February is National Children’s Dental Health Month but the cavity-preventing celebrations will look a little different this year. Our dental team usually spends over ten days each February visiting area schools and daycares getting kids excited about brushing, flossing and imparting a greater understanding of the importance of baby teeth. This year we are asking parents, grandparents and caregivers to take the excitement home and try out a fun activity to help teach the children in your life about the importance of healthy mouths and healthy smiles!
The Awesome Egg Experiment
This activity is designed to help kids understand how cavities form on teeth. You can talk about how sugary snacks, fruit juice and soda feed bacteria and produce acid that eats away teeth and causes cavities. But many children learn tactically and will like being able to feel as they learn.
Step 1: Boil an Egg. Give the egg to your child and ask them to feel the hard surface. Have your child look in the mirror and feel their teeth. Compare the hard surface of the egg with the hard surface of the teeth.
Step 2: Acid attack! Place the egg in a bowl of vinegar, covering the entire egg with vinegar. Leave the egg in the vinegar overnight. Talk about how vinegar is an acid like the acid that forms on teeth when bacteria eat sugar. Acid weakens the surface of the egg just like acid from bacteria in plaque weakens the surface of your teeth.
Step 3: Touch the Egg. After bathing in vinegar overnight, the eggshell will be gone and the soft yellow egg will remain. Have your child touch the egg and feel the squishy-softness. Talk about how plaque feeds bacteria. Then the bacteria produce acid and eat away the teeth, causing soft areas called cavities.
The Great Cookie Experiment!
Certain foods are more likely to cause cavities. Kids can learn to understand what foods will cause more problems for their teeth. Sugary, sticky foods have high substantivity and stick around for a while on the teeth. Your children can learn to recognize cavity-causing foods and either avoid them or at least remember to brush well afterwards.
Step 1: Eat an Oreo. Or two.
Step 2: Have your child look in the mirror and use your cell phone camera to take a picture of the molar teeth. The grooves of the molars will be filled with black cookie residue. Brush the cookie residue away.
Step 3: Eat a few apple, banana or orange slices. Have your child look in the mirror and take a picture of the molar teeth. Show your child the difference in what the healthy snack and the cookie snack left behind on their molar teeth. Talk about the importance of brushing, especially after unhealthy snacks that leave behind a sugary goo on the molar teeth. Talk about how food stuck in the grooves of molar teeth can cause cavities if it is not brushed away.
Whether you choose to do a fun oral-health activity with your child, or you take an extra minute brushing your child’s teeth, we can all find a small way to have a big impact in a child’s life. Tooth decay is preventable and your child’s dentist can work with you to develop an action plan for a lifetime of healthy smiles.
-by Dr. Mandy Ashley and Dr. Madison Galloway
About the authors: Dr. Mandy Ashley and Dr. Madison Galloway are Board Certified Pediatric Dentists proud to serve the communities of Bowling Green, Hopkinsville and Glasgow! Our goal is excellent comprehensive dental care that is fun for children. We are thrilled to now offer our modern, kid-friendly dental practice at our newest location in GLASGOW!
SKY Pediatric Dentistry has been providing dental care to children and adults with special needs since 2013. As board-certified specialists in dentistry for children, our team strives to make going to the dentist as fun as possible while maintaining high quality treatment and preventative measures. We tailor treatment plans to each child and offer a wide range of treatment options, including sedation, in-office general anesthesia and also hospital-based dentistry. With over 25 YEARS of doctor experience, SKY Pediatric Dentistry is a great choice for children’s dental care in Bowling Green, Hopkinsville and now Glasgow, too!
