We have decided to talk about children’s teeth this month in our column.
The advice our hygiene team give parents is to brush their teeth together before bedtime so the children can copy their parents good habits.
Toothbrushing can be assiociated with putting on night clothes and bedtime routine. The same as waking up – putting on their school uniform and brush in the morning.
Tooth brushing becomes as part of our daily routine and so its rarely forgotten and this routine stays with children for the whole of their lives.
Children have a limited manual dexterity so an adult should always help them with their tooth brushing but allowing them to have a go aswell. Buy an appropriate childs toothbrush. We sell Brush Baby Brushes designed by a dentist that are suitable for small mouths.
When should a parent start cleaning their child’s teeth?
Start cleaning as soon as teeth appear, (approx 6 months.) Use a small pea sized amount of children’s toothpaste with appropriate fluoride content.
Remember in Birmingam there is flouride in the water so even if your child doesn’t like the taste of toothpaste then they are still getting the benefits of flouride even if they just brush their teeth with water.
At the age of 6 the first permanent teeth are starting to appear. When this happens try to avoid your child from eating or drinking anything other than water or milk after bedtime brushing. Definitely avoid any sticky foods or fizzy drinks. When your child’s teeth first come through they are small so its best to concentrate on brushing the biting surface at the back of the teeth and a gentle circular motions on the front teeth. The parent should remind the child to do the back of their teeth, inside and outside surfaces. When the teeth erupt fully the child should brush all the surfaces with gentle circular action. Using diclosing tablets shows where the child is missing particuar parts of their teeth, it’s messy but fun and really demonstrates where the child needs to brush.
Tips
– Stand still and watch yourself in the bathroom mirror as your brush your teeth.
– Use an egg timer as a two minute guide.
– Spit out toothpaste but DO NOT rinse as your are rinsing away the flouride on the teeth.
– Do not consume any sugary drinks or food after tea time.
You can buy your child’s toothbrush, toothpaste, eggtimers and disclosing tablets from our stock here at the Whitehouse Dental Practice.
We also offer a FREE toothbrushing lesson from our Hygienists and Oral Health Team.
