News from Synergy Dental Care: Don’t let Easter ruin your teeth

News from Synergy Dental Care: Don’t let Easter ruin your teeth: Easter has always been a time to celebrate with family and friends. Originally involving the trading of eggs painted in bright colours,...

Don’t let Easter ruin your teeth

Easter has always been a time to celebrate with family and friends. Originally involving the trading of eggs painted in bright colours, this tradition has evolved into a chance to gorge on something less healthy - the chocolate Easter egg.

While it’s an exciting time for children, Easter egg hunts and their sugary prizes can spell disaster for their teeth. So, how can you make sure you protect your child’s teeth without ruining their fun?

Here at Synergy Dental Care, Dr. Richard Armishaw offers some helpful tips on ensuring your kid’s teeth remain in great shape over the Easter period - no matter how many chocolate eggs they munch their way through!

According to Richard, children can still enjoy the abundance of Easter confectionary without running the risk of damaging their smiles. The trick is to encourage them to eat sweets at the end of a meal, rather than constantly nibbling throughout the day: “Contrary to popular belief, frequent eating of sugary food and drinks is far worse for the teeth than the volume children actually eat. After eating sugar, teeth are under acid attack for up to an hour, so if you can reduce the number of occasions your child eats sugar throughout the day, you also limit the amount of time that their teeth are susceptible. This is really important over Easter when children eat more sugary foods than normal.”

A good tip to help manage sweets and chocolates is to put them in a special box or tin and allow your children to choose some to eat at the end of a meal. During Easter, introduce sweets at mealtimes only, with perhaps one additional snack. Your child’s teeth will be able to withstand those four attacks of sugar and acid, and after cleaning their teeth before bed you can also go to sleep with a clear conscience!

Be aware of danger factors as children naturally prefer sweet food, the challenge for parents is to balance giving them the food they love while at the same time looking out for their teeth and gums.

Richard reminds parents that there is no shame in letting the kids have a little of what they fancy at Easter: “Parents simply need to be aware of the danger factors for teeth - sugar and acid.

Knowing how to combat them means that foods containing sugar do not need to be avoided altogether.”

Richard  suggests using the Easter school holidays as a good time to brush up on children’s teeth care habits: “School holidays give parents a bit more time to check that children are brushing their teeth properly. Dentists recommend children brush their teeth using fluoride toothpaste for two minutes once in the morning and once at night. “I’d also recommend that you encourage your children to spit rather than rinse. Rinsing after brushing reduces the effectiveness of fluoride, so don’t rinse it all away.

“Another fun way of encouraging children to brush their teeth properly is to give them plaque-disclosing tablets. These turn the mouth dark blue in areas where there’s plaque left and show you where you need to brush more. These are available from dentists and chemists and are less than £2 for a packet.”

If you need guidance on helping your children to brush their teeth correctly then why not pop along to the Synergy Dental Care over the school holiday, where our Arina our Dental Therapist will be happy to show your kids brushing techniques.

COFFEE & CAKE DAY IN AID OF HELP FOR HEROES

Here at Synergy we’ll be popping on our pinnies and getting out the recipe books again in time for another great ‘Coffee & Cake Day’ on April 23rd in aid of the wonderful Help for Heroes charity.

It’s open to everyone – patients and non-patients alike – and every penny raised from your generous donations will help support service men and women who have suffered life-changing injuries.

There’ll be a mouth-watering array of treats available on the day, including our now famous coffee cake, ginger cake, chocolate cake and cupcakes. Yummy!

There will also be a chance for you to meet the Synergy team as you relax with a coffee in the informal surroundings of our Tunstall Road, Biddulph, practice.

Why not bring a friend too? The event runs all day and you’ll be making a valuable contribution to a very worthwhile cause.

So please support us on Tuesday April 23rd for our big charity event of the year. It’s a piece of cake!