Dental Care First, Then Sleep: Why It’s So Important! 

Posted July 12, 2019

You may wonder: Why are we so enthusiast about reminding you to have your children practice their dental hygiene before they snooze for the night? Can’t you just wake them up, have them brush (and floss) and then get back into bed, you wonder? While this is an option, it frequently presents a variety of problems, specifically for kids, that can become detrimental to maintaining effective dental care at home. Consider our Dallas, TX team’s outlook on smile care first, then sleep for a better understanding of how this can make your evenings easier!

Waking Kids To Brush Can Make Dental Care Traumatic

Of course, we want your children to practice their dental hygiene every night (and morning) because it is incredibly important for their oral health. With that said, we remind you that we want your kids to be able to form habits by having positive experiences. Think about what happens when you wake kids up, they’re exhausted, cranky, and start crying because they don’t want to brush and floss. They want to go back to sleep! This can create negative feelings toward dental care, which is counterproductive! Strive to brush and floss first, while kids still have energy (and possibly even smiles on their faces!).

Sleep Followed By Bright Lights Can Yield Sleeplessness

When kids are sleeping, the room is dark, and then they are woken up for dental care and enter a brightly lit bathroom, it can convince their brains (like it can convince yours) that the sun is out! Unfortunately, this can make it very difficult to go back to sleep. Brushing and flossing and then lights out and sleep? A much better plan.

It’s Easy To Say, “Oh Well” With Heavy Sleepers

You might have kids who hop up when you gently whisper, “It’s time to get up!” Or, you may have some very heavy sleepers. As a result, if you let your kids crawl into bed at night or fall asleep on the sofa before dental hygiene, you may find that it’s so much trouble to wake your kiddo, you’re more likely to say, “Oh well!” and decide to simply follow through with getting on track tomorrow. However, this is the sort of thing that can easily become a pattern, which means your child ends up going to sleep without proper brushing and flossing (which means cavities are very likely in the future). Instead, always remember to set a time or a plan for dental care before kids have time to drift off to dreamland. Need help crafting a plan? Just ask for tips during your next checkup.

Ensure Kids Practice Dental Hygiene At Night

Don’t let a little difficulty with getting your child’s nighttime dental care routine streamlined deter you from figuring it all out. Come in to us for help! We can easily identify challenges and help you overcome them with advice! Schedule a visit with your Dallas, TX children’s dentist, Dr. Marr at Pediatric Dental Care at Casa Linda by calling 214-321-4880. We proudly welcome patients from Dallas, TX, and all surrounding communities, including Casa Linda and more.