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Oral health for children up to age 3
Accessing Dental Care
NHS dental care is free for all pregnant mothers and up to 12 months after birth and for children.
Adults should have a regular check-up at least once every 2 years, and children at least once a year.
Children should start going to the dentist for regular check-ups along with the rest of the family as soon as their first tooth erupts, and definitely before age 1. The dentist can advise on brushing, a healthy diet and regular check-ups.
The Personal Child Health Record or ’red book’ contains dental pages with useful oral health information. You can ask your dentist to record when your child has visited the dentist.
Good Oral Health for Good General Health
Good oral health is important for good general health. Mouthcare is an important part of personal care.
In order to care for your child’s mouth, it is important to know how to care for your own mouth.
A child’s first teeth (baby/deciduous teeth) are just as important as the adult teeth, so please look after them well.
Tooth decay can cause pain, infection, sleepless nights, time off nursery/school and time off work for parents/carers.
Small children often need a general anaesthetic to have decayed teeth removed, which can be an unpleasant experience and is not without risk.
Baby (deciduous) teeth are important to guide the adult teeth into the right position. If they are lost early, the spaces for the adult teeth can be lost, and they may come through crooked.
Top 10 Toothbrushing Tips
1 Start brushing your baby's teeth as soon as they start to come through.
2 Children need to be helped and supervised with toothbrushing until at least age 7 years old.
3 Brushing removes plaque, a white sticky film containing bacteria which covers the teeth and gums. Brushing away the plaque keeps teeth and gums healthy.
4 Use a small-headed toothbrush with a smear of fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride strengthens teeth and prevents tooth decay (holes).
5 Check the ingredients on the toothpaste packaging to make sure it contains no less at least 1000 ppm fluoride. Use a toothpaste containing 1350-1500ppm fluoride for maximum prevention. Most ‘own brand’ supermarket toothpastes are suitable and more affordable.
6 Don't worry if you don't manage to brush much at first. The important thing is to get your baby used to brushing their teeth as part of their daily routine. You can help by setting a good example and letting them see you brushing your own teeth.
7 Brush all the surfaces of the teeth and gumline in small circles for at least 2 minutes, just before bedtime and at another time that fits in with your routine.
8 The easiest way to brush a baby's teeth is to sit them on your knee, with their head resting against your chest.
9 Encourage your child to spit the toothpaste out afterwards. There's no need to rinse with water. Rinsing washes away the fluoride so it can’t do its job.
10 Always supervise toothbrushing to make sure your child only has a smear of toothpaste on their brush, and they're not eating or licking toothpaste from the tube.
PLUS
Each family member should have their own toothbrush to stop spread of germs
Video: How do I brush my child's teeth?
In this video, a health visitor explains how you should brush your child's teeth and the importance of routine. [scroll down on linked page for video]
Toothbrushing resources
Video: How to care for teeth 0-3
Video: Growing up with Healthy Teeth
Video: Hey Duggee Toothbrushing badge Episode
Teething
- The first teeth (baby or milk teeth) to appear are usually the bottom front teeth (incisors) around 5-7 months, followed by the top front teeth. After that come the other incisors, first molars, canines and second molars. They should have 20 baby teeth by the time they are two and a half years old.
- Baby teeth sometimes come through with no pain or discomfort at all. At other times, you may notice:
- your baby's gum is sore and red
- one cheek is flushed
- they are rubbing their ear
- your baby is dribbling more than usual
- they are gnawing and chewing on things a lot
- they are more fretful than usual
- Some people think that teething causes other symptoms, such as diarrhoea and fever, but there's no evidence to support this. Please arrange for your baby to see a doctor if they seem unwell whilst cutting their teeth.
- They may find it a relief to chew on something e.g. a teething ring. Teething gels don’t usually help, but if you decide to try one, make sure it is suitable for young children and sugar-free. Sugar-free paracetamol or ibuprofen can be given to relieve teething symptoms in babies and young children aged 3 months or older.
Feeding baby and moving on to solids
Plaque bacteria in the mouth feed on sugar making acid which attacks teeth and causes tooth decay (holes). It's not just about the amount of sugar in sweet food and drinks, but how long and how often the teeth are in contact with sugar. Tooth decay is painful and affects eating and sleeping. Decayed baby teeth may have to be extracted (taken out) early, and this can cause the adult teeth to end up in the wrong position.
- The safest drinks for teeth are milk and water.
- Breast milk provides the best nutrition for babies and is the only food or drink babies need for around the first six months of their life. Formula milk is the only suitable alternative to breast milk.
- Breast feeding up to 12 months is associated with a decreased risk of tooth decay.
- It's OK to use bottles for expressed breast milk, formula milk, or cooled boiled water.
- Do NOT put juices or sugary drinks in bottles as this will bathe the teeth in sugar for long periods of time, quickly causing tooth decay.
Food resources
- From 6 months old, you can offer babies drinks in a non-valved free-flowing cup (not a sippy cup as these still require the baby to suck like a bottle). Move completely from a bottle to a free-flow cup by 12 months. Give milk or water, as these are safest for the teeth.
- When your baby starts eating solid foods, encourage them to eat savoury food. Do not add sugar to food given to babies and toddlers. Check if there's sugar in pre-prepared baby foods (including the savory ones). Rusks and baby drinks are not needed as part of a healthy diet and should be avoided.
- Avoid giving sugary foods like biscuits, sweets or dried fruit, particularly near bedtime. If you choose to give them, they should only be eaten at mealtimes.
- You may see sugar written on food packaging using different words. Sucrose, glucose, dextrose, maltose, fructose and hydrolysed starch, invert sugar, syrup, honey, raw sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, muscovado sugar and concentrated fruit juices are all sugars. Even if it is marketed as ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ sugar, it will be harmful to teeth.
- At bedtime or during the night, only give your child breast milk, formula milk or cooled boiled water.
- If your child needs medicine, ask your pharmacist or GP if there's a sugar-free option.
Dubbies and Thumb sucking
It's fine to give your baby a dummy but avoid using them after 12 months of age. Using dummies or thumb-sucking can cause the top and bottom front teeth to move to make space for the dummy/thumb, making a gap. Your child's speech development can also be affected.
Discourage your child from running around, talking or making sounds with a dummy or their thumb in their mouth, and don't dip dummies in anything sweet, such as sugar or jam.
Never suck your baby’s dummy to ‘clean’ it as this will spread germs between you and your baby. Keep plenty of spares instead.
