- I know we keep saying this, but it is so important. Don’t wait until there is a problem before you take your child to the dentist. If you wait until there is an infected tooth or a traumatic injury, all your child will remember is the pain and they will never be comfortable with a dentist again. We’ve seen patients who have neglected going to the dentist for years because of a painful visit as a child. Let’s make their early visits totally fun, so they’ll enjoy going to the dentist.
- Start cleaning their teeth as soon as they start coming in. At first you can use a soft, wet cloth to clean their teeth and then move to a soft toothbrush.
- Teach them proper oral care at home by letting them watch you brush your teeth, then brushing theirs for them. Once they have enough manual dexterity and proper understanding, then can begin brushing for themselves.
- Use a fluoride toothpaste, but limit the amount they can swallow by only putting a pea sized amount on their toothbrush. No matter how hard they try to heed your advice of not swallowing their toothbrush, some amount will end up swallowed. Fluoride is good for their teeth, but if they swallow too much of it, they will develop unsightly white spots on their teeth.
- Teach them about flossing from an early age. Let them see you do it, and present it as something that “big people” do. Once their molars come in, around age three, you can begin flossing for them. Sometime around eight years of age children are able to start doing their own flossing.
- Carefully choose their dentist. Many cases of dental neglect can be traced back to a bad experience as a child. Let’s make their oral care journey a pleasant one.
