PARENTS COULD TRAIN CHILDREN IN CARE OF THEIR TEETH

Taupo Times, Volume VI, Issue 290, 29 August 1957, Page 8

PARENTS COULD TRAIN CHILDREN IN CARE OF THEIR TEETH

"Enrol children at a dental clinic wlien they are two and a-half, watch their diet, and see that they are trained from their earliest years to brush their teeth after each meal," were the words of advice given by a city dental nurse to parents on the care of their children's teeth. It is iinportant that children should be enrolled at the clinic when they are two and a-half, even if their teeth are strong and healthy. To leave the eiirolment until the child is five and starting school often means many fillings and even extractions. Unhappy Attitude To prove her points she showed one five-year-old's ehart, explaining the markings which showed that of the 20 teeth the cliild had, four were to he removed because they were too decayed to fill. "If work like this has to be done in the first few weeks the child is attending us, it does not help to make his attitude toward dental clinics a happy one," said the nurse. "Parents can help to save their children's teeth from deeay too, by training them to brush teeth after each meal. Correct training would make cleaning teeth a habit, just as getting up and going to school in the morning became a habit. "We dental nurses do our best to preserve the children's teeth with filiings and regular eheck-ups, and we feel that parents should follow up with regular supervision," she said. Never Had Toothbrush The matter of tootlibrushes is iinportant, and often attached to the cliild's appointment card is a note asking to bring his toothbrush to his next appointment, so that the correet way to brush teeth inay be sliown. "We have found from experience that 80 per cent. of the children bring along a new brush," said tlie nurse. "We fell that this shows that many of the children have never liad a toothbrush of their own before, or that tlieir old one was not in the best of condition." The age at which a child stops attending the clinic depends on the liurnbers attending, but free dental treatment is still availabje until the age of 16.