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By AUGUSTINE ODUOR
Most children insist on brushing their teeth on their own.
But experts want parents to assist their children in ensuring oral health. Alfred Owiti, Nairobi Provincial Dental Officer, said children are more susceptible to dental diseases due to poor oral habits.
Speaking during the World Oral Health, he said parents have a crucial role to play in encouraging their children to get into good oral health habits from a young age.
He said children who brush their teach with fluoridated toothpaste without close supervision most of the time swallow it posing health risks to them. “When they swallow paste a bacteria forms at the throat.
Some escape into the blood stream causing infections that lodge in heart valves. This damages the heart valves,” he said.
The toothpaste also gets into their blood stream and developing teeth, making bones and teeth brittle and prone to fractures.
Non-floridated
He said children should be guided and under age five provided with non-fluoridated paste until they know it is wrong to swallow paste.
“Twice-daily brushing should begin as soon as the baby teeth begin to erupt and will need to be performed or supervised by an adult until children are around six years of age,” he said.
“There are specially formulated pastes for children especially for those under age two,” said Mr Antony Esyalai, Colgate marketing manager.
“Research has shown that when children are taught good habits they are likely to carry them into adulthood,” said Owiti.
A recent survey by British Dental Health Foundation reveal most parents failed to help their children look after their teeth properly. The study says more than one in five under-fives brush their teeth unsupervised.
“If they are not taught they take bad habits into adulthood which results into gum diseases that is linked to diabetes, strokes and heart diseases.” says Owiti.
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