Nurture your baby’s teeth
Your baby’s first tooth will emerge when he is about six months old. Even before it appears, proper care and hygiene of his mouth and gum is important. To clean the gums after feeding sessions, wrap a clean washcloth around your finger and dip it in warm water. Then massage the gum gently to rub off any excess food.
When milk teeth emerge, start taking care of them right away, regardless of the fact that they will be replaced by permanent teeth. This is because milk teeth preserve the spacing for permanent ones, and they help the baby talk effectively and chew food in the first five years of his life. Thus, their decay could lead to a gum infection which in turn affects the growth and spacing of permanent teeth.
To prevent this, do not put a baby to sleep with a bottle of juice, formula milk or any sugary food in the mouth. This also applies to breastfed babies, since children who fall asleep while breastfeeding can develop cavities from the sugars in the milk. Sugars in these foods can form a plaque and cause tooth decay.
Avoid sugary food and drinks as much as possible to keep tooth decay at bay. A drink of water after every meal also helps in effectively washing off left over food, and cleans the mouth. At most encourage fresh fruit juice for the baby with no added flavours or sweeteners.
Keep baby’s utensils separately from adult ones. You should not use utensils used by other adults on the child especially if the adults earlier had problems with their teeth, for it is easy to spread bacteria from an adult to the baby. Start by weaning your child from the bottle and take it away once he is done with feeding.
Check out the first signs of appearance of a cavity and stop its development as soon as you can by getting advice from a paediatrician dentist. The first signs are discolouration and minor dents.
At about two years, baby can start having his teeth cleaned with a soft-bristled toothbrush and plain water. Then he has a significant amount of teeth and he is taking meals with other family members. At this age, it is also safe to introduce a pea-sized amount of toothpaste with no fluoride in it. Though fluoride prevents tooth decay, having it in excess is not suitable as the child may swallow it and result to a lot of fluoride intake, which is also present in water. He can use it later when he is about four years of age, when he understands that he should spit instead of swallowing. Assist him to clean his teeth so that a thorough job is done.
A pre-schooler needs at least an annual visit to the dentist so that any anomaly may be corrected on time. Flossing is also an important practice of good dental hygiene, but is restricted to those over 18.
Most importantly, proper oral hygiene at an early age is promoted by a parent. Ensure that your own dental hygiene is proper; the child will mimic your good dental habits in the years that follow. Remember that proper teeth brushing and good nutrition promote good dental health for the future permanent teeth.
END: BL 26/15