Technique is the key to proper dental cleaning
From 0-6 months, before the milk teeth come in, rinsing the mouth is the most critical.
Supplies needed: warm boiled water, a small piece of sterile gauze
Technical guidance: Give your child some warm boiled water after feeding, which is equivalent to rinsing the mouth. You can also use gauze dipped in warm boiled water to gently wipe your baby’s gums and mouth.
From 6 months to 1.5 years old, during the period of teething, mom and dad should remove plaque and soft scale from the child’s teeth every day to keep the mouth clean and develop the child’s hygiene habits.
Supplies needed: sterilized gauze or cotton swabs, warm boiled water, finger toothbrush.
Technical guidance: The mother sits on the sofa or bedside and lets the child lie in the mother’s arms. With one hand, the mother fixes the child’s head and lips, and with the other hand, she takes a clean gauze or finger toothbrush and dips it into warm boiling water to clean the outer and inner sides of the child’s teeth. Gently massage the child’s gums as you rub to help ease the discomfort of teething.
From 1.5 to 3 years old, when the baby’s teeth are fully grown, let your child understand the process and details of brushing to prepare him for brushing his own teeth later.
Supplies needed: training toothbrush, cotton swabs
Technical guidance: The child can stand or sit on a chair or stool, with the mother behind or to the side of the child, using one hand to fix the child’s head and the other hand to hold the toothbrush dipped in warm boiling water to brush the child’s teeth (without toothpaste).
The order of brushing is: place the bristles of the toothbrush near the gum area and the tooth surface at an angle of 45 degrees, brush the upper teeth from top to bottom, brush the lower teeth from bottom to top, brush the outer side and brush the inner side and the biting surface of the back teeth. Each side should be brushed 15-20 times to achieve the purpose of cleaning the teeth.
Because of this period, the arrangement of milk teeth is sparse and the crown is short, which can easily cause food embedding. Therefore, before brushing the teeth, the mother should check whether there is any food embedded in the child’s teeth, and if there is any, she should use a cotton swab to remove the food before brushing.
In addition, to start training your baby to brush their own teeth, let him first imitate your actions, to 2 years old, you can try to let him brush his own teeth, at this time can not ask the child to persist too long, as long as he is skilled in these actions can be. At this point, you should not ask your child to keep brushing his teeth for too long, as long as he is good at it.
From 3 to 6 years old, exercise your child’s ability to brush his teeth by himself, cultivate his interest in brushing, and use fluoride toothpaste to prevent tooth decay.
Supplies needed: age-appropriate toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash cup, cotton swabs.
Technical guidance: At the beginning, we should pay attention to let children master the correct brushing method and avoid too much pulling and brushing horizontally. The wrong brushing method not only fails to get the teeth clean, but also tends to cause tooth fragility, and later the child’s gums will be sore when brushing with a slightly harder toothbrush.
The correct way to brush teeth: squeeze toothpaste onto the toothbrush (the size of a soybean grain is fine) and brush vertically from top to bottom and from bottom to top along the teeth. The upper and lower, inner and outer are brushed along the root towards the tip of the tooth, and the tooth joint surface can be brushed horizontally. Each brushing should take at least 3 minutes and each side should be brushed 15-20 times. After brushing, rinse out all the toothpaste with water. Finally, the mother will check and gently wipe any areas that are not clean with a cotton swab dipped in water.
Choose the right toothbrush according to your child’s teething condition. If the bristles of the toothbrush are bent, it should be replaced with a new toothbrush, at the latest once every 6 to 8 weeks.
Fingertip toothbrush: Use when your child has 1-2 baby teeth. Put it on your finger to brush your child’s teeth, not only to clean the teeth, but also to gently massage the gums.
Silicon toothbrush: Suitable for use when 2-3 teeth are coming in. It has a toothbrush handle that is easy for the baby’s small hands to hold, and the brush head is flexible, soft and hard, designed to allow the child to bite. It can remove the debris on the teeth, but also massage and protect the dental bed, can fully meet the baby’s desire to always bite something during this period. Safety accessories keep it safe.
Silicon toothbrush with pointed bristles: suitable for use after 8-11 teeth have grown in. It also has the same functions mentioned above. It can also be used to allow children to practice brushing their teeth. The silicon bristles are also soft and will not scratch the child’s delicate gums.
