BABY’S TEETH : PROPER CARE AND GUIDANCE

Your baby’s first teeth usually appear at around 6 months after birth. The key to educating your child in good oral care is to start at around this age when the baby’s first tooth appears.
In fact, dental associations recommend that you start cleaning your baby’s mouth a few days after birth.
After each meal you can take a wet wash cloth and wipe your baby’s gums. This helps your baby in number of ways:
1. It removes a sticky substance which gets collected on the baby’s gums called plaque. Removing this regularly prevents bacteria from accumulating on the baby’s gums.
2. It helps your child get used to have a clean mouth feeling. Introducing this clean feeling early on is basically setting a good example for later oral care.
3. It gets your child used to some foreign object being introduced in his/her mouth. This will help later with brushing his/her teeth with a toothbrush and with dental checkups as well.
So this early introduction to cleaning is a very important step for parents to follow.

Brushing your child’s teeth

Teaching your child how to brush is extremely important as it starts a habit which lasts lifelong. Parents play a vital role in this process as it is up to them to teach the child properly and make sure it is something the child enjoys doing. The parent is responsible for taking care of the child’s teeth from when he/she is born to at least the age of six! After this a child can be monitored occasionally to see that he/she is following a good oral hygiene regime.
It is very important to encourage your children to brush twice a day .It is recommended that you brush:
• In morning
• At night after the last meal.
If you can brush after every meal, that is the best solution but not always possible.
Tooth brushing morning and night helps remove the plaque, which is a sticky substance, from the surface of the teeth. If the plaque is not removed from the tooth it can lead to decay of the tooth.
Brushing teeth at night is most important because when asleep, the flow of saliva becomes less and the plaque in your baby’s mouth will stay acidic for longer. Brushing teeth in the morning facilitates the removal of any plaque that was built up at night and allows your child to start the day with a fresh feeling in the mouth.
The most important reason to brush your little one’s teeth is to avoid tooth decay. Remember that the child’s teeth decay much faster than an adult and so we must make sure that they are properly brushed!
Bacteria collect in the soft substance (plaque) around the teeth which multiply rapidly. These oral bacteria then combine with an infant’s soft and sweet diet to create acids which cause the tooth enamel to dissolve and this creates cavities.
The decay can progress very fast from the enamel to the dentin and in some cases it just takes few months!
So parents have a very big responsibility in keeping their children’s mouth clean and germ free.