Children’s dental care should start as soonest, even before the baby gets their first tooth. Proper and regular diet, continuous and appropriate dental hygiene of the child at the earliest age, as well as regular visits to the dentist’s office,   is the only way that will result in a radiant smile of your children. Nice and healthy teeth are important for a child’s proper growth and development. They give children a pearl-white smile and allow them to eat, speak and develop psychologically and physically without problems.

Parents should be aware that their oral health is very important for the oral health of their babies. Namely, the “vertical transmission of bacteria” enables the bacteria from parents’ mouth to transmit to the baby’s oral cavity. This is why it is very important that parents take care of their oral health.

Parents often have doubts as to when it is the right time to start brushing their baby’s teeth. The answer is – from the very beginning.

Therefore, parents should start taking care of their baby’s oral health before it gets its first teeth. This is the period when parents should clean the oral cavity of their child after meals with a clean gauze wrapped around their finger, soaked with unsaturated chamomile tea, twice a day. There are specially designed hygiene preparations adapted to their age, a type of thimble made from silicone. Whatever parents choose, they will make no mistake. All that matters is to start taking care of oral hygiene of a baby at the earliest age.

It is usually around the sixth month of life when the baby gets its first tooth. Lower central incisors come out first (front teeth), followed by upper, then lateral incisors. Following the first birthday, the child gets the first deciduous molars. Canine teeth come out by the eighteenth month, and second deciduous molars come out last. So, by the time a child turns three, he should have all 20 deciduous teeth.

With the appearance of the first tooth, the cleaning of the mouth cavity should be supplemented with the use of soft toothbrushes, with small heads, which the child can chew on in the period while their teeth are growing. In that way, the baby accepts the toothbrush as one of its toys.

Parents should be aware that their oral health is very important for the oral health of their babies.

Once the baby turns one, toothpaste for that age should be introduced.

Often, it is not simple to fulfill this task as a parent. Certain babies protest when we try to brush their little teeth. Not because it is painful or unpleasant to them, but they refuse to have a brush put in their mouth and moved around for reasons only known to them. Since our objective is to have the child accept it as soon as possible, we must not give up. Sometimes it is easier to make it a key part of the bathing ritual.

Even though children can demonstrate a desire to brush their teeth independently very early, it is still the task of the parent, until the child develops the coordination necessary to master the techniques of tooth brushing, which usually happens no earlier than the eight year. Even then, supervision and control by the parents are necessary, in order to ensure that the child is brushing their teeth properly and for a sufficiently long time.

Dentists recommend that the first dental examination, i.e. a preventive dentist examination, should be performed in the first year of a child’s life. An early first check-up ensures that parents are educated and motivated to practice proper diet, and regular and proper oral hygiene for the purpose of forming positive habits, in order to protect and improve the child’s oral health.

About the author: Ljubica Pavlovic Trifunovic is a pediatric dentist. She joined the authors of the Novak Djokovic Foundation blog with a desire to raise awareness about the importance of children’s dental care. Besides her love for her work, her great passion is traveling.  

The post When is the right time to start brushing your baby’s teeth? appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.

I am not going to sugarcoat it: Having a cavity is not fun. I was lucky enough to go through my childhood without cavities, thanks to fluoride treatments at the dentist, proper daily dental care and good eating habits. It wasn’t until many years later that I experienced the cavity diagnosis at the dentist and required a filling. While it took years for my teeth to reach this unfortunate fate, many children aren’t as lucky.

What is a Cavity?

Tooth decay is more common among young children than any other chronic illness. According to the Parents magazine, at least 4 million preschoolers suffer from tooth decay, an increase of more than 600,000 when compared to the last decade.

A cavity is a hole in a tooth caused by tooth decay. When a tooth is exposed to acid frequently (like foods and drinks which contain excess amounts of sugar and starch), tooth enamel continuously loses important minerals and tooth decay begins. The bacteria then creates plaque and once an area without calcium becomes large enough, the surface of the tooth collapses and creates a cavity. This permanent damage can only be fixed in one way: getting a filling at the dentist’s.

Kids and the Dentists

According to recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Association, children should visit a dentist by their first birthday. However, a recent study showed only 10 percent of one-year olds and 24 percent of two-year olds have ever visited the dentist and around 40 percent of children ages 2 to 5 regularly get cavities.

How to Keep  Cavities Away?

Here are some tips to keep your children (and yourself) clear of cavities:

• Brush and floss: The best way to limit cavities is to brush twice a day and floss each day. This will thoroughly clean teeth (if done properly) and get rid of bacteria, plaque and sugar from teeth.

• Avoid sugar: Bacteria loves sugar and limiting it is the best way to prevent cavities. Repeatedly exposing teeth to sugar prevents saliva from doing its job of naturally keeping the teeth clean.

• The importance of fluoride: Fluoride prevents the loss of minerals in tooth enamel and reduces the ability of bacteria to make acid. Tap water in big cities is often fluoridated, but you can also take fluoride supplements. The easiest way to get the proper amount of fluoride is to drink fluoridated bottled water or use toothpaste with fluoride in it. Dentists are also able to apply a protective fluoride seal to children’s teeth (a study found that children age 1 who received this treatment twice a year were four times less likely to get cavities in their baby teeth).

• Don’t share teeth tools: While cavities aren’t hereditary, parents may not realize that they can unknowingly infect their children. Babies are born without the harmful bacteria in their mouth, but eating from the same spoon as your baby, or letting a child brush their teeth with your toothbrush can transfer your bacteria to them. If you have any dental problems, get them fixed immediately.

Brushing Tips

Brushing your teeth must be done right in order to help prevent tooth decay and cavities. Here’s how:

• Brush at least twice a day (after breakfast and before bed).
• Brush ALL teeth, not just the front ones.
• Take time while brushing and spend at least two to three minutes on the entire mouth.
• Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and replace the toothbrush every three months.
• Floss teeth once a day (this will help get rid of hidden food the toothbrush can’t reach).

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How do you keep cavities away from your child? Do you use these techniques?

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