Is Oral Health a Back-to-School Stress?

Survey suggests kids’ oral health is top parent concern

It’s back to school time! The beginning of the school year is exciting, but it can be stressful. As kids get involved in their classes, activities and friends, parents can become overwhelmed just trying to keep up with everything. And new evidence shows that kids’ oral health is one of those things keeping parents up at night. 
 
As part of the Children's Oral Health Survey, Delta Dental Plan Association surveyed more than 1,000 parents of children ages 6 to 12 between December 2015 and January 2016.
 
Among those parents, 71 percent cited their child’s oral health as a top concern they think about daily. This was higher than school grades (61 percent), personal finances (62 percent), and child’s physical activity (55 percent).
 
And it seems as though that concern is well placed. The same group of parents reported that their children missed roughly 9,067,082 full school days due to an oral health problem.
 
Another study reported on in the American Journal of Public Health showed that children with poor oral health status were nearly 3 times more likely than were their counterparts to miss school as a result of dental pain. And, absences caused by pain were associated with poorer school performance, but absences for routine care were not.
 
So parents, your stress is perhaps well placed. But the best way to ease this worry is to make sure your kids are doing what they need to do to keep their mouths healthy. That means brushing daily with fluoride, flossing, eating right and getting regular dental check ups.
 
There’s so much to think about this time of year – don’t let oral health worries be one of them! Schedule your family’s routine dental checkups now.