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!

Put Only Water in Bottles & Sippy Cups

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!

Provide a Healthy Diet & Minimize Snacking

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.

If Your Teeth Aren’t Healthy, Don’t Share

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.

There is nothing as charming and precious as a child’s happy smile. Unfortunately, we find that some parents and caregivers think of baby teeth (also known as milk teeth) as disposable. Their logic seems to be, if kids are going to lose their teeth soon anyway, it’s okay for them to get a little tooth decay or other oral problems. There are many reasons that this is not true!

Preventing Pain from Tooth Decay

First and foremost, we don’t want to see kids who are in pain. Cavities often lead to toothaches and infections in the tooth can spread to the gums and jawbone, causing more problems. We want every child to get to know the dentist in a positive way, so we want their earliest memories of the dentist to be rewarding and educational teeth cleanings and exams, not filled with tears and fear. Taking good care of baby teeth is vital to making sure we show your child that the dentist‘s office is a fun and welcoming place! Plus, the fewer oral problems your child has, the less they’ll have to be pulled out of school for trips to the dentist.

Establishing Good Habits

Taking good care of baby teeth is good practice for children. They will need to know good oral hygiene habits to keep their adult teeth healthy for the rest of their lives. Making oral healthcare a respected part of your household routine is very important. And don’t forget to set a good example by taking good care of your own teeth too!

Preparing the Mouth for Adult Teeth

The baby teeth help prepare the mouth for the proper positions of adult teeth when they come in. But if the baby teeth aren’t cared for properly, they can’t do this very important job. For example, if a child has a baby tooth removed early due to tooth decay, the remaining baby teeth may crowd that area, leaving no gap for the adult tooth to move into when the time comes. The result can be crowded or misaligned adult teeth that are hard to clean and require more extensive orthodontic treatment (braces).

Need a Tutorial on Caring For Kids Teeth? Let Us Know!

How you should care for your child’s teeth changes as they grow. Even babies need their gums cared for before they start teething! If you need tips on how to care for your child’s teeth and teach good habits at any stage, please let us know. We’d be happy to give you instructions!