Campaign aims to develop good oral health from birth
Brush Up on Oral Health! also has guidelines for parents to follow.
TUESDAY MARCH 13, 2018
WRITTEN BY MATTHEW NOJIRI, Reading Eagle
Dr. Valerie Deibler provides a common set of dental guidelines to parents with young children.
For one, parents shouldn’t send their kids to bed with a sippy cup full of juice. The sugar and acid in juice is not good for their teeth, and it’s even worse when babies are taking it in through a bottle or sippy cup.
As those baby teeth start to come in, parents should be brushing their child’s teeth, she said.
“They should be brushing their teeth and brushing their child’s teeth until they are old enough to do them on their own,” said Deibler, a Wyomissing dentist. “When they can tie their own shoes, they have the manual dexterity to brush their own teeth.”
Deibler is part of the Brush Up on Oral Health! campaign convened by the Berks County Community Foundation to improve oral health in Berks County, following a four-year effort among area dentists, community groups, physicians and others to find ways to improve dental health of county residents.