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Part of offering family dentistry is ensuring that our youngest patients feel especially comfortable. We do everything we can to make the dentist a friendly, safe and informative environment for your child. Here are a few tips for what you can do as a parent to make your child’s first visit easy on you and your little one.
If you have an older child, bring the little one along to their appointment. Chances are your child will want to emulate their older sibling’s good behavior. If there are no older children in your family, set a good example yourself by having your child along with you at your next appointment. All little kids want to be like their moms and dads!
If you’re fearful or anxious at the dentist, try not to let it show. Don’t say anything that may worry your child, even if you’re a little worried yourself. Don’t try to set any expectations of sensations or how long the appointment will be. If you don’t think your dental anxiety is something you can easily control, you may consider having your spouse be in charge of dental visits at first.
Don’t try to explain the concept of why we go to the dentist to your little one. Sometimes the idea of germs or scary “sugar bugs” cause more trouble than they help. Telling your child that the dentist will be looking in her mouth to count her teeth is usually familiar enough of a concept for a child to accept.
Bring along a favorite toy or promise a new one following the appointment as a reward. Some children are overwhelmed by the bright light shining in their eyes in the dental chair, so another fun reward or preparation can be choosing a cool and colorful pair of sunglasses to wear during the checkup, and of course keep afterwards!
Ask the dental staff if you can bring your child in for a tour before the appointment. Make it a fun experience full of discovery and new things, as if you were visiting a children’s science museum. Familiarity can help children adjust when it’s their turn in the dental chair.
Caring for a baby or toddler’s dental health is very different that caring for your own or an older child’s. Here are a few pieces of advice for ensuring the littlest members of you family start life with healthy, cavity-free smiles. We want their first visits to the dentist to be enjoyable learning experiences, not fixing cavities!
While many children are soothed by a bottle to suck on at bedtime or naptime, this can do much more harm that good! Placating your child with a bottle of milk, formula, juice or other sweetened drinks may stop them from crying or fussing, it gives the bacteria in your child’s mouth plenty of fuel for causing cavities in his or her brand new teeth. Even after your child is done drinking, the sugar stays in their mouth, pooling around teeth. If a bottle is a necessary part of yours and baby’s routine, we suggest filling it with water instead.
This same logic also goes for sippy cups for toddlers kids. Giving your child free access to milk or juice in a sippy cup is asking for cavities. Give them water only!
Just like adults, kids with balanced diets are less likely to get cavities. A balanced diet means minimizing sugars and starches while including plenty of fiber, protein and minerals. Unfortunately, many of the snacks that are traditionally given to children contain a lot of sugar and starch (which gets broken down into sugar by saliva in the mouth). Snacking exposes your child’s teeth to tooth decay-causing food more often than necessary. We suggest avoiding between-meal snacks as much as possible and choosing healthy snacks like raw vegetables when you do give your child snacks.
The bacteria that cause tooth decay are contagious, just like the other microbes in your mouth. If you have tooth decay, gum disease, or are very cavity-prone, refrain from sharing utensils and cups with your child. And don’t “clean off” a pacifier (soother) that dropped on the ground by putting it in your own mouth. This is bad news for both of you!
When in doubt, ask the dentist for dental health advice! Remember, the dentist is a great resource for dental care advice for patients of any age. Most of the advice that applies to babies and kids applies to grown-ups, too.
Whether they’re in the “Terrible Twos”, the “Tantrum Threes”, or the “Fearsome Fours”, caring for a toddler’s teeth is a combination of first-time experiences and learning. Here are a few tips to get you started on ensuring healthy smiles for your child at this precious and chaotic age!
The American Dental Association recommends that a child visit the dentist for the first time before their first birthday. A child doesn’t have to have their teeth to need a dentist. Oral health is about gums and other soft tissues too! Plus, the earlier you bring your child to the dentist, the more comfortable they will be with the concept once they get older and more willful and opinionated.
While sugary drinks or treats can put an end to a tantrum or soothe a child at naptime or bedtime, they can spell trouble for teeth. “Bottle rot” is an unlovely term for when a child gets tooth decay from too much time drinking sugary drinks from a bottle or sippy cup. And by sugary drinks we don’t just mean soda pop. Both juice and milk contain natural sugars that can cause tooth decay just like sugar-added drinks. Children can be put to bed with a bottle or get free access to a sippy cup, as long as all it contains is water.
If the idea of paying for braces in the future is already making you cringe, you should know that you can prevent some orthodontic issues by weaning your child off their pacifier as early as possible. Prolonged use of a pacifier can affect how teeth grow in and even change the shape of the face. The sooner your child stops using a pacifier (or sucking their thumb), the more likely you’ll be able to avoid the types of problems that require the help of an orthodontist. Your child may still need an orthodontist in the future, but you’ll know his/her “binky” didn’t cause it.
This is a great age to set a good example. Your toddler is going to be watching a lot of what you do and will likely want to imitate you. If you make oral hygiene seem like a fun, grown-up thing to do and make a routine of it, your child may be more likely to adopt good habits early. The dentist or dental hygienist should be happy to provide guidance on how to care for your child’s teeth at every age. Get tips and tricks from your smile experts!
