How To Care For Children’s Baby Teeth
Baby teeth should be cared for similarly to permanent teeth. In fact, they are more sensitive to cavities. We can help children brush properly and maintain their oral health.
Children’s milk teeth begin to erupt at 3 to 4 months and fully erupt at approximately 3 years of age. They will accompany our children for several years, but since they are not permanent, they are not always properly cared for.
They are called baby teeth because they are whiter than permanent teeth, but they are also more fragile. Dentin and enamel are more sensitive to cavities if good cleaning habits are not followed.
Hygiene in the baby’s mouth
Brushing, from the cradle
Brushing the mouth should begin even before the first teeth appear. The baby’s gums should be cleaned and massaged with a damp gauze at least once a day. And this is evidenced by this article published in the journal Pediatric Dentistry .
This measure, in addition to cleaning, helps the baby get used to it and it is easier to insert the toothbrush from the first year of life.
When the little one turns 1 year old, start brushing with silicone fingers or children’s toothbrushes. Since they have the smallest bristles, they work very well for their mouths.
This cleaning is best done without using toothpaste, since children are too young to spit out the remains of toothpaste and tend to swallow it, which is detrimental to their health, precisely because of the fluoride content.
When the baby teeth have come out of the children
From 2 years of age, the use of dental floss can be incorporated to clean the faces of the teeth and eliminate the plaque that can accumulate in the interdental spaces and avoid the risk of cavities, as shown in this study published in Acta Pediátrica de México . Of course, this cannot be done alone but with the help of parents.
Likewise, you can start using toothpaste made especially for children, since they contain less fluoride or there are even versions that do not.
You just need a tiny bit of paste on the tip of the brush. It has to be brushed first without paste and then with the paste, for approximately two minutes, after each meal and before shortening. It is best to spit out before rinsing your mouth to prevent swallowing some of the paste during rinsing.
The first visit to the dentist
Although baby teeth appear in the first months of the baby’s life, the first visit to the dentist is usually not on the parents’ agenda. This specialist is only used when a problem has already been detected.
As the article we have already mentioned on Pediatric Dentistry points out , that first visit should occur when the child’s first baby teeth appear or, at most, postpone it when teething is completed. That is, about 30 months of life of the baby.
From that moment on, it would be good for the child to visit the dentist every 6 months. The idea is to get the child used to visiting the dentist for preventive purposes, not only when a cavity has already appeared. Even though baby teeth are not permanent, if cavities are not taken care of, it can affect the permanent teeth that come their way.
Other measures for children’s oral health
Children’s milk teeth should be cleaned after the last nightly bottle, although it is different when the child is breastfed. The sugars in breast milk do not damage the enamel of baby teeth. In addition, you have to regulate the consumption of sugary foods. It is useless that we are attentive to a correct brushing after each meal and that, within a few minutes, children are eating foods rich in sugar.
It is believed that a natural way to prevent cavities is to use coconut oil after brushing. Massaging the gums with coconut oil for about 10 minutes, daily for three weeks, could help reduce the bacteria that cause cavities and plaque, as shown in this research carried out by professionals from the Universidad Regional Autónoma de los Andes, Ecuador .
Let’s brush baby teeth together!
Since children learn by imitation, ideally they should brush their teeth together with an adult. The first minute it is recommended that he brush himself, and the second minute that an adult brush him, to ensure that the brushing is effective.
Your help in brushing will depend on how responsible the child is and how they clean. However, at approximately 7 years of age, baby teeth will begin to fall out. From that age it would be convenient if you did not help him; now he has to feel older and brush himself.
