Today I’ll be discussing some special considerations to take care of teeth in children. So for all the parents out there, I know as we know take care of our child, we develop parenting skills and we have all tips and tricks with us but some of the points in this video might help you to deal with your child and take care of your teeth. So let’s begin with this video. Now before I begin with the main thing, a small timeline I would like to tell you that you can just memorize, maybe right somewhere just for you to know and that will also help you in timing the dental visit so that they can be taken to the dental care as and when required.
Milk Tooth Timeline
The first thing that you need to remember is when the child is approximately 6 to 7 months of age that is the time when the first milk tooth appears. Now this can vary from baby to baby but on average it is 6 months of age and by the time the baby is 2 to 2 and a half years of age, almost all the milk teeth that are 20 milk teeth are present completely in the mouth and the first permanent tooth that begins to come is by the age of 6 years.
Why Are Milk Teeth Important?
I mean they have to come and they stay in the baby’s mouth for just 6 years and then the permanent teeth are the ones that have to stay in our mouth for a lifetime. So why do I need to take care of the milk teeth? Let the children eat whatever they want. I will not force them to do brushing also. Let them enjoy it for like 6 years and then we will take care of the permanent teeth. This is a complete myth. The milk teeth are very important. They help the child to speak, to eat, they help in the aesthetics that is the appearance of the child and they also guide the permanent teeth that have to come in the future. So taking care of milk teeth is very very important before the permanent teeth have erupted in the mouth.
When To Begin Brushing Your Child’s Teeth?
Ideally speaking, as soon as the first tooth comes into the baby’s mouth, say at 6 months of age you should start brushing his teeth. Now you must be thinking, are you kidding? How can we brush your 6-month-old child’s mouth? But believe me, this is the truth. Even if you are not able to touch the teeth properly even before the teeth have started coming you have to make sure that the child’s mouth is completely clean otherwise they can be a certain sort of smell that can come from the child’s mouth because in the first few months of the age or life, the baby is completely dependent on milk whether through breastfeeding or through bottle milk bottle. So what we need to do is take a wet piece of cloth and just run out of fingers on the gums so that the mouth is completely clean. And then so when the first tooth comes starting from that till 18 months that is one and a half years of age you can take a very small sized and soft toothbrush and without using any toothpaste just gently you know to clean their teeth as much as you can clean their teeth with that toothbrush.
From 18 months to 3 years of age, you can clean their teeth by using a small smear of toothpaste. No fluoride-containing toothpaste. When the child is 3 years to 6 years of age start using a low fluoride-containing toothpaste p-sized of it. P-sized low fluoride-containing toothpaste can be used and after 6 years of age p-sized fluoride-containing toothpaste can be used.
Now why am I stressing about the fluoride content as I also discussed in the last video fluoride is very well required to prevent cavity formation but I do not warn my child to ingest this fluoride into the body because that is not a good thing. So when the child learns how to spit properly only then we are supposed to give a high fluoride-containing toothpaste to the child and the spitting skin of the child develops on average about 6 to 7 years of age. The more you encourage the child to spit the earlier he or she learns how to do it and only after that, you’re supposed to give a high fluoride-containing toothpaste to the child. Now I know that I need to clean the teeth of my child either with a wet cloth or just the toothpaste or sorry the toothbrush and the water or by containing low fluoride or high fluoride toothpaste.
How To Brush Your Child’s Teeth?
There is a simple method for that. You make your child sit on your lap facing you so that you do it in front of a mirror so the child can see what you’re doing in the mouth. Take the toothbrush and just cup the chin of the child with one of your hands. With the other hand just run the toothbrush in small subtler motions making sure to clean each and every tooth of the child from the outer surface to the inner surface and also the chewing surface okay and then after that you need to you know rinse your child’s mouth with water encourage them to spit but you will have to brush the child’s teeth up to four years of age. After that, you can encourage them to brush their teeth on their own but if you keep standing there give a follow-up and check whether the child has done it properly. You have to supervise them and only when you’re sure that the child is properly able to do the same thing you can leave them on their own to keep brushing their teeth. The rule of two has to be inculcated in them that two times for two minutes is fine. Now certain tips and tricks why because tooth brushing is really not interesting for general people, it’s a boring task for them. So what you can do is you can make this interesting for them.
