Dental Care for Infants and Toddlers | LA PERLE DENTAL

While each child grows at his or her own pace, dental care for children follows a conventional timeline. Children dentist San Diego provide expert and appropriate dental care and oral health for infants, toddlers, children, and teenagers. In this article you can find the estimated schedule of dental objective and oral care tips for your infant, baby, and toddler.

1. Infant Dental Care

Your baby’s first tooth will arrive until he or she is around three to four months old, but oral care starts right after birth. Parents can use water and gauze or just a soft washcloth to gently clean their baby’s gums after meals. You can also do this at the end of each day to make sure the bacteria doesn’t linger when the baby sleeps. If you bottle feed your baby, try not to put them to bed with the bottle filled with milk, formula, or juice. It can be a good idea to entirely skip the bottle at bedtime, but if your baby needs it to fall asleep, you can fill it with just water. This process can continue even through the toddler and childhood years when they may have switched over to sippy cups.

If you are looking when to make the first visit to a children dentist, San Diego dental experts recommend visiting when the first tooth emerges, or before your child’s first birthday. You can still continue using the washcloth to wipe clean your child’s new teeth and then switch to toddler-formulated toothpaste and a baby brush when they reach toddler years. You should look into whether your city adds fluoride to the tap water. If not, you may consider purchasing fluoridated water or ask for fluoride drops from the pediatric dentist or any other suggestion that can prove to be better for your child’s oral health.

2. Toddler Dental Care

Parents will need to brush their children’s teeth for them until they are focused enough and have the manual dexterity to do it by themselves. There are many toothbrushes in market that offer a little fun to the children. Some come featuring bright colors and cartoon characters, and some even come with timers that play songs. However, the characteristics of an ideal brush are that it consists of a small head, soft bristles, and a large body, which little hands can easily grip.

Use a pea-sized drop of toothpaste formulated for toddlers and children, and clean their teeth and gums gently. Flossing may not be recommended until enough teeth have arrived that some touch each other. Do this twice a day and see when your child is ready to it by him or herself. This is also a good time to disengage you child from pacifiers, bottles, and sippy cups at night.

These are very useful tips that you must implement to keep your child’s oral health at its best and children dentist San Diego recommend them to all the new parents to help keep their child overall healthy.