The plaque developers in children. Dental cleaning

Tooth brushing must be complete and effective. If we do not clean all the teeth on all surfaces, including the interdental, we expose ourselves to decay and gingivitis with the tranquility and confidence that gives us having brushed and believing that we have done well. With our children we also hav

With our children we also have the difficulty of not allowing them to brush easily, we have to distract them so that they keep their mouths open and take as little time as possible. Sometimes, then, we settle for having put the brush in your mouth, to have given four passes and four sweeps and now. We do not think about the stickiness of sugar, the delicacy for cariogenic bacteria. Very sticky and a simple pass with the brush does not eliminate all the remains of food. To make us an idea, remember the chapapote on the rocks: that black and viscous substance in the mouth turns out to be whitish, and since it is the same color as the tooth, we do not eliminate it completely at times.

How to know if the child has brushed his or her teeth well

Checking the brushing quality is fairly easy if bacterial plaque developers are used. These products stain the plate that we have not eliminated despite all the efforts, either because we have forgotten to go through certain areas, or because we have not insisted enough. Staining with a plaque developer will show it by coloring the fuchsia areas where we should insist more.

The way of use is as follows: first we brush the child as we usually do. Then the plate developer. In babies you can make with the product in the form of drops, wetting a cotton ball and brushing all the teeth. In older children sucking half a tablet for a couple of minutes and then spitting and rinsing, just once, to remove the excess. And we observe and look, if possible helped by good light and a small make-up mirror (a mirror like the one that dentists have would be ideal). The intensely tinted areas have to be brushed again. Then we go back to brush and again we check. We will be surprised how sometimes even the third is not won.

We can repeat this test every 3-4 days until we see that we do it better, and we can distance it from its realization.

If the parents use the plate developer in our own mouth we will see the difficulty of the matter and we will understand the importance of personally performing brushing in children under 6-7 years of age and supervising it until 12-13. It is also particularly useful in orthodontic patients. So from now on we will not have excuses to see even an atom of dirt in the mouth.