What Habits Are Hurting You?

Everyone must floss at least once a day because it’s really the only tool that can get in between the teeth, where the harmful bacteria can hide. Children or parents who have difficulty using a regular floss can use a disposable flosser, with a handle, which makes it easier to get floss between the teeth. Children need help with flossing typically much longer than brushing, so you may need to floss for them for years before they’re ready to do it on their own. Now that you know you need to floss, let’s learn how to choose a great one. As with everything else you put in your mouth and the mouths of your children, safety must be a priority. A healthy mouth should never bleed while flossing. So, if you see blood in the sink, you either have gum disease or you’re using a floss that’s too harsh and irritating on the gums. Having said that, there are plenty of safe and effective floss materials such as silk, nylon, or polyester, and waxes like beeswax, that you and your children can comfortably enjoy while caring for your mouths. With your mouth you can kiss, taste, smile, sing an aria, start a riot, laugh when you’re happy, cry when you’re hurt, calm an infant, and shout from the rooftops. In very real ways, every day, your mouth makes life meaningful. Your tongue, teeth, lips, and palate make it possible to form words, and with words you can communicate complex ideas. The human mouth is responsible for our civilization.

Fear Is An Assassin

But, just as a mouth can make life meaningful, it can take life away. An unhealthy mouth is dangerous and goes hand in hand with an unhealthy body. It’s both a cause and an effect. A healthy mouth is fundamental for a healthy life. In fact, it’s hard to have a good life without a healthy mouth. It’s time dentists and physicians started working together to treat patients. The mouth is the gateway to the body, and the body, in turn, affects the mouth. Dentists and physicians need to join forces and build bridges between the branches of health care. Our bodies are all about keeping balance too. Remember, your body is a community. Microbes live on and inside of you all the time, and they keep you healthy or make you sick, depending on how well they are balanced and maintained. All of this contributes to your oral health and whether or not you develop illnesses.

Can't Keep This From You

We don’t suddenly end up with an anxiety disorder or chronic depression. The roots of most of life’s challenges are in childhood, and if they’re not addressed at the time, they gradually change the direction of our lives. These changes happen so slowly we might not notice, until one day, we don’t recognize the person in the mirror. What is it going to take to turn things around? We will have to shift our thinking, values, and social norms to focus on whole body health. We must consider feeding bodies and microbes rather than taste buds. We must expect our government to support the wholesome food, access to health care, and clean environments we all need to thrive. We have a million different types of content about weight loss. We have a massive fitness industry. Where’s the show about healthy teeth? Why no mouth care videos? When celebrities share their health secrets, brushing and flossing are never on the list. Oral care is critically important for living a healthy, successful life and for raising healthy, successful kids. Our government, culture, and the media are doing us all a disservice. Changing the tide on public health is such a big challenge, it can feel overwhelming to even think about it.

Get It Right The First Time

My advice is to start with what you have the power to change. When you zoom in from the big picture to the family, and even further to the individual, change starts to feel easier. Just look at your own life. What habits are hurting you? Do you have personal obstacles like fear of dentistry or misplaced priorities that get in the way? How are you caring for your family’s oral health at home? What are you eating that might be better left in the sealed, colorful bag on the grocery store shelf? What if we could go back in time, knowing what we know now, and do things a little differently? Luckily, we have that opportunity. If you have children, you also have the power to create a very different story for them. And that story will continue because these habits are learned. Building this good health into the next generation is a revolutionary act! This is how cultures change. Maybe you worried about getting a good education, landing a solid career, or finding that special person. Then you had your child, and everything changed. My child is everything. How do I know this about you? Because this is exactly what happened to me too. This isn’t to say being a parent is all joy. Being a parent is tough. It’s the key to psychological health too. Everything starts here. This isn’t taught in schools, though I hope someday it will be. But that doesn’t make it any less true. This is powerful information that can quite literally change your family’s life. Not only is a child’s mouth the gateway to their body, it’s also malleable and flexible, just like the child. As such, childhood is the best time to establish lifelong habits, and to address many early issues that could cause big problems down the road. Raising children to have good oral care habits is the ultimate example of preventative medicine. The American Dental Association reports that parents consistently put their kids’ dental care before their own. Often, parents feel like they can manage good care for only one family member, and that family member is going to be the child. Caring for your child means being healthy enough to care for your child.