Why Kids Should Have Good Oral Care Habits and the #HDASurvey

Hey All!

Did you know that 67% of U.S. Hispanics rate their overall oral health as “excellent”or “good”…yet two-thirds experienced at least one oral health issue in the past year? To me this is unacceptable in my opinion. Being a Hispanic woman I grew up with a Mother who always taught me to take care of my teeth because gingivitis runs heavily in my family. My grandmother and aunt were both in dentures at an early age and it’s partly because they didn’t take care of their teeth well enough. I’ve always taken very good care of my teeth and I have passed that practice along to my teen since I don’t want him to have dental issues when he’s older.  I’ve always tried to teach him to do the big three, BRUSH, FLOSS, AND RINSE. I have always taught him brushing isn’t enough and we need to floss and rinse to ensure we don’t get cavities. That has always been a super important practice I passed on to my teen.

We’ve been lucky for the past few years that he doesn’t even have cavities and I’m super grateful for that. I’ve always tried to make brushing his teeth fun being that he’s using his favorite spider man tooth brush or I would play land the airplane in which the tooth brush was the air plane and it needed to land in his mouth. Simple games to make brushing fun so that as he got older he never minded brushing his teeth. I’m really glad I always have taken dental health seriously since I just learned about a recent survey conducted about Hispanics dental health.


In a recent national survey led by the Hispanic Dental Association (HDA) and sponsored by Crest and Oral-B found that, when compared to the general population, many Hispanics in the U.S. are facing barriers to achieving better oral health. Specifically, the majority of U.S. Hispanics believe more information about good oral health habits, access to affordable oral health care, and more Hispanic and Spanish-speaking dentists and dental hygienists in their communities would help them in achieving better oral health.

The survey also shows that there are many misconceptions among Hispanics about oral care. We should find a means to educate ourselves about dental health and then our children. The infographic below shows some of the survey results and misconceptions.

Almost 1/3 of Hispanics surveyed thought that cavities will go away if you brush regularly! They didn’t mention flossing or even knew to do this. Shocking to me really.

I think this is an eye opener for me in particular since I am a Latina Woman. I didn’t know about this issue and I’m glad I do now so I can try to see what I can do to educate my teen even more to ensure he doesn’t end up as one of these survey outcomes.

For more information about the survey you can download the bilingual survey brochure pdf file by clicking the images above or you can find  a Mini-Report at this link: http://bit.ly/rASt1A or a Brochure at this link: http://bit.ly/veqHUq.

You can also visit www.crestcomplete.com/study for more information about the survey!

****Disclosure: I wrote this post while participating in a compensated campaign with Procter & Gamble and Latina Mom Bloggers. However, all opinions expressed are my own.****

Vanessa

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