How to Care for Your Baby's Teeth
The habits your children learn as babies will help them keep their teeth for life. Good habits promote good health.During pregnancy it is really important for you to have a dental check-up to make sure that your teeth and gums are healthy. This is because babies are not born with the decay-causing bacteria. The bacteria is passed to them from others, especially parents. This can happen through kissing, food tasting and cleaning their dummy in your own mouth.
Really good cleaning of your own teeth and gums every day will help to stop passing bacteria to your baby and help keep your baby's teeth healthy. As a parent, have regular dental check-ups.
When will my baby get their teeth?
The teeth will usually start to come through between 3 and 15 months of age. Usually the front teeth come through first, the back ones later. By the time your baby is two and a half years old all 20 first teeth should have come through.
When your child is about six years old, new teeth called the "six year old molars" will pop up at the very back. These new teeth are adult teeth that have to last for the rest of your child's life.
What will I do when my baby starts to get teeth?
As soon as baby's teeth begin to come through clean them with either a small toothbrush or a clean face washer. Be sure to do this at least once a day.
How can I help at teething time?
Giving your child something cold to chew on helps. You could try using a teething ring from the fridge. If you give your child teething rusks, make sure they don't contain any sugars and stay with them while they suck or chew them.
First teeth are very important because they:
* allow your baby to chew more solid food
* help in the development of your baby's speech
* make baby look good
* keep space for when the adult teeth are ready to come through.
What causes holes in my baby's teeth?
The biggest cause of holes in babies teeth is putting them to bed with a bottle that has a sugary drink or fruit juice or even milk in it—in fact anything but water. This can cause what is called "bottle caries". Letting your baby walk around with these drinks in a bottle, or a training cup, all day also causes holes.
Why?
The sugary drinks, milk and juice lie around the teeth all night, and maybe all day, slowly rotting the teeth away. This can happen so quickly (maybe just a few months) that the teeth may look like they have come through rotten because the decay starts near the gum. We could call this toddler tooth decay.
How can I stop my baby getting holes in their teeth?
Follow this checklist to help your baby have healthy teeth for life:
* Use the bottle only when your baby is hungry. When they have had enough to eat, take the bottle away.
* Encourage your baby to use a cup as early as possible
* Please don't let your baby eat lollies and sugary foods between meals, although something sweet at the end of a meal is OK. It is a good idea to read the labels on all foods to see how much sugar they contain.
* Clean your baby's teeth every day.
* Look in your child's mouth regularly to check for any problems.
* Take your baby for a dental check-up when they are about two years old.
* Remember to keep your own teeth and gums healthy.
If you don't have fluoride in the water supply you should ask your dentist or dental therapist for advice on other possible ways to provide enough fluoride to make your child's teeth tough.
When teaching your child how to brush their teeth, seat them on your lap facing away from you and brush their teeth from behind, using a small soft toothbrush and junior toothpaste.
What about breast feeding, bottles and sippy cups?
Breast feeding is good for your baby's teeth. If you give your baby a bottle, always hold the baby when you feed him or her. Do not leave a bottle in the crib. Do not put juice in a bottle.
Your baby can start using a sippy cup when he or she is 6 months old. Stop giving your baby a bottle when he or she is a year old. Do not let your baby walk around with a sippy cup unless it has only water in it. Do not give your baby a sippy cup of juice or milk in the crib.
After your child is one year old, give only water or plain milk between meals instead of other drinks. If you give your child juice or flavored milk (like sweetened milk products), only give it with meals. Juice and flavored milk have a lot of sugar in them.
When should I start brushing my baby's teeth?
Start cleaning your baby's teeth twice a day as soon as the first tooth appears. Until your child is 1 year old, you can use a wet washcloth or gauze to clean your baby's teeth and gums. At about a 1 year to 18 months of age, you should start using a soft baby toothbrush and a small dab of toothpaste that does not have flouride in it. (This type of toothpaste is safe for your baby to swallow.)
When should I take my baby to the dentist?
Be sure to take your baby to a dentist by his or her first birthday, especially if there is a high risk for cavities or any other problems with his or her teeth. It is better for your child to meet the dentist and see the office before he or she has a tooth problem.
posted by healthedu @ 12:05 AM
2 Comments:
Fluoride is ruining kids teeth
Fluoride exposure is rising and causing children’s tooth imperfections, ranging from white spots to brownish discolorations and pitting (fluorosis), dentist Elivir Dincer reports in the New York State Dental Journal. (1)
“Such changes in the tooth’s appearance can affect the child’s self-esteem which makes early prevention that much more critical,” writes Dincer.
