Brushing your child’s teeth
AdventureDad | February 28
I think I speak for everyone when I say that we all want our children to grow up with nice teeth, no gum disease, and only a few (if any) cavities. By teaching your child how to take care of his/her teeth you are giving a gift for life and it will not require more than a couple of minutes a day. Not to mention the (tens of ?) thousands of dollars you will be saving by not constantly going to the dentist.
What do I know about teeth? Not much but both my parents are retired dentists and taught me early on to brush my teeth twice a day and have decent eating habits. Nothing more groundbreaking or advanced than this is usually necessary to avoid those anxiety filled visits to the dentist. Does this really work ? I’m turning 40 this year and haven’t had a single cavity in my teeth. Same with my slightly younger sister. So what can you do to give you child a good start with his/her teeth? Start at an early age, make it fun habit, be consistent, and establish good eating habits.
– Start early. It’s never too early to start brushing. Don’t wait until your child is three years old, everything will be a lot more difficult by then. You can start as soon as you see one little tooth peaking out. At this point you are naturally not doing any real brushing, just letting your child feel the brush in his/her mouth and play around with it. Keep the brush handy when the teeth are itchy and let your child bite on it.
– Have fun. You want your child to look forward to brushing twice a day so come up with some creative ideas. Play a game, sing a song, play with water, or brush the teeth of the favorite doll/bear/truck at the same time. It’s crucial to make it fun at this stage. If your child is protesting, have some patience and try at a later time. You’re just trying to move the brush around the mouth for a few seconds in the early stages and then build on that. I strongly discourage you from forcing your child at any point. You want him/her to have a fun and positive feeling about brushing.
– Make it a habit. I can’t emphasize this enough. This is the most important part. If you make brushing a habit early on it will be as natural as eating and your child stand a very good chance of having healthy teeth. Experiment with what suits your family best but try to establish a morning and evening routine. Right after breakfast/dinner, right before sleeping, or before getting dressed in the morning, etc. Whatever works best. Try to brush right before your child goes to sleep if possible. Doing the nighttime brushing at 3 pm will not be a waste but certainly not as effective as later in the evening. Some people recommend brushing after each and every meal but I think that’s going way too far. It’s difficult to remember and hard to follow in real life. If you are concerned about this, spend some extra time brushing morning and night. Unless your child develop some unusual teeth problems later in life, two minutes morning and night should be the absolute maximum.
–Toothbrush. Choose a soft brush made especially for kids. There are lots of different choices so you might want to experiment a little. Brushes with fun colors or themes like Disney usually work well. Rinse the brush in warm water before you start brushing. It will feel much more comfortable for your child.
– Toothpaste. Buy a mild toothpaste for kids that has a nice taste. This could also take a bit of experimenting until you find the perfect match. Make sure you choose a toothpaste that contains fluoride. This is very important. Fluoride strengthens the enamel of the teeth and helps to protect against caries. Use generous amounts of toothpaste. Do not rinse your child’s mouth when you’re done brushing. This is a common mistake. You want the fluoride to remain in the mouth for as long as possible. You don’t have to worry about your child swallowing toothpaste. It’s completely harmless in normal amounts. If your child eats a whole tube or two while you’re having a “private” moment with your spouse doing the dishes, call your pediatrician for advice. Otherwise there is no need to worry.
– Brushing technique. At an early age you can basically forget about how to brush your child’s teeth. Focus instead on a good routine and making it a fun habit. As your child grows you need to pay more attention. Basics are that you need to brush the inside of the teeth, the outside, and also the chewing surfaces. Use small movements and brush near the root of the teeth to also clean the gum. The most hard to reach areas are naturally the most problematic. This is usually in between teeth or in the very back. Try to spend a little extra time in those areas.
