even if I can polish in there a little bit, that lets them start to get comfortable. Whereas if I start to polish their teeth age six, they're asking questions like, well, what is that? What the heck is that? Is that going to hurt what's happening? You know, but if you get them in early enough, I show them everything. I do like to explain everything. So then age, you know, four, five, six and above, they're comfortable. They say, OK, I'm just here to get my teeth cleaned. Do what you have to do. You know, so it just helps to see them earlier, see them often, and they will have a much better dental experience. But things that you can do at home is kind of the obvious where don't give sugar if you can help it. When I see a four year old drinking pop, that makes me very nervous. Try to give your child as much water as possible. If you give them, say, you know, apple juice, orange juice, that is OK. But try to water it down because apple juice has a lot of sugar. Orange juice has a lot of sugar. But I do also understand that, you know, kids want more than water all the time, right, makes perfect sense, but try to water it down. Because if you do start doing that, they won't know any better. And they they will still like it if you've been giving them, you know, orange juice, apple juice, and you're thinking, well, if I start to water it down now, they're going to notice just water it down a little bit. And then that will get them used to it. And then they won't even notice over time. But one of the most important things that I can mention for infants is to not give milk with them at nighttime. So if you're putting them down to sleep or even for a nap, do not give them a bottle of milk, if they need to have something with them, give them a bottle of water. But never milk because milk has sugar in it. So if they're constantly having that and then they, you know, slowly start to fall asleep, they probably still have that. In their mouth and that sugar is just sitting there. I see it often where kids have a mouthful of cavities and it's not the parent's fault. It's it's because they were not told to not send their child to bed with milk. So it could be at any any age. Do not send them to bed with milk. If you are, then I do suggest and and you might be thinking, well, if I stop now, they're not going to be happy and I need to get sleep. So come on, you know, so if that's happening, then water it down so then eventually they don't like the taste and they won't ask like ask for it anymore. You know, so that's just something that I suggest parents and it does work because they're not going to like you even more if you take them to the dentist and they have to fix five different cavities in the mouth. On a three year old, that's very difficult. They will probably have to put him or her to sleep. And that's just not a nice experience overall, you know, having to say to your child, well, they're going to put you to sleep to fix your cavities. Yes, that might be a better alternative than to have them watch us, you know, fix their cavities. They have to get a needle, but it's just not a good dental experience where that kind of sets them off off the bat of so every time they go to the dentist, it's because I did something wrong. It's it's because there's something bad inside the mouth. And unfortunately at a dental office, you know, we tend to not, you know, yell at the parents, of course not, but we will say to the parents, look inside the mouth. This is not supposed to be happening. But the kid can see and hear that and they go, oh, like, what did I do wrong? Like, why are they mad at my parents? Like, why are my parents mad at me? You know, so it's a whole thing where we don't want that to happen. So as a quick, I guess, recap, and I've been talking about this all week because it's so important, but if you don't know, you don't know. It's not your fault. So please spread the word. Do not send your, you know, infant, toddler, child to bed with milk. Even like apple juice, orange juice, none of that because it has a lot of sugar. Yes, it might help them sleep, but they will get a mouthful of cavities and that can cause pain. So instead, if they need something to go to bed, send them to bed with water. If they don't like that initially, then water down that milk, that orange juice, that apple juice, and then hopefully they won't like the taste and they will stop asking for it because that's what causes cavities. Try to give them water as much as possible for lunch, dinner, any time. Water as much as possible. If they like to have something else, then water it down. You know, I would put in just a little bit of apple juice, but a lot of water. You know, water it down because that liquid that sits there, sits there and causes cavities because every time somebody has sugar, it doesn't matter if it's a child or an adult, it will sit there for 20 minutes of that full acid attack. So I do talk about acid attacks in another video. I think I did it last week, but just pretty much acid attacks sit there for 20 minutes and eat away at the teeth one by one. And that's what causes cavities. If you have another sip, that's another 20 more minutes of acid attack. If you eat another bite of candy, chips, whatever, that's another 20 minutes of acid attack that's sitting there and sitting there and sitting there. Kids, adults, it doesn't matter. You know, think about your morning coffee if you have sugar in your coffee. That's an acid attack with every single sip, by the way, 20 minutes of acid attack in the mouth. So even for adults, I do always say have a cup of water with your coffee. At the very least, rinse your mouth out with water after you have the coffee. After every sip is ideal, but I know that that just doesn't happen, right? So just rinse the mouth after your coffee. But for children, we're talking about children here, and hopefully they're not having coffee, water as much as possible and make sure to have them in to see your dental hygienist so that she can check the teeth. Check to make sure that that everything looks OK. I like to see my child patients age two, even age one, just so I can have a look in there to make sure that things look OK. And that isn't something that I do charge for. So from the ages up to three, that isn't something that I do charge for because I want to be able to look in there and tell you, hopefully, that you are doing everything right. Or, you know, I think there's a cavity starting here. We need to do something about it now, you know, so it doesn't get worse. So I do like to kind of offer that insight for you. Yeah, so I hope that helped. If you guys have any questions or if I didn't talk about something that you would like to know, please do let me know because I am more than happy to help and have a good weekend. I will see you guys in the next one.