As a parent, being cognizant of the health of your children's teeth should always be one of your top priorities. Booking your children to see a local kids dentist when they're still infants is a decision that can impact their dental health for years to come. As your children age, you should still take them to regular dental checkups. Around the time that your children begin to lose their baby teeth, your dentist will likely want to talk to you about dental sealants — a thin, plastic coating that is placed into the grooves of your children's molars to lessen the risk of cavities. Here are some reasons that this procedure is a good idea.

Children Are Often Inattentive Brushers

Every parent knows that having your child begin to brush his or her own teeth can be a challenge. Regular conflicts over brushing sessions are a fixture in many homes, and even if your children are OK about brushing their teeth, there's a considerable chance that they don't do a very good job. It takes a reasonable level of maturity to carefully brush each tooth so that the surface is clean, and many children lack this attribute. They may move their toothbrushes around in their mouths twice a day, but the quality of the brushing can be lacking. Dental sealants, especially over the molars that are difficult to reach, can be a good idea for this reason.

Children Often Eat Bad Snacks

Even if you work hard to provide your children with healthy snacks and try to also limit the amount of sugar that you keep in the house, controlling your children's intake of bad snacks can be a challenge because of school. For example, many children trade parts of their lunches with other students or share food, meaning that your children may be snacking on candy and other unhealthy treats when you're not watching. Part of the problem of bad snacks is the affect that they can have on a child's teeth — especially when he or she is at school and not brushing after snacking.

Children Can Sometimes Have Weak Gag Reflexes

You may notice that one of your children has a weak gag reflex. This is an issue that can be common for many children, who gag and may even throw up for seemingly innocuous reasons related to things being in their mouths. For example, at a medical checkup, the doctor's use a tongue depressor may cause your child to gag. For a child with a weak gag reflex, brushing the back teeth may be unpleasant. Your child may avoid doing so altogether, or attempt to do so and then have the task interrupted by gagging. The result is that the back teeth won't be getting cleaned, leaving them at risk of cavities — until you make an appointment for the application of dental sealants.