– Eating habits. Every time your child eats or drinks something, acid forms in the mouth and this lasts for about thirty minutes. This powerful acid eats away at the surface of the teeth. It’s very important not to have your child eat snacks all day long. It doesn’t matter if the snacks are healthy or not. Drinking sugary soft drinks, eating cookies, or eating fruit, etc. constantly throughout the day will lead to problems. It’s far more important for your teeth to get a break in between meals than to worry about sugar content etc. Having some sugar or candy will not destroy your child’s teeth, constant snacks/sugar drinks will. In case you wonder what a soft drink like Coca Cola does to your child’s teeth you can do a little experiment. Pour a glass of Coca Cola, drop a dirty penny in there, and let it sit overnight. Look at the penny in the morning and then imagine what it will do to your teeth.
—Some people have emailed and asked about dental visits for children so I have added a short note about that—
– Dental visits. This advice will vary depending on what country you live in but at my current location, Sweden, first visits are scheduled at age 3. Dental care is free until age 19 and this might unfortunately cause parents living in other countries to schedule later visits because of financial constraints. Even if your child has few problems in his/her life, annual visits are always helpful. Your dentist will be able to see how well your child (or you) is brushing and advice you of potential problem areas, like braces. The most important thing is that your child is comfortable with visiting your dentist. I know that a restraint device is occasionally used in some countries but I recommend you to never use this approach unless it’s a life and death situation. Being terrified of the dentist is a feeling you never want your child to have. Being scared to death at an early age will make dental care extremely difficult and the anxiety will most likely stay with your child for a very long time. Start with quick visits at an early age and talk to your child about what’s going on. Like brushing, be creative and find an approach that works with your child.
We have a fun trick that works, too.
Sing a song while they brush — our 2 and 4 year olds each have a favorite (Jongle Bells is a good one around Christmas, for example).
This passes the time, adds some fun, and gets them to brush for longer than 10 seconds…
OK, a nurse once told me a pea size of fluoride toothpaste can be deadly to a child. Is this not true? Because of this, I always have my kids rinse their mouths several times after brushing. I have even stopped using fluoride toothpaste on my two year old son because he always swallows before spitting.
Maggie you keep serving up softballs like that one and…..
Oh, I mean very informative comments and post.
The Munchkin loves her Hello Kitty bubble-gum flavored (with flouride) toothpaste. She does swallow after brushing - we’ve been working on trying to get her to spit. She does get a sip of water to clear her throat afterwards.
By the way, AD, what age do you recommend for a child’s first visit to the dentist? Just curious.
I checked on the ADA site and found a publication about fluoridation:
http://tinyurl.com/n462t
And this quote:
Parents and caregivers should put only one pea-sized amount of fluoride toothpaste on a young child’s toothbrush at each brushing. Young children should be supervised while brushing and taught to spit out, rather than swallow, the toothpaste. Consult with your child’s dentist or physician if you are considering using fluoride toothpaste before age 2. (question 25, p.30)
I also found information on fluoridated water and fluoride supplements (like the fluoride treatments one gets at the dentist).
Maggie: That would not be true…. Don’t take my word for it though. Go check it out on your favorite childrens site or Google it
Candace: When your child grows it’s of course preferable if he/she will spit. But I find it very difficult to teach a young child, 8 months to 2 years, to do that. If your child can do it that would be great. But it’s not dangerous or harmful to swallow toothpaste after you brush. Again, I recommend not eating a whole tube.
Some countries/states/cities add fluoride to the water but there has been some debate if that has any effect. Personally I think the amounts are too small to matter and therefore ignore it.
I would highly recommend using fluoride supplements until your child is a teenager. Some countries do have special programs for this where people will come to your school and give your child free fluoride treatments on a weekly basis.
Advice will vary depending on what country you live in. USA tends to be more careful with advice and wants you to visit your doctor/dentis/pediatrician before doing absolutely anything. It has a lot to do with stupid lawsuits…… In Europe and Scandinavia the official advice is to start brushing with fluoride toothpaste as soon as you see the first tooth. And the advice tends to be more common sense. Some of those countries are in the very top worldwide concerning pediatric care and advice with excellent track records and I personally believe their advice can be relied upon.
