Protecting Those Milk Teeth
Tooth care basics
When it comes to looking after young children’s teeth and gums, there are a few simple rules to follow.
Diet – Limit sugary foods and acidic drinks to mealtimes. In your child’s first few years, you might want to avoid cakes, biscuits and fizzy drinks completely.
Brushing – From 0-3 years, you should brush your child’s teeth carefully twice a day using a pea-sized amount of a children’s fluoride toothpaste. To find out the best way to brush, just check out our Brushing Demo.
Dentist visits – Take your child to the dentist regularly so you can catch any problems before they become painful.
What to put in your baby’s bottle
The only things you should put in your baby’s bottle are milk and water. This is because when a baby drinks from a bottle, the liquid swooshes around their teeth and gums, and any drink with sugar in it (even very weak fruit squash) will increase the chance of decay.
First teeth, first chance of decay
Our teeth are the home of millions of bacteria that live in the sticky film that forms across our teeth called plaque. Whenever we have food or drink containing sugar, these bacteria break it down into acid, which can lead to decay. So as soon as your child’s teeth start to come through, it’s time to start protecting them.
The best way to do this is by brushing their teeth twice a day with a pea-sized amount of fluoride toothpaste (ask your dentist for the correct fluoride level for your child). The brushing will remove plaque from the teeth surfaces, and the fluoride will help strengthen the tooth enamel.
Another step is to restrict sugar to mealtimes. This will keep the time your children’s teeth are under attack from plaque acid to a minimum.
Tips on sugary snacks and drinks
Teeth are pretty impressive. They’re tough, perfectly shaped and even come with their very own defense mechanism – a protective layer of enamel.
However, when we eat sugar, the bacteria on our teeth turn it into acid, which attacks the enamel. Over time, saliva neutralises this acid, but if your child keeps eating sugary foods or drinking sugary drinks, their teeth will be exposed to this acid for a much longer period. And that’s when they can start to decay.
So to help protect your kid's teeth from decay, it’s good to not only limit how much sugar they have, but also how often they have it.
A good strategy is to keep sugary things for mealtimes, and encourage them to stick to fruit, vegetables, cheese, milk and water between meals.
It’s also worth remembering that children aren’t born with a sweet tooth, and for the first few years you’re in charge of what they eat. So to give their teeth the best start in life, you might want to steer clear of biscuits, cakes and sugary drinks completely.
So what is acid erosion?
Fruit juice and fizzy drinks (even diet ones) are often acidic. And if your child drinks a lot of them – especially from a bottle – the acid will lead to erosion of the enamel in their teeth.
This is different from tooth decay because rather than it being focused at a specific point, acid erosion attacks the whole surface of the tooth at once by making the entire protective surface thinner.
This can make the teeth sensitive, and can also make them more vulnerable to decay. But there are some simple ways it can be avoided:
- only put milk or water in bottles
- always dilute fruit juice with water
- restrict fizzy drinks and fruit juices to mealtimes. Between meals, give them milk or water
- use a straw if you give them fizzy drinks, as this will mean the acid will have less contact with the teeth
- don’t let your child swish drinks around in their mouth
- wait at least an hour after you child has had an acidic drink before brushing their teeth
- after you’ve brushed their teeth at night, make sure they only have water to drink before going to bed
Young gums
Healthy gums are pretty important for a healthy mouth – so you need to pay as much attention to them as you do to teeth.
If plaque isn’t removed from the gum line by regular brushing, it can form a solid layer on the gum called tartar. Tartar is too hard to remove with a toothbrush, so your dentist or hygienist will need to do it instead.
It’s important to keep both plaque and tartar under control because if left, they can make your child’s gums swollen, so they bleed when touched. This is the start of gingivitis – otherwise known as gum disease. This is fairly common though, and improved brushing and regular scaling by your dentist and hygienist should sort it out quite easily. If you think your child might have gum disease, it’s best to take them to the dentist