If you’re a regular reader of my blog you may have noticed that over the years I’ve written several teeth-brushing and oral hygiene stories. Oral health is a subject I have always been passionate about and as a result have been pretty adamant with my children about maintaining a daily brushing routine via “tricks” and funny stories.  One of my “hall of fame” tricks is the British Teeth Trick that you can read about here.  In this story I mention how a documentary on British teeth was gross enough to scare my children into bushing their teeth several times a day. But ironically after spending all of this time picking on the Brits,  this recent national survey (led by the Hispanic Dental Association and sponsored by Crest and Oral-B)  found that 67% of U.S. Hispanics rate their overall oral health as “excellent”or “good”…yet two-thirds experienced at least one oral health issue in the past year! So it’s not just the Brits that could use a few oral hygiene tips, it’s us Latinos as well.

When compared to the general population, many Hispanics in the U.S. are facing barriers to achieving better oral health.  I’m not surprised because the study shows what I suspect, Hispanics have less access to affordable oral health care (45% lack dental insurance) and feel that having more Hispanic and Spanish-speaking dentists and dental hygienists in their communities would help them in achieving better oral health. ( For more information about the survey, click here http://bit.ly/rASt1A )

I found one of the most surprising statistics to be that 50% of Hispanics agree, either strongly or somewhat, that dental visits are not really necessary as long as you take good care of your mouth, including your teeth and gums, compared to 21% of the general population. Basically half of us Latinos feel it isn’t really important to visit a dentist. How does your family feel about  the dentist? Do you encourage your children to visit dentists or do you make dentists visits the least of your priorities? I personally make it a priority in my household. I would love to hear your thoughts!

For more information about the survey, and to see other surprising survey results, please visit www.crestcomplete.com/study

I am glad that in addition to my “British Teeth” trick, my “Make them Cry” trick, I now have hard facts to educate my children and family members about the importance of a healthy mouth.

Disclosure: I wrote this post while participating in a compensated campaign with Procter & Gamble and Latina Mom Bloggers. However, all opinions expressed are my own.