Caring an infant’s teeth

Parents have the responsibility of beginning the process of oral health care for their children, which starts when the child is about four months old. This initial orientation is the most important and will be especially effective if sustained over the first ten years of the child’s life.
Here are some Dos And Don’ts.

1. Try to rub the gums with gauze or a damp face cloth even before the teeth start to erupt. This will get your baby to understand from an early age that like bathing and hair washing, mouth washing is a part of the routine. It will also desensitise the gums slightly and may ease the irritation of tooth eruption somewhat.

2. Don’t dip the pacifier (comforter) in syrup or honey or other sweet substance because sweetness in the baby’s mouth for prolonged periods is guaranteed to cause tooth decay. Furthermore, it will only encourage a “sweet tooth” which facilitates future obesity.

3. Don’t put extra sugar in the drinks that your baby takes in the bottle. The child does not need extra sugar. There is enough energy for him/her in the normal foodstuffs taken in.

4. Fruit juices contain acids. Some of them – especially citrus fruit – are very high in acid content. This acid does the same job as the acid produced by the plaque. It demineralises the enamel. Therefore avoid fruit juice in the bottle or at least dilute it with water ( about 50/50).

5. Avoid carbonated (soft) drinks until the age of about three years. Never put these drinks in a bottle.

6. Try not to let your baby sleep with a bottle. This may lead to bottle mouth. If it is essential, make sure that the bottle contains only water.

7. Use an “orthodontic pacifier” to ensure that in the event of continued use, the pacifier does not lead to an enormous open space between the front teeth (open-bite). Remember, the sucking of a pacifier is normal up to age three years.

8. Do not give sweets or chocolates to an infant until at least 18 months of age. They don’t know that they are “missing” something nice and all it does is promote poor diet habits. Resist relatives doing this even though it makes you unpopular with them.

9. Kissing a baby on the lips is one way that the bacterium streptococcus mutans (which causes tooth decay) is introduced into the mouth. Try to limit non-family members to kissing on the cheek only.

10. Cleaning your children’s teeth is essential. Many of the baby teeth have to last your child until he or she is almost 12 years old, so the idea of “they fall out anyway” is just not acceptable.

Baby teeth are essential for maintaining the space for correct positioning of the permanent ones that will follow, so if your child loses teeth too early, you may be looking a huge orthodontist bills later that might have avoided. Also when children are young it is difficult for a dentist to adequately restore cavities, so it may be required to do dental work under general anaesthetic. This should be avoided if possible and can be just by maintaining strict oral hygiene measures right from the beginning.

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