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Spring check-up
By Felicity Youngward
Spring brings feelings of awakening. From a health point of view, you can ask yourself what is in store for your ‘spring check-up.’ It is a time to take care of yourself and your family. Up-to-date immunizations and regular dental check-ups keep us healthy.
Immunizations
Vaccines are safe, effective and necessary, with huge benefits — all through our lives. Vaccines provide immunity that protects you from disease without the risk of the infection.
Here’s how vaccines work:
Vaccines contain a small amount of the germs or parts of the germs that cause disease. The germs in vaccines are either killed or weakened so they can’t make you sick.- When you receive a vaccine, your body thinks the small amount of the disease germ is the disease itself, and your immune system starts creating antibodies (proteins that destroy disease germs).
- The antibodies destroy the vaccine germs just as they would the disease germs (like a training exercise).
- These antibodies stay with you for a long time and remember how to fight off the germ. If the real disease (not the vaccine) enters your body in the future, the antibodies are ready to fight it off before it has a chance to make you sick.
- Often, your body remembers how to fight a germ for the rest of your life. However, sometimes you need a booster dose of a vaccine to remind your body how to fight off certain germs.
It’s just like a dress rehearsal for your immune system so it is prepared for the ‘real show’ (the disease).
Most vaccines need more than one dose over time to produce full protection. That’s why it’s important to follow the immunization schedule – it gives the best protection with the fewest doses of each vaccine (www.immunizebc.ca).
Call the Cranbrook Health Unit to check your immunizations, 250-420-2207.
National Oral Health Month ‘Five Steps to Oral Health’ (www.cda-adc.ca)
1. Keep your child’s mouth clean – Did you know you can start cleaning your child’s mouth even before your child has teeth. Use a clean wet cloth to wipe gums daily.
Young children are not able to clean their own teeth. Brush your child’s teeth at least twice a day with a smear of fluoride toothpaste. Use floss too. When children are brushing/flossing their own teeth, you should check to make sure your child does a good job.
2. Check your child’s mouth regularly – Cavities are the main problem children have with their teeth. When you brush their teeth, lift their lip and look along the gum line for any changes in colour. White or brown lines along the gum could mean the start of tooth decay.
Children can get gum disease too, just like adults. Warning signs include bad breath, sensitive gums which are red, sore, shiny or swollen, and gums which bleed after brushing or flossing. If your child’s gums bleed, brush them.
3. Eat well – Good nutrition helps build strong gums and teeth. Eat mouth healthy snacks like cheeses, nuts, popcorn, vegetables and non-acid fruits.
Sugar is a major cause of dental problems. Soda and juice have sugar. Water is the best drink to have between meals. If your child is always sipping juice between meals, the teeth are being coated in sugars over and over again.
If you put your child to bed with a bottle of milk, the milk stays in the mouth for a long time which may cause cavities – therefore use water in a bedtime bottle.
4. See your oral health professional regularly– Children are encouraged to have their first visit within six months of the eruption of the first tooth or by one year of age.
5. Don’t smoke or chew tobacco – Smoking and chewing tobacco can cause minor and major oral health problems. Second-hand smoke causes numerous health problems in infants and children.
Cranbrook Health Centre – Interior Health, Dental Health Services
Interior Health offers FREE dental services to families with children ages infant to four and no referral needed:
- Checking baby teeth including training and learning how to prevent tooth decay for your child and assessing risk for decay
- Fluoride varnish clinics. Fluoride varnish helps prevent cavities by making the enamel (the white outer surface of teeth) stronger. The fluoride varnish is applied easily by dental staff at the health centre.
Call Cranbrook Health Centre for an appointment 250-420-2273.
– Felicity Youngward is coordinator of Cranbrook Early Years Committee
