Are You Brushing Your Toddler’s Teeth?

Brushing your toddler’s teeth can be an exercise in patience for some, and a breeze for others. Most of the time, brushing a toddler’s teeth is difficult but it’s important. If you’re not brushing your toddler’s teeth, here’s why you need to start now.

Kids Need Dental Care Just Like Adults

Cavities in kids has been going down but cavities in baby teeth has become worryingly common in the last twenty years. In fact, 60% of children five and under have had at least one cavity. Some children under five have had as many as ten cavities. Dental decay in children can cause pain and require extraction which is not without its risks. Baby teeth also act as placeholders for adult teeth, and issues with baby teeth can affect your children’s’ development of permanent teeth.

The Importance of Pediatric Dental Care

Taking your kids to the dentist is also crucial. Melinda Wenner Moyer for Slate magazine discusses how she skipped important dental care milestones for her child, and how she ended up paying for them:

“Infant visits also give dentists the chance to educate parents on what to expect during teething and how best to care for kids’ teeth. If I had taken my daughter in when she got her first tooth, I might not be suffering through daily tooth-brushing battles, because I would have been told to wipe her teeth with a washcloth each day as an infant (which I didn’t do) and to start brushing with a toothbrush at age 1 (didn’t do that either). These are habits that establish oral care as a routine early on, making kids more compliant when they hit the terrible twos. Other important advice you might not have heard: brush your kid’s teeth for them at least once a day until they turn 8 or 9—oops, my 5-year-old son has been brushing solo for at least a year!—because the fine motor skills that make for good brushing ‘don’t really develop until about the age when a child can begin to tie shoes or write in cursive,’ Miller explains.”

Start Early

The earlier you start introducing your child to dental care, the easier the routine will become. If you need any advice for how to care for your children’s teeth, then call us at Riverstone Dental Care today. We will help you learn how to care for your kids’ teeth, and we will do a cleaning to ensure all the plaque and tartar build-up is removed.

Categorised in: Family Dental Care, General Dental