Interesting Tooth Brushing Tips & Tricks
How? The first thing is while you’re brushing your child’s teeth just think of the song for them that would make them interested in doing this activity. Secondly what you can do is take two toothbrushes, hold one for you and one you give to your child. Now you can play the game of your term item. This is their favorite game. So once you brush on one side and then it’s a child’s turn to brush on the same side and then on the other side in this way it would be a game kind of thing for them. Thirdly, sometimes the children do not like the bathroom or the place where they are brushing their teeth and they might want to go to some other place in the home. Okay, change the location. See in the beginning years when the child is learning how to brush you will have to listen to what they are saying. You will have to give something that is to their time trumps so that they learn how to do it fine. Then sometimes the flavor of the toothpaste is not good or you know it is not felt good by the child. So you can change the flavor of the toothpaste and start with a very minute quantity of the paste and then you can slowly increase it one thing you can do is for older children you can introduce a reward system. What you can do is tell them to brush their teeth and then you make a calendar and you just mark how many times they have properly cleaned their teeth in a week and once a particular goal is raised you can give them a reward. So in this way, they will be encouraged to brush their teeth properly and this is one more thing the zero system. So what you can do is tell your child to make a zero a big zero with their finger okay? Then tell him to make a small zero in this way and then you tell your child to inward the finger towards their teeth and make a small zero on their teeth. Now give them the toothbrush and tell them to make the small zero with the toothbrush. So this way they will learn how they have to do a circular motion of the toothbrush on their teeth. So these are small tips and tricks that you can use to help your child brush their teeth.
Is Just Toothbrushing Enough?
Many of you must be thinking we do the same. We tell our children to brush their teeth, and we take care of their teeth but still, they are decaying, they are having a problem. But so what you have to do is you have to take care of their diet.
Diet is very very important. It plays an important role in the dental health of children. Small children are very fond of sweets. They just can’t stay away from candies and chocolates and then, especially in India where we live with our grandparents. Grandparents are very fond of their grandchildren and the moment they see the grandchild you just give them some sweet okay name. We just can’t stop them from doing so. But what we can do is we should have some smart base on how to smartly find out alternatives to these sweets so that the sweet craving of the child is also taken care of and the dental health is also taken care of. So let’s see how to do that.
How to Take Care of Their Diet?
The first thing that we need to remember is that the frequency of sweets taken by the child is much more dangerous than the amount taken. Okay, the more times the child takes the sweets is not good. So what we can do is just fix a time maybe once or twice a week or two or three or four times a week just fix a time and you should give this sweet a particular amount of sweets or candy to the child to eat only on that time and after that make sure the child goes and brushes his teeth. So that the child also knows that only at this time I’ll get some sweetness to it. Okay and after that sweet is eaten the best is he or she goes and brushes his teeth. If not give a whole vegetable or fruit like an apple or banana cut into small pieces just give them to eat over the sweet. So this fruit when it is eaten by the child will stimulate saliva formation in the mouth. That saliva will swish away all the sweet particles that are on the teeth which will help in decreasing the decay on the teeth. The second thing is now if the child is craving sweets so I already told them one thing: bananas. Bananas are the best fruit today’s day. The saying an apple a day keeps a doctor away has now changed to banana a day keeps a doctor away. It has high potassium, it has high phosphorus, is an immunity booster, has carbohydrates it has sweet so it increases the immunity of the child it is filling the child will feel you know he will have a feeling of satiety and also the sweet claim of the child is gone. So whenever your child asks for something sweet, just give him a banana plate.