Children, aged 2 to 7 years, can swallow about one-quarter milligram of fluoride with every brushing because their swallowing reflexes are not fully developed, reports Dincer.
“Children from the age of 6-months to 3-years should not have more than one-quarter milligram of fluoride per day. Brushing the teeth of a 2-year-old twice a day will expose the child to about one-half milligram, exceeding the allowable [daily] limits” [from toothpaste alone], writes Dincer.
Intentionally swallowing the toothpaste which is likely, given the pleasant flavor of children’s toothpaste, increases children’s fluorosis risk, Dincer reports.
Fluoridated water, supplements, mouth rinses and/or foods add to daily fluoride intake.
Up to 48% of children have fluorosis, with 4% moderate/severe (yellow/brown teeth), reports the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2). Fluoride over-exposure at ages 22- to 25-months can discolor the permanent two front teeth while they form under the gums.
Two-thirds of US water suppliers add fluoride chemicals to reduce tooth decay. This fluoridated water is used to make many foods and beverages. (3) “Water and processed beverages (e.g., soft drinks and fruit juices) can provide approximately 75% of a person's fluoride intake,” according to the CDC. (4)
Mixing infant formula with fluoridated water (5), fluoride supplements (6) and foods with naturally higher fluoride levels, such as tea and ocean fish, independently increase risk of dental fluorosis. Fluoride-containing pesticide residues remain on various foods. Fluoride is also inhaled via ocean and shower mist and is in some medicines.
The adequate intake of fluoride from ALL sources to avoid moderate fluorosis (not mild white spots) according to the National Academies of Science (9) is
-- 0.01 mg/day for 0 to 6-month-olds
-- 0.5 mg/day for 7 through 12 months
-- 0.7 mg/day for 1 to 3-year-olds
Why isn't this information reaching the public?
In 2000, dental researcher AK Mascarenhas wrote, “There is substantial evidence that fluoridated water, fluoride supplements, infant formulas, and fluoride toothpastes are risk factors for fluorosis,” alone and together in “Risk factors for Dental Fluorosis: A review of the recent literature,” in Pediatric Dentistry, 4/22/2000.
Mascarenhas censored our news release which broadcasted her tax-payer supported research to the American public by successfully requesting Ascribe news service to deny our business. We have seen little evidence that organized dentistry or federal health officials passing all this information to the public.
“It’s obvious that fluoridation is dosing our children with uncontrollable and undesirable amounts of fluoride,” says attorney Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. “Besides affecting teeth, fluoride can be hazardous to your general health,” he says. "Since fluoride is neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth and no child is, or ever was, fluoride deficient, it's time we stop adding unnecessary and costly fluoride chemicals into water supplies," says Beeber.
Over 1600 professionals joined Environmental Protection Agency scientists in calling for an end to fluoridation. (7) Join the over 11,000 individuals supporting them by signing the petition asking for a Congressional investigation at
http://congress.FluorideAction.Net or http://www.FluorideAction.Net
References:
1) “Why Do I Have White Spots on My Front Teeth,” by Elvir Dincer, DDS, New York State Dental Journal, January 2008, Page 58 Volume 74, Number 1
http://www.nysdental.org/img/current-pdf/JrnlJan2008.pdf
2) Surveillance for Dental Caries, Dental Sealants, Tooth Retention, Edentulism and Dental Fluorosis, CDC, MMWR August 2005
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/s403a1t23.gif
3) USDA National Fluoride Database of Selected
Beverages and Foods – 2004 http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/Fluoride/Fluoride.html
4) US Centers for Disease Control – Enamel Fluorosis http://www.cdc.gov/FLUORIDATION/safety/enamel_fluorosis.htm
5a) US Centers for Disease Control – Infant Formula and Fluoride
http://www.cdc.gov/FLUORIDATION/safety/infant_formula.htm#12
b) Academy of General Dentistry, “Monitor Infant’s Fluoride Intake,” March 2007
http://www.agd.org/support/articles/?ArtID=1187
c) American Dental Association, “ADA offers interim guidance on infant formula and fluoride,” November 2006 http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/pubs/adanews/adanewsarticle.asp?articleid=2212
6) American Dental Association, Evidence Based Dentistry: Systematic Reviews Fluoride Supplements
http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/ebd/reviews/fluoride_supplements.asp
7) http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html
8) http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof/_pgg10.php3
9) The National Academies of Science, “Dietary Reference
Intakes for Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride,:1997
Parents want to keep their kids' teeth and mouth healthy, but they do not always know the best way to do that. The following information will help you keep your child's teeth gums, and mouth clean and healthy for many years to come!
child teeth
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