Summer Dental Tips for You and Your Kids

Having the confidence to smile means working with trusted professionals and taking steps at home to keep teeth clean, healthy, and beautiful. For kids, it’s not as easy to maintain a healthy smile, which is why it’s so important for parents to do their part by encouraging good habits and choosing dental professionals that are knowledgeable, compassionate, and committed to a patient-first approach to dentistry. 

Maintaining oral health can be especially hard during the summer months when the regular routine of the school year is disrupted. Here are a few summer dental tips that will help you to keep your kids on track for optimal oral health until they get back to their regular schedule. 

Prevent Dental Emergencies

Summer is the best time of year to enjoy the great outdoors, and kids will want to participate in activities like water sports, bike riding, baseball, and playing with their friends. Unfortunately, accidents happen and such activities could result in dental emergencies.

Parents can do their part to protect oral health by supervising such activities and making sure kids understand safety rules. This is especially important when kids are in a pool area, where a slippery patio could lead to falls or roughhousing in the pool could result in an inadvertent knock to the mouth. Keeping a first aid kit on hand is also wise, as is knowing what to do in the event of oral trauma. 

Eat Healthy Snacks

It’s tempting to loosen the reins during summer and let kids have all the soda and sugary snacks you deny them the rest of the year, but you’re really better off sticking to your normal routine to preserve oral health (and overall health). You should certainly allow kids to partake of the bounty of sweet summer fruits and veggies, but make sure to remain vigilant about brushing, flossing, and rinsing.

Brush during Vacation

This is a must. Just because you’re on vacation doesn’t mean you’ll let kids stop bathing or maintaining personal hygiene. So why would you let them slack on brushing? When kids are allowed to forego regular dental care on vacation, it’s going to be twice as hard to get them back in the habit once you get home, and their oral health will suffer as a result.

Schedule a Summertime Checkup

Despite your best efforts to maintain proper oral health over the summer, kids are likely to spend weeks at camp, weekends visiting family, and plenty of overnights with their friends. All of these occasions could impact your regular oral health routine. For this reason, it’s best to schedule a dental visit for a checkup and cleaning late in the summer to make sure there aren’t any issues before school starts.

Don’t hesitate to contact us with questions or to schedule an appointment today.

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