Good Dental Habits Start
Earlier Than You Think
Excerpt By Janice Billingsley, HealthScoutNews

Taking good care of your children's teeth should begin before they can even hold a toothbrush.

Pediatric dentists urge parents to follow simple guidelines early in their babies' lives to create proper hygiene habits and reduce the risk of tooth decay later on.

"I like to see babies no later than six months after the first tooth appears, which is around 1 year old. And it's not so much to examine the baby as it is to educate the parents," says Dr. Lawrence Allen Kotlow, a pediatric dentist in Albany, N.Y.

Among his recommendations: Never let a baby go to sleep with a bottle in his mouth with anything in it but water; and, as important, make sure that if you nurse him on demand that you not let him sleep with milk left in his mouth.

Milk dissolves into lactic acid, and every fruit drink or juice that has sugar turns into acid in the mouth as well, Kotlow says. Both cause tooth enamel to dissolve.

Another key to strong teeth is fluoride, he says, which makes the enamel more resistant to tooth decay. Many areas in the country have fluoridated water, which gives you and your family automatic protection. However, if your water isn't fluoridated, you should ask your dentist about fluoride supplements for your child when they are older than 6 months, Kotlow says.

"Fluoride can reduce cavities by 60 percent," he says.

In addition to alerting parents to healthy dental habits, dentists also work to ensure that the children themselves are comfortable with the dentist.

At Dr. James Lowe's Oklahoma City office, children come in for social visits at age 1 or 2 to set a pattern for regular, biannual visits when they get older.

"We give them a toothbrush and let them ride the chair so they become familiar with the office," Lowe says.

When their teeth start coming in, children are too young to brush them themselves, the doctors say, but that doesn't mean the parents can't brush their teeth for them.

"You want to teach the children that that's what they should do every morning and every night until it becomes a habit," Lowe says. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends cleaning a baby's teeth, even the first and only one, as soon as it appears by wiping it clean with a damp cloth. When additional teeth come in, start brushing them twice daily with a soft brush.

Also a help at early ages, between 3 and 6, are the small electric toothbrushes, although Lowe says that by the age of 6, most kids can do better jobs on their teeth using a manual toothbrush.

"But parents should continue to help them until ages 6 or 7, especially in the back teeth," Lowe says.

When the parents are doing the brushing, Kotlow suggests having the child tip his or her head back toward the parent's body, rather than trying to reach over the child's head at the sink.

Brushing should be done from the gums down, Lowe says, and Kotlow recommends holding the brush at about a 45-degree angle to the teeth.

"Then tell them to jab and jiggle down and around the gums and teeth," Kotlow says.

Flossing is important, too, Kotlow says, recommending it be introduced once a day as soon as a child has two teeth that are touching each other so there's no space between them.

"You can give your child floss to play with," he says, so they get used to using it at night.

However, Lowe says not to worry if a child doesn't floss regularly.

"Often the child doesn't have the dexterity until his early teens, and if he does it incorrectly at a younger age it may hurt," Lowe says, making flossing later on less appealing.

As important as teaching good dental habits, the doctors say, is encouraging good nutrition.

"You have to make sure children practice good nutrition and that they eat the right things -- fruit, whole grain breads and crackers -- and stay away from processed meats and foods," Lowe says.

"Anything that sticks to glass sticks to teeth, like gummy bears, fruit roll-ups, chewy candy," Kotlow says. They can be bad for teeth, especially if these snacks are in lunch boxes and kids don't brush their teeth after lunch, he adds.

Better to persuade your child to finish his lunch with a piece of fresh fruit, which won't harm his teeth, the doctors recommend.

"The fructose in fruit and some sugar substitutes can be introduced into a child's diet," Lowe says.

More information

February is National Children's Dental Health Month.

A thorough primer on what parents should know about their children's dental health can be found at The American Dental Association. Also of interest is an American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry paper on the dangers of baby bottle tooth decay. To read it, you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download by clicking here.

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