While you want to fostering healthy habits in your kids, discouraging poor ones is equally important to your child’s pediatric dental care. Improper care of baby teeth can affect the upcoming permanent set, so the sooner bad habits are stopped, the better your child’s dental health will be. Here are four habits you should keep your children from doing to protect their teeth.

4 Bad Pediatric Dental Habits

1. Biting or Chewing on Items

Some young children tend to bite whatever is in reach, from plastic toys to crayons. Older kids may bite their nails, eat ice cubes, chew on pens or pencils, and gnaw on fruit pits. While the damage may not be immediately noticeable, these habits can eventually leave tiny cracks in their tooth enamel, which may result in worse pediatric dental problems like advanced decay and infection.

2. Using Teeth to Open Packages

Ribbon, string, paper, plastic—kids tend to use their teeth to cut or tear through materials, especially when there are presents around. This can put excessive pressure on your child’s teeth at odd angles, leading to cracked, chipped, broken, or knocked out teeth. Instead, teach them to use scissors or appropriate tools to open packages.

3. Eating Sugary Snacks Throughout the Day

Snacking throughout the day, especially on sugary items, exposes kids’ teeth to more bacteria, putting them at higher risk for cavities and decay. Limit your children’s snacking times, and make sure they have healthy options like fruit or cheese.

4. Grinding Teeth

Bruxism, or teeth grinding, strains the jaw, gums, muscles, and teeth, causing faster dental wear, higher risk for tooth fractures, and eventual misalignment, if ignored. Symptoms will present as painful jaw movement, headaches, stiffness and clicking noises in the jaw, and otherwise unexplained dental injuries. Often, high stress levels, sleeping disorders, and malocclusions cause teeth grinding. A dental professional can provide a mouthguard to prevent damage until the issue is resolved.

When your kids need expert pediatric dental care to remedy damage from bad habits, bring them to Pediatric Dentistry Kahala in Honolulu, HI. For more than 30 years, Dr. Allen K. Hirai has offered pediatric dental care, including sealants, fillings, and cleanings. His team will educate your child on the importance of dental health while keeping them entertained and engaged. Learn more about their general pediatric dental care online, and call (808) 737-0076 to schedule an appointment today.