The costs of keeping kids healthy can become overwhelming. However, when it comes to dental care, there are many affordable preventive care measures you can take that will save you money down the road.

The following are four simple things you can do that will make it easy to encourage your kids to keep up on dental care and maintain healthy teeth through adulthood:

Treat baby teeth as if they're permanent

Assuming that dental care is less important while your child has baby teeth amounts to procrastinating about dental health. 

The earlier you establish good dental care habits the better. While your children's baby teeth will fall out, your child's dental care habits will remain. 

Get your kids in the habit of taking care of their teeth as soon as they're responsible for brushing and flossing themselves to prevent the development of poor oral care habits .

Be creative about dental health chores

Kids will inevitably express laziness in their brushing routine. As an adult, you yourself must understand how tempting it is on some nights to hit the sack without brushing. However, you can encourage your kids to brush by getting an electric brush or a toothbrush with a favorite cartoon character on it that will make brushing easier and less labor intensive. 

Better yet, encourage competition between your children to get them really eager to take care of their teeth. Explain to them that they could develop ugly cavities if they don't take care of their teeth. Also, try to get them excited about avoiding cavities and being the one who the dentist deems has the healthiest teeth at the next cleaning appointment. 

Get to work in the kitchen

Kids don't tend to develop a predilection for soda simply because it's tasty. They also tend to develop addiction to this sugar-rich beverage because it's both widely accessible and cheap. 

However, you can turn the soda-binging trend around by making healthier options available in your kitchen. Get your blender out and try some recipes for beverages that are just as tasty but much healthier to discourage your kids from pouring a glass of soda every time they need their thirst quenched. 

Start chewing sugar-free gum

Did you know that chewing sugar-free gum that contains xylitol has been shown to prevent cavities in some studies?

Stock up on sugar-free gum containing xylitol and encourage your kids to chew it after meals to prevent dental caries that necessitate the uncomfortable process of getting a filling. 

Talk to a dentist, like Cassity, Jessica DDS, for more tips encouraging good dental health.