How To Properly Take Care Of Your Baby's New And Developing Teeth
ShareYou want to make sure you do everything you can to ensure that your baby's teeth are going to come in healthy and remain as healthy as possible throughout their life. The job of taking care of your child's teeth starts before those teeth even begin to break out from their gums. You want to follow the advice in this article to know you are taking good care of your baby's teeth:
Before your baby's teeth come in
You want to take good care of your baby's gums before their first teeth start to break through. You can do this by making sure you keep their gums as clean as possible at all times, especially after they are done eating and before they go to sleep.
After your baby eats each meal, you want to take a piece of damp gauze on your finger and carefully use it to wipe their gums off. It's important that you have a good grip on the gauze so it doesn't come off and cause a potential choking hazard. You should also put off giving your baby sugary drinks like juice until your baby is old enough to drink from a cup.
You never want to put your baby to sleep with a bottle. Not only will this cause them to have an increased chance of choking and developing an ear infection, but it also causes the liquid from the bottle to settle on their gums and cause early tooth decay of their developing teeth.
Once your baby's teeth come in
Once your baby's first teeth break through, you want to begin brushing them. Use a soft baby-sized toothbrush and a very small amount (more like a smear) of non-fluoridated tooth paste. You can switch to fluoridated toothpaste once your child is two years of age. At this time, you can increase the amount of toothpaste from a smear to an amount the size of a pea.
You should take your child in for their first dental visit before their first birthday. This will help ensure your baby's teeth are coming in fine and you are getting them started on the right track for good oral hygiene. Continue making your child's appointments, following the schedule suggested by their dentist.
By following the advice offered above, you will be able to expect your child's teeth to be healthier. If there are dental problems, good oral hygiene from the beginning will help to minimize those problems and possibly make them easier to have corrected. To learn more, stay in contact with your dentist for your general dentistry needs.