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Adults can use the advice in the following list to keep their mouths healthy and their teeth strong:

1. Use fluoride toothpaste and fluoridated water when you clean your teeth.

2. Maintain a healthy mouth. To remove dental plaque, brush your teeth thoroughly twice a day and floss once a day in between your teeth.

3. Regardless of whether you have dentures or no natural teeth, go to the dentist at least once a year.

4. Abstain from using tobacco products. Quit smoking if you do.

5. Don't consume too much alcohol.

6. If you have diabetes, attempt to keep the condition under control. This will reduce the chance of developing other problems, like gum disease. Your blood sugar may be reduced by treating gum disease.

7. Ask your doctor for a different medicine if the one you're taking makes you feel dry-mouthed. If dry mouth cannot be prevented, drink lots of water, chew sugarless gum and stay away from alcohol and tobacco products.

8. If your sense of taste or smell suddenly changes, consult a physician or a dentist.

9. If older adult needs assistance brushing and flossing their teeth because they are unable to do it on their own, assist them.

The following practices will improve a child's oral health:

1. Even before they emerge with teeth, daily wipe the gums of a newborn with a warm, wet washcloth. This helps a baby get used to the sensation of brushing their teeth and removes sugars from the gums.

2. Babies and young children shouldn't sleep with bottles or sippy cups in their hands. Milk and juice both contain sugars that, if left on the teeth for an extended period of time, can result in tooth decay.

3. Begin introducing a baby to a sippy cup as they come closer to their first birthday. By the child's first birthday, try to stop using bottles.

4. Only give toddlers juice or milk at mealtimes and let them sip water from sippy cups between meals.

5. Once a baby has teeth, brush them with a soft baby toothbrush twice daily. Use a tiny, rice-sized amount of fluoride-containing toothpaste. A pea-sized amount of toothpaste can be used by kids ages 3 to 6.

6. Until a youngster is able to completely brush all of their teeth on their own, parents or other adults should do it for them. Make sure they spit the toothpaste out by keeping an eye on them.

7. When not in use, keep the toothpaste out of the hands of youngsters.

8. The ADA advises children to visit a dentist no later than six months after their first tooth appears or at the age of one, whichever comes first.

9. Parents and other adults should avoid giving children their own eating utensils or cleaning pacifiers by putting them in their mouths. Both of these behaviours may transmit to the youngster the bacteria that cause cavities in adults.