Children and Teeth Cleaning
Children and Teeth Cleaning: Over many years, the advice on younger children’s dental hygiene has undergone multiple revisions.
Children and Teeth Cleaning
Our Nollamara early learning centre keeps up to date with all such guidance but as always, do please remember that only your dentist is qualified to offer medico-dental advice. You should consult them at the earliest opportunity if you have any detailed questions.
The early learning centre and dental hygiene values
Such subjects may come up as part of our day-to-day activities and discussions with children. We recognise that some parental views and practices may differ but we will always try to mention things that conform to existing state and national advice on these subjects.
Children’s teeth
At one time, children’s dental hygiene was seen as ‘not terribly important’ largely based upon the mistaken belief that it didn’t matter much given the milk teeth were going to fall out anyway!
Those days are now long passed.
Today, Australian advice is to take children’s dental health seriously from their youngest ages. That’s because there are real and long-lasting health benefits it doing so. It’s also now widely accepted that good dental hygiene practices in younger children tend to be retained into their schooling and even adult lives – something that will benefit them immensely and reduce the need for remedial dental work.
Key points from current dental advice
Although individual dentists may offer slight variations, broadly speaking the national advice for preschool age children is as follows:
- teeth cleaning should commence as soon as the first milk teeth appear;
- use a very soft brush specially designed for toddlers and younger children;
- a low-level fluoride toothpaste should be used, typically confirmed as being suitable for younger children. It is recognised that some people may have concerns with fluoride toothpastes and water supplies. The available space here doesn’t permit a detailed discussion of the issues but it is imperative for parents to discuss their concerns with their dentist before deciding to avoid using fluoride toothpastes for their child;
- use only a small pea-sized amount of paste each brush;
- the teeth should be cleaned morning and evening. Older advice that the teeth cleaning must be done after every meal is now frowned upon;
- a dental check should be undertaken every 6-12 months, even where no problem is suspected;
- sugary drinks, including many commercial sweetened fruit, flavoured milk or ‘health drinks’, should be entirely avoided or consumed with extreme moderation;
- the same applies to sweets and sugary snacks;
- any tooth aches and pains reported by a child, should be checked out sooner rather than later;
- electric brushes are now considered fine, providing they are child-approved. Certain dentists might still recommend the use of conventional manual brushes in the earliest years. Some children react badly to electric brushes at first and are afraid of them – that can usually but not always, be overcome by gentle parental demonstrations;
- many children will quickly try to take the brush and clean their own teeth. That’s fine and desirable but it’s important to make sure they’re doing it thoroughly and under supervision.
It might take time but most children quickly adopt best practices in this area. At our early learning centre, we’ll mention the importance of teeth cleaning. If you’d like to know more, please contact us and we’ll be only too happy to discuss in more detail.
