While having a dentist you can trust is vitally important to sustaining your oral health, some of the best things you’ll do for your teeth will happen outside their practice. That means that most oral health professionals are interested in not only helping patients smile brighter, but also in understanding more about what kinds of issues could affect their teeth.

Oral health problems are unfortunately exceedingly common, though some more than others. Here are a few of the most prevalent ones that you ought to watch out for.

Every parent wants their child to succeed in academics, and for that reason tends to be reticent to pull them out of school. That’s part of why so many parents struggle to get their kids regular dental care. A lot of the time, dental checkups necessitate taking your child out of school to get them to the dentist’s office.

However, if you really want your child to succeed academically, research shows that making these regular preventive visits is a better move in the long run—here’s why that is.