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Prevention of Teething
As soon as the first baby teeth begin to appear you should start to clean them.
At first you may find it easier to use a piece of clean gauze or cloth wrapped around your forefinger. As more teeth appear you will need to use a baby toothbrush. Use a soft toothbrush designed for very young children, and a small pea-sized smear of baby toothpaste.
It can be easier to clean their teeth if you cradle your baby’s head in your arms in front of you. Once your child reaches two you should start to use fluoride toothpaste.
As the child gets older it may be difficult to use this technique but you can gradually give more responsibility for cleaning their teeth to the child. It is important to clean teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.
Check with your dentist or health visitor if you are unsure about how to look after your baby’s teeth.
If you can, avoid using a dummy and discourage thumb sucking. These can both eventually cause problems as the teeth grow and develop. This may result in treatment with a brace when the child gets older.
Never dip your baby’s dummy or teething ring into fruit syrups, honey, fruit juices or anything containing sugars, particularly at bedtime. These can expose your baby’s teeth to harmful acids, which can attack the newly formed teeth and cause decay.
Never add sugar to bottle feeds or use sugary drinks. Milk and water are the best drinks for teeth.
Bottle-feeding with drinks containing sugar can lead to ‘bottle caries’ (tooth decay). A baby is not born with a sweet tooth and will only have a taste for sugar if it is given at an early age.
Encouraging your baby to drink from a cup can help prevent dental problems that can be caused by drinking from a bottle.
Try to get your baby to drink from a special cup by the time they are six months old, or when they are able to sit up and hold things on their own.
Take your dentist’s advice on when first to take your baby to the dentist. You could take your baby to your own routine check up. The baby’s own check-ups can start any time from about six months.