AD
I find this encouraging that we’re on the right track, but not sure what “early age” and “at first” mean. When does getting the surfaces really start to matter.
Actually, repeated swallowing of fluoride toothpaste while the baby teeth are still developing under the gums (i.e., under the age of 2) can DAMAGE TEETH. Early overexposure to flouride can lead to a condition called fluorosis, which causes discoloration and pitting of teeth. This is why your toothpaste tubes say to consult a dentist or a physician before giving fluoridated toothpaste to a child under the age of two. (Not because toothpaste swallowing is deadly, though. That nurse was on crack).
The small amount of fluoride in tap water is considered more helpful than harmful, though. In fact, dentists have recently noted a rise in childhood cavities due to parents giving their children only bottled water, which is not fluoridated, in the mistaken belief that it is healthier for them.
If you don’t believe me, check out the Colgate website:
http://www.colgate.com/app/Colgate/US/OC/Information/OralHealthAtAnyAge/InfantsAndChildren/ToddlersChildren/CommonQuestions.cvsp
Or look up fluorosis on Google.
My husband is currently in dental school, and since we are expecting our first child shortly, I am always asking him about things like this. I wanted to add a few things for anyone reading this post:
1) You do not need more than a pea-sized amount of toothpaste. (And, like Whitney mentioned, fluorosis is the reason for this.)
2) You should assist your child in brushing their teeth until they are 12 or can write an entire paragraph in cursive. (Until then, they don’t have enough manual dexterity to do it correctly.)
3) Make sure you are brushing for 2 minutes each time. I good way to do this is to pick a CD that has a song your child enjoys that lasts this long. Start brushing at the beginning of the song, and don’t stop until the music does!
4) The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that your child visit the dentist at starting at age 6 months. This is the new recommendation (used to be age 3).
5) Swishing water in your mouth for 30 seconds after you eat can help neutralize the acid in your mouth. Same goes for chewing sugarless gum after eating.
love boy is very good boy: http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/moviemom/ , white, profound, astonishing nothing comparative to bad
Ditto on the fluorosis. I used to work for Colgate (but I’m not a dentist). The level of fluoride in toothpaste is higher than in flouridated water because you need more in order for it to be absorbed topically. Drinking flouridated water is safe. Swallowing flouridated toothpaste is usually not a good idea.
Your child probably won’t be poisoned by swallowing a pea-sized amount of flouridated paste. But have you ever seen kids with permanent yellow/black stains on their teeth? It’s permanent and it comes from ingesting too much flouride.
Don’t forget flossing. Very important. I’d recommend that you take your child in at 2 years old, then regularly after that. Ours has very soft enamel, as we found at at 5 (we’d taken her before, not regularly!) — 2 root canals and 4 fillings later.
Our problem was that we weren’t flossing regularly. Now our daughter is an expert, although I usually do it for her. The flossing sticks are a good way to get started, though she now prefers that I use thinner floss and do it by hand.
I highly recommend “Brush Brush Bree, Brush Brush Brue” from the Bear in the Big Blue House as a toothbrushing sing-along song.
On swallowing toothpaste:
I swallowed toothpaste after brushing until I was about 10. I’m not even sure if my parents ever taught me otherwise, but eventually I started to spit to mimic them and be “grown up”.
My first cavity was this year, when I was 27.
Maybe I’m an anomoly, but I’ve actually figured that swallowing is what helped me remain cavity free for so long.
Mike - I was a toothpaste swallower too, right from the time I read that article about how astronauts have to swallow it in space. I have a few cavities, but not too many and no staining. I can’t say I think it was a good thing, though.
Max… Second that… “My favorite thing about brushing my teeth is: ‘Shikka-Shikka-Shikka-Shikka’…”
So how come it says on the Colgate toothpaste not to give to children under the age of 12 years old and NOT to swallow toothpaste. Must be something to it if the Dental Association is even advising against it.
It’s very nice!
I was a toothpaste swallower too, right from the time I read that article about how astronauts have to swallow it in space.