The Kindergarten students at McPolin Elementary School are taking care of their baby teeth in the classroom and they are doing a good job.
Just before Easter week-end, I visited the kindergarten students at McPolin Elementary School. I wanted to see how they and their teachers were all doing with our flossing and brushing after lunch pilot project.
Children taking care of baby teeth in the classroom was a beautiful sight and music to my ears.
Oral Hygiene school programs are about targeting the disease known as caries wisely. And there is no better place to begin than with baby teeth. Many studies show that supervised brushing in school leads to a reduced rate of caries that lasts well beyond the end of such programs. On the other hand, the rate of relapse after fillings is very high.
Children don’t wake up one day and suddenly they have a cavity or even worse an abscess. No, by the time there is a hole in a tooth, swelling in the face or pus oozing out of the gums, the disease, caries, has been present for months, even years. In some cultures, there is a deeply held belief that baby teeth are not important because they eventually fall off.
Reduced to its simplest expression, caries needs 3 elements in order to progress: carbohydrates, bacteria and teeth. Eliminate only one of these 3 elements and caries is no longer possible.
This is what school oral hygiene programs do: they wage a war against bacteria with floss and toothbrush. Add to this mix xylitol, a safe-to-swallow product scientificaly known to reduce the number of cavity-causing bacteria and we have an opportunity to make progress against the most common disease in the world: caries
What is really interesting to witness is the enthusiasm these little children have for flossing and brushing. Even more exciting is that they bring their enthusiasm home with them, influencing their families in the process. When dealing with populations at risk and cultures that don’t value oral health or the importance of taking care of baby teeth, this behavior can have a big impact and this is why school programs are so important.
Some parents have reported that it is much easier for them to get their child to brush at home now. That is music to my ears too.
The other good news is that this behavior will impact adult teeth and oral health for a lifetime.