3 Tips to help children enjoy a visit to the family dentist

The holidays are upon us.All of you know what that means, participating in family traditions. What traditions does your family take part in? Decorating your house for the holidays? Spending time with your family members? Writing and sending holiday cards? Did we forget anything? Oh that’s right…sugary junk food!! While our children may love these foods, they aren’t so sweet for their teeth.

Let’s be honest. There are many things to tempt our children all year round. But it’s doubly worse when it comes to the holidays. The holiday season is filled to the brim with sugary foods and liquids: candies, cookies, sodas and eggnog. All are delicious and all are nearly irresistible to children. That’s where we come in. Here are three tips that can help you guide your child through the holidays cavity-free.

1. Incentive Treats: During the holidays, most families leave cookies or candies out for consumption 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Instead, put sweets away and use them as incentives for good behavior, especially good behavior that relates to all the things that must be done around the holidays: Did junior help father with the holiday lights? Reward him with a treat. Did your daughter help wrap some presents for relatives? Allow her to grab a cookie from the kitchen. Try to stay away from having an unending and unguarded supply of sweets. Dispense them for a reason and with prejudice.
2. Limit Hard Candies: Hard candies take a long time to break down before dissolving. Because of this, the sugar in the candy is bathing your teeth in a sugar bath. Limit hard candies as much as possible.
3. Relatives: The best laid holiday dental care plans can be upended by the well intentioned actions of relatives. Before you and your extended family get together, let your relatives know that you are taking a more watchful eye over your child’s holiday eating habits. With the cooperation of your relatives, your kid’s teeth should come through the holiday season unscathed.