Habits such as mouth breathing, snoring while sleeping, and lip biting can also cause children to have uneven teeth, in addition to dental caries
Oral health is an important part of overall health. Recently, at the Shanghai Health Lecture hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, the Shanghai Municipal Health Promotion Commission Office and the Shanghai Health Promotion Center, experts revealed that dental caries is one of the most common diseases that harms the oral health of children in my country. It is recommended that children under 6 years old Children who are older than 6 years old can have oral examinations every six months.
Wang Jun, director of the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, said that if you want to have a pair of neat and beautiful teeth, in addition to blocking the "enemy" of tooth decay, you must also eliminate many "stumbling blocks", such as lip opening. Showing teeth, breathing through the mouth, snoring while sleeping, habitually biting the lower lip or pencil, sticking out the tongue, etc.
"Take mouth breathing as an example. It may be due to rhinitis, adenoid hypertrophy and other reasons that affect the smoothness of the respiratory tract, which in turn leads to mouth breathing. Long-term mouth breathing will cause the tongue to be in the wrong position in the mouth, which will affect the bite, facial shape and dentition. Wang Jun said, "When the tongue is resting, the lips should be closed, the tongue should be raised, and the tongue should be placed about 3 to 5 mm behind the upper front teeth. The child's tongue can be judged by the 'swallowing' method. Is the position of the tongue correct? If the tongue position is correct, the swallowing action can be completed only by the throat muscles; if the tongue position is incorrect, the oral cavity must be closed by the perioral muscles, that is, the saliva can be swallowed. It is correct to say that the child's lips do not move when swallowing saliva; if the lips are forced when swallowing saliva, there is a problem with the position of the tongue. After this problem occurs, it is recommended that parents take their children to the dental department of the hospital for treatment, and the doctor will use appropriate measures. Orthotics will improve it.”
For school-age children, regular oral examinations are mainly to achieve early detection, early diagnosis and early treatment of tooth decay. But every child’s risk factors for tooth decay are different. For example, compared to second-grade children, fifth-grade children have very strong oral cleaning abilities and may have a smaller risk of tooth decay than second-grade children, so the frequency of oral examinations can be appropriately reduced. Therefore, experts recommend that children younger than 6 years old have an oral examination every quarter, and children older than 6 years old can have an oral examination every six months.
In addition, diet is also a factor that affects the development of children's teeth. Wang Jun said: "During the growth and development stage, bones and dental arches are also developing, and they need certain stimulation to develop better. Parents can consciously feed their children foods rich in crude fiber. Chewing is not only important for the arrangement of teeth. It is important to help the replacement of deciduous teeth and permanent teeth. For example, when eating an apple, do not cut it into small pieces, but give the whole apple to the child and let him bite it slowly, which is beneficial to tooth development. "
Hou Lili, Director of the Nursing Department of the Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, said: Children should develop a good habit of brushing their teeth at least once in the morning and once in the evening every day from an early age, for at least 3 minutes each time, and use a health-care toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste. To clean between teeth, you can use dental floss or a toothbrush to assist in cleaning. Toothbrushes should be replaced every 3 months.
This event is a supporting activity of Shanghai’s “National Science Popularization Day” and the “Serving People’s Health Action” national large-scale free clinic activity week.
