Dental Care and Oral Health Guide for Babies

Although it is often not taken very seriously, it is necessary to start the oral care of babies as soon as they are born. Do you know how this maintenance will be done, which products will be used, and how often? Don’t worry, we have prepared an article to guide you about oral care for babies. Come on, start practicing without wasting time!

Don’t forget to say newborn, mouth cleaning is very important!

Probably “My newborn baby doesn’t eat anything anyway, he has no teeth, what is the need for cleaning?” you think. But the newborn baby’s mouth is very prone to bacterial growth, and the layer of milk or formula accumulated in his mouth needs to be cleaned.

You can clean your newborn’s mouth with a cheesecloth, muslin or a piece of gauze. Dip the cloth in warm boiled water and wrap it around your index finger. With this cloth, clean your baby’s tongue, cheeks and palate. You can do this once a day, it is very suitable for oral cleaning of babies.

Your baby has thrush in his mouth, what should you do?

Thrush in babies is one of the most troublesome oral problems. At this stage, you should not apply any treatment method without consulting your doctor. If your doctor recommends, you can add baking soda to the water you clean your mouth with, and you can destroy the fungi that cause thrush. Apart from that, you can use the drugs in the form of drops with the recommendation of your doctor.

If your baby is using it, it is also useful to pay attention to the cleanliness of products such as feeding bottles and pacifiers. Bacteria accumulated in these products can cause thrush in your baby’s mouth. That’s why you should regularly wash bottles and pacifiers with boiling water or use a sterilizer .

How should oral care for babies be during the teething period?

Teething period for babies is a bit of a pain, isn’t it? Swelling and itchy gums will cause great distress for your baby. In this process, you need some coolness and massage on your baby’s gums. You can do this by dipping a cloth we mentioned above in cool water and rubbing your gums lightly. Circular movements with finger brushes will also reduce itching. Thus, your baby’s oral care will be done and teething symptoms will be relieved!

Apart from these, you can also choose a teether to help your baby.

First teeth out, now it’s time to care!

Baby’s first tooth 6-10. It will take off in months. From this point on, their teeth will begin to show themselves one after another. However, you should not wait for all the teeth to come out to start dental care for babies. Because infants 6 months with additional food will start and these foods will lead to the formation of bacteria accumulate around the teeth. That’s why you can get finger toothbrushes and start baby teeth cleaning as soon as the first teeth come out.

These finger toothbrushes are made of silicone material and are worn on the index finger. It has soft silicone bristles on the tip. In this way, you can safely clean around your teeth while running your finger in your baby’s mouth. Since the tips are soft, it does not harm your baby’s gums.

You do not need to use a toothpaste in this process. Water and finger toothbrushes will do all the work.

When should the first dentist visit be?

After the researches, institutions such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Dental Association (ADA) concluded that the best time for the first baby dentist visit is 1 year old. So when the baby has 3-4 teeth, he can have his first dentist visit.

Seeing a dentist can be a frightening experience for most children. For this reason, at the first visit, you can tell your baby what he will encounter and make him understand that there is no situation for him to suffer. The attitude of the doctor is also very important here. A competent doctor, who is friendly and understands the language of children, will help your baby overcome his fear.

With the first checkup, you can continue routine checkups as your baby’s teeth continue to erupt. The recommended period for these checks is once every 6 months.

The number of teeth has increased, oral care for babies begins now!

By the time your baby is 1 year old, they will have at least 4 teeth. This means that now a real baby can use a toothbrush. Now, it is important for him to gradually learn to use the brush himself and gain the habit of brushing his teeth.

You can choose a longer-handled toothbrush for your baby, which also has silicone bristles but can grip easily. You can tell him how to brush, you can turn this process into a game hour. You don’t need to use a toothpaste for now.

As the baby progresses towards the age of 3, the number of teeth will increase considerably! Now it’s time to use a baby toothpaste. You should make sure that the toothpaste you choose contains the right amount of fluoride. 1000ppmF fluoride rate will be sufficient for this age range.

Using a paste the size of a chickpea piece is enough for now. You should explain this process to your baby step by step and make sure that you do the rinsing with water after the brushing process is finished.

Watch out for bottle rot!

You can see babies with rotten teeth in their mouths at a younger age. This condition seen in milk teeth is called bottle decay. The reason for this decay is that the foods containing sugar or sweetener are given to the baby in a hot way with a bottle and because the mouth is not cleaned, this sugar accumulates on the teeth and causes decay.

These foods, especially given so that the baby can sleep comfortably at night, accumulate in