Dental care starts from infancy.
Infant and toddler period (0~3 years old) is the period when milk teeth erupt one after another and permanent teeth are in calcification. If we do not pay attention to oral health care, infants and toddlers are prone to dental caries, gingivitis, oral mucosal disease, oral malformation, etc., which will have adverse effects on their oral health throughout their lives. Therefore, the oral health of infants and children should receive special attention.
So, how should do oral care for babies?
1.Feed warm water regularly. Whether breast-feeding or artificial feeding, should develop the child in the milk, milk between the regular habit of sucking water, so that the residual milk in the mouth rinsed away. Especially when the child has a fever or infection, he or she should be fed warm water regularly.
2. Strictly maintain the hygiene of nipples and milk utensils. For breastfed babies, it is most important to keep the mother’s nipples clean. Before breastfeeding, the mother should wash her hands and nipples with soap, and the towel used to wipe the nipples should be disinfected before use. If artificial feeding is used, the bottle and dropper should be cleaned with soap first, and then rinsed thoroughly with water before use.
3, do not pick “horse teeth”. In the newborn gingival cutting edge of the mucosa, sometimes you can see rice-like yellow-white protrusions, which is the accumulation of epithelial cells or mucus gland swelling, commonly known as “horse teeth”, can disappear on their own, do not wipe, pick cut, to prevent erosion, infection, and even cause sepsis.
4.Brush your teeth in the morning and evening, and rinse your mouth after meals.
5.Help baby brush teeth.
★ When brushing your baby’s teeth, choose a convenient and comfortable place with plenty of light, such as the living room, study and bedroom.
★ A posture that is both comfortable and stable for your baby should be chosen. After the baby is a little older, you can let the baby sit on a small chair and lean on the mother to brush his teeth.
★ Use a toothbrush with a small brush head and soft bristles.
Do not use toothpaste when brushing teeth, as children under three years old are prone to swallowing toothpaste due to imperfect swallowing function.
★Brush your baby’s teeth with light force. When brushing, you should pay attention to the occlusal surface, adjacent surface of the back teeth and the gap between the upper and lower teeth and the front teeth, which are prone to caries. If the adjacent surface cannot be brushed, you can use dental floss. At the age of two or three, babies can start to brush their own teeth under the supervision of their mothers. However, at this time, your baby’s fingers are still not flexible enough to clean his or her teeth thoroughly and needs your mother’s patient guidance to help. While your baby is learning to brush, it is recommended that your mother help your baby brush his teeth once before he goes to bed.
Please check your baby’s mouth regularly
When your baby starts to see the dentist
Your baby should see the dentist when the first tooth erupts, usually between six months and one year of age. Even if no teeth have erupted, it should be no later than one year old to allow for early preventive control of dental disease in infants and children.
How often is a good interval
Most children should receive dental checkups every six months, and for children at high risk for dental disease or developmental abnormalities, they should see a dentist every three months.
What is included in an oral examination
? A review of the baby’s overall medical history (including a history of dental disease).
? Examination of the baby’s teeth, occlusal surfaces, gums, mucous membranes and other oral tissues.
? Provide parents with targeted oral health care knowledge based on the baby’s oral condition.
? Provide preventive treatment, such as topical fluoride application, sulcus closure, etc.
Prevent infant caries to keep the scientific feeding gate
Caries is a bacterial infection disease, the main caries-causing bacteria is Streptococcus pyogenes. The cariogenic bacteria adhere to the tooth surface and use the sugar in carbohydrates to produce acid, which causes tooth demineralization and caries. The survey shows that the caries rate of milk teeth is as high as 40% when three-year-old children enter school. Therefore, the prevention of caries in milk teeth is the key to oral care.
Control the transmission of cariogenic bacteria from mother to child
Research shows that there is no cariogenic bacteria – Streptococcus mutans (referred to as Streptococcus mutans) in the mouth before the child grows teeth, because Streptococcus mutans can only parasitize on the surface of the teeth. The mother usually spreads the cariogenic bacteria to the baby by kissing the baby or touching the baby’s pacifier or lunch spoon with her mouth. The average age of transmission from mother to baby is 19 to 31 months, which is called the window period of infection in medical science. The sooner the cariogenic bacteria colonize and multiply in the baby’s mouth, the more serious the caries will be in the future. Therefore, to control the mother-infant transmission of caries-causing bacteria is the key link to prevent baby caries. Specific practices are
★Mother should have good oral hygiene habit, rinse mouth after meal and brush teeth effectively to reduce the breeding and quantity of caries-causing bacteria in the mouth.
★Mother should fill the untreated caries in time during the middle of pregnancy (4-6 months of pregnancy) or after delivery.
★If the mother is a high-risk transmitter of Streptococcus mutans after examination by a dentist, it is better to use antibacterial mouthwash during the window of infection under the guidance of a dentist.
When bottle feeding, adults can put a drop of milk on the back of the hand to measure the temperature instead of sipping the rubber nipple directly before meal. Likewise, avoid using the same spoon when taking the temperature of food with a small spoon.
Do not feed your infant or toddler with food that has been chewed by an adult.
Avoid kissing your baby’s mouth as much as possible.
Establish and adhere to good breastfeeding habits
Breastfeed every 3 hours for 3 months after birth and every 4 hours thereafter. Don’t stuff the nipple or comfort pacifier into the baby’s mouth to coax him as soon as you see crying. Otherwise, in the long run, the baby’s jaw development will be limited by continuous sucking, making the palate too high and narrow, or gingivitis will occur.
The best way to breastfeed is to hold the baby and give him some warm water with a small spoon to rinse his mouth afterwards. Don’t give your baby the habit of sleeping with a pacifier, and don’t use an empty pacifier as a soothing object for your baby to sleep with. Especially for babies who are fed by hand or mixed feedings, they should develop the habit of eating with a spoon.
Eat sugar wisely
Excessive sugar intake will not only reduce the absorption of other nutrients, but also cause obesity and dental caries in infants and children. Therefore, the intake of sweet food should be controlled. In general, it can be estimated by eating about 0.5 grams of sugar per kilogram of body weight per day. It is better not to put sugar in milk, if you want to add sugar, the sweetness should be suitable for adults who can just taste the sweetness. After each sweet meal, you should feed your baby some warm water to clean the mouth.