Love and care, these values aren’t subject to just Valentine’s Day, but also for oral hygiene.

February is National Children’s Dental Health Month and I-SMILE Coordinator for Washington County Public Health Martha Hernandez shares when children should start dental health practices, “The soonest the better. We definitely, even at age one, we start recommending that they see a dentist at the age of one. We try to get our parents to be involved in oral hygiene at home. The kids are never going to do it perfectly so it’s really important that the parents are involved in training them at as young as one, so they can start to getting the technique and starting to learn to take care of their own teeth.”

Hernandez recommends brushing teeth at a 45-degree angle to focus on the gum lines where a lot of bacteria lies. Children should also be taught to floss in a C shape to reach both sides of their teeth.