Children’s toothbrushes: When the baby teeth come out, you can choose a health care toothbrush for your baby to practice brushing. It is characterized by: small brush head, length equivalent to the width of four incisors is appropriate, flexible rotation in the mouth, can brush the surface of all the teeth; bristles fine and can enter it gap soft; bristles after grinding round, not to stimulate the gums, do not damage the teeth; toothbrush handle length is moderate, toothbrush handle surface is best to have a layer of non-slip veneer, easy for children to grasp.
Small toothbrush maintenance after each brush, the toothbrush should be rinsed with running water. Because toothpaste, food residue and bacteria will adhere to the toothbrush. If the toothbrush is not thoroughly cleaned, the bacteria that did not get cleaned during the next brushing will return to the mouth again. Toothbrushes must be kept dry between uses, otherwise bacteria will multiply in a moist environment. If the toothbrush is not used for a long time and has a split, it means that the brushing is too hard and you should pay attention to brushing in the future.
The choice of toothpaste choose a toothpaste for children.
Children over 3 years old can use fluoride toothpaste. Because fluoride toothpaste not only can inhibit the growth of bacteria, but also can improve the hardness of teeth, enhance the acid resistance of teeth, and prevent tooth decay.
Oral reminder.
It is forbidden to use fluoride toothpaste before 3 years old because babies have poor self-control and easily swallow toothpaste; 3-6 years old should be used cautiously under the guidance of adults.
Over 7 years old can use fluoride toothpaste, but do not swallow the toothpaste into the abdomen, and rinse the toothpaste clean after brushing.
Be sure to pay attention to the amount of toothpaste used, using only the size of a soybean grain at a time, up to 1 cm.
For children in high fluoride areas, use fluoride toothpaste with the consent of your doctor.
Choose a suitable small mouthwash cup, requiring exquisite workmanship and lighter weight cups, especially the mouth of the cup should be rounded and smooth to not scratch the child’s lips.
10 suggestions for healthy teeth 4 “don’ts”
Avoid gum inflammation and tooth decay Don’t eat too many sweets Children are used to sweet taste from breast milk, but it is a bad habit for teeth. For this reason, parents need to control their children’s sweets and drinks, and it is better to eat sweets only at mealtime. Because, for tooth decay, the key is not how many sweets to eat, but the frequency of eating sweets. Children often drink fruit juices, sodas, iced tea, these drinks are used to quench their thirst and often “soak” their teeth in sugar. Therefore, children should be allowed to develop the good habit of drinking plain water to quench their thirst.
Don’t get too much acidic acid from lemons, fruit juices and sports drinks, as well as fruit-flavored chewing gum. Acids are just as damaging to the teeth as sugar. Therefore, do not brush your child’s teeth immediately after enjoying acidic foods, as this will brush away the softened enamel. Wait a short time and there is no such danger.
Don’t hold a bottle for a long time If you drink sweet or sour drinks from a bottle, or a straw bottle, you will keep the sugar or acid on your teeth for a longer time. Therefore, it’s best not to let your child hold a bottle for long periods of time. 2 year olds should learn to drink from a cup.
Not too many sticky foods Be careful of sticky foods, such as honey and cheese, that can stick to the teeth.
1 new information to build a dental care file for your child when the first baby teeth come in, in your local children’s hospital dentistry or dental hospital, you can build a “dental care file” for your child, it can be convenient for you to take your child for regular oral examination. Usually every six months, the doctor will record the growth of your child’s baby teeth, clean them, and apply fluoride to them after the age of 3. Once abnormalities such as growth deformities or cavities in the baby teeth are detected, they can be treated promptly.
If the hospital in your area does not have this service, then you should insist to take your child for oral examination at least once every six months.
1 warning caries should be detected and treated early once you find plaque or caries on your child’s milk teeth, you should go to dentistry for examination as soon as possible. Although children’s milk teeth will be replaced by permanent teeth, if the decay of milk teeth is serious and hurts the gums and roots, it will definitely affect the growth of permanent teeth.
4 ways to make brushing fun You have to set an example. Let your children see how you clean their teeth at a very young age.
Let your child brush his or her teeth in front of a mirror. This way he or she will have an image of what brushing is all about.
You can form rules at home: brush your teeth first, then listen to the story.
You should let your child insist on brushing his or her teeth, but don’t be the focus of an argument. If your child resists strongly, you can also give up brushing for a while.