How Good Chewing Manners Promote Oral Health!

Posted September 11, 2019

Of course, you would love for your children to be the picture of mealtime etiquette! With that said, while guiding your childredn toward good chewing manners (and table manners) in general is certainly a polite thing to do, remember that it’s often also very beneficial for their oral health! To help you feel even more motivated about encouraging kiddos to use a fork and knife, and more, our Dallas, TX team has some interesting tidbits to share with you!

Using A Fork And Knife

There’s no question that teaching your children to use a fork, knife, and spoon, too, is to their benefit. You don’t want your children to grow up having no idea how to use these utensils and to simply eat everything with their hands! With that said, we are happy to remind you that this is beneficial for their oral health, as well! Remember that trying to bite into foods that are too hard to break apart with teeth can be detrimental to oral health. Teeth can break, jaws can become stressed. Using a fork and knife to cut food down into bite-size pieces is a good thing.

Using Any Additional Utensils

Are you eating nuts at the table together that are still in their shells? Again, we remind you that it’s wonderful to teach kiddos to use additional utensils and appliances that will help them to break hard-to-eat foods down, so they are never relying on their teeth and jaws in order to get a (very hard) job done. Instead, reaching for a nutcracker rather than trying to remove a shell with teeth can save your children from dealing with broken teeth and serious restorative dental care.

Chewing Thoroughly (And Slowly)

We are certain that you’d prefer your children take nice, small bites, and then chew in a way that is polite. While this may seem all about table manners, remember that not biting off more than one can chew (and then forcing teeth and jaws to break it down slowly but surely) is actually extremely beneficial to one’s oral health! Trying to use lots of force and pushing jaws to their limits can promote jaw joint problems down the line.

Help Your Children Develop Wonderful Smile Habits

Keep scheduling dental checkups and cleanings with us every six months, so your child continues to develop wonderful habits with his or her oral health and home dental care. We will see you soon! 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.