The second thing you can give is multi-vitamin gummies. Yes, multivitamins are very important for immunity boosting especially during these covid-19 times. So multivitamin gummies are available in the market for children. Two gummies can be eaten in a day, just like candy, so the sweet craving is also gone and gives the body vitamins. The third thing is milk. Milk is very very essential for the growth of bones and also for the growth of teeth. Fine but adding additives to the milk that are commercially available is not to recommend it. We generally have the habit to do it so that the child takes milk but what we can do is if you inculcate heavy habits from an early age then the child will know to obey the same throughout his life. Okay, so what you can do is start giving a child turmeric milk. Yes, I’m not kidding, turmeric milk can be given to the child and this is from my personal experience when the child starts taking turmeric milk from an early age. He then loves it so much that he denies taking simple milk or any additive added milk and he just loves to take that turmeric milk. So start giving turmeric milk to your child. Start adding jaggery instead of sugar. So such alternatives have to be used because it is we who have to take care of their diet. Okay till the time they are themselves able to do that. Fine so diet has to be taken care of. Now after having done all these, I do not think that we do not need the dentist now.
When is the Right Time for a Dental Visit?
Even if you are taking care of the brushing of the teeth of your child, you are taking care that they have a proper diet, less sweet type still you need to visit the dental clinic for a check-up of your child. Ideally, as soon as the first tooth of a child comes, that is 6 months of age, just go to a dental clinic. Let the child specialist dentist have a look at your child’s teeth and properly guide you regarding the future planning of how to keep their teeth clean and how the diet plays a role. But if not possible at that time at least by the time the child is 2 years of age just take the child to the dental clinic. Very very essential.
Why are Dental Visits Needed?
Any cavity that is starting to form on the tooth you will not be able to see that the dentist will see and he will tell you measures how to stop it. Fluoride varnishes are a thin layer of fluoride that can be applied on the teeth which is helpful in preventing cavity formation. If there is a lack of spacing in the child’s mouth, there are chances that in the future the child might have crowded teeth or mild occlusion of the teeth. The dentist will tell you so that undue interventions can be taken before the condition worsens. So it is very necessary for you to take your child for a dental visit. Now when you take your child to a dental visit some things you need to keep in mind. The first thing is just to make sure whenever you are having a dental appointment take your child in all with you so that he sees what is happening over there. He gets familiar with the environment. It’s very important for the child to get familiar with the dentist and the dental clinic. Make sure you only share positive experiences of your dental visit with your child. You take your child in early in the morning like morning appointments should be taken when the child is active and combine the dental clinic visit for some fun activity. Like you tell the child that after the dentist we will go to some relative’s house we’ll go shopping or we’ll go to a park so that the child is all the more excited about going to the dental clinic. So these things you can just keep in your mind. Fine.
What if the Child Has a Fall Toward the Face?
Now one thing is very important. See many times what happens the small children are very very prone to falling. Sometimes they just run and they fall down. They fall from the bed or they fall from their toy car or from this bicycle they fall down and they just hit their face. So sometimes the lips get injured and the teeth get injured but many times there is no injury seen by the parent on the teeth and this feeling that can’t go with need not go to a dental clinic and then years after when the child reaches his or her adolescent age one or two of the teeth of the child are seen changing color the tooth becomes discolored and then when the dentist has visited the first question of a dentist is did the child did you fall down when you were a child so make sure if your child has a fall and the face is injured or he has a fall towards the face even if you feel and you see there is no damage to teeth just take your child to the child dentist for a checker because sometimes the internal injury or the internal infection of the tooth is not visible and that could be seen clinically or radiographically only by the dentist.
Nursing Bottle Caries
Then make sure when the child starts sitting unsupported just try to remove the bottle feeding and reduce a glass or cup because the nursing bottle caries. Caries means taking nursing bottle caries is very very common when the when you see your child is having all cavities and black teeth that is why that is happening because you have given the child the bottle to drink milk and while sleeping the bottle goes in the mouth for the whole night this is how the nursing bottle caries develops so as soon as the child is one year of age make sure that you have been of that nursing bottle habit and the child is now in a habit of taking milk through the glass or cup
Parents Are The Best Doctors
fine then avoid sharing your food with the child do not share your food your eaten food or half-eaten food with the child because bacteria have a tendency to spread through saliva we do not want that so you have to make sure that you are the best of doctor at home to take care of the child and only after that you take the child to the dentist for any further assistance that is needed fine so I’m sure this video might be helpful for all the parents over there so take care of your child for any questions or doubts please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you till then take care stay safe thank you!!
