Milk teeth should receive similar care to permanent teeth. In fact, they are more sensitive to cavities. We can help children to brush properly and maintain their oral health.
Children’s milk teeth begin to leave after 3 or 4 months and end up completely after 3 years. They will accompany our children for several years but, as they are not permanent, they are not always taken care of.
They are called milk teeth because they are whiter than permanent teeth. They are also more fragile. Dentin and enamel are more sensitive to the appearance of decay if you do not have good cleaning habits.
Hygiene in the baby’s mouth
Brushing, from the cradle
The brushing of the mouth should start even before the first teeth come out. The baby’s gums should be cleaned and massaged with wet gauze at least once a day. This measure, in addition to cleaning, helps the baby get used and it is easier to introduce the toothbrush from the first year of life.
When you reach one year, you have to start brushing your teeth with silicone fingers or with toothbrushes for children. Since they have the smallest bristles, they work very well for their mouths. This cleaning is done without using toothpaste, since children are too young to spit out the remains of the paste and tend to swallow it, which is detrimental to their health, precisely because of the fluoride content.
When the baby teeth came out
After 2 years, the use of dental floss can be incorporated to clean the faces of the teeth. Of course this cannot be done alone but with the help of parents. You can start using toothpaste made especially for children, because they contain less fluoride or there are even versions that do not contain it.
You just need a tiny bit of paste on the tip of the brush. Brush first without pasta and then with pasta, for about two minutes, after each meal and before shortening. It is best to spit before rinsing the mouth, to prevent some of the paste from being swallowed during rinsing.
The first visit to the dentist
Although baby teeth seem in the first months of the baby’s life, the first visit to the dentist is usually not on the agenda of the parents’ priorities. This specialist is only used when a problem has already been detected. That first visit should occur when the first baby teeth appear, or at most postpone it when the dentition is completed. That is, about 30 months of the baby’s life.
From that moment, it would be good for the child to visit the dentist every 6 months. The idea is to accustom the child to visit the dentist for preventive purposes, not only when a caries has already appeared. Although the teeth of milk are not permanent, if the cavities are not taken care of, the permanent teeth coming on the way can be affected.
Other measures in favor of oral health
You have to clean the baby teeth after the last night bottle, although it is different when the child is breastfed. The sugars in breast milk do not damage the enamel of milk teeth. In addition, you must regulate the consumption of sugary foods. There is no point in being alert to proper brushing after every meal, and within a few minutes, children are eating foods rich in sugar.
A natural way to prevent cavities is to use coconut oil after brushing. Massaging the gums with coconut oil for about 10 minutes, daily for three weeks, significantly reduces the bacteria that cause tooth decay. It is also effective against plaque.
To brush together!
As children learn by imitation, ideally they brush their teeth together with an adult. A first minute that brushes by itself, and the second minute brushed by an adult, to ensure that brushing is effective.
Your help in brushing will depend on how responsible the child is and how he brushes. However, at about 7 years old they will start to fall. From that age it would be convenient that you did not help him, now he has to feel older and brush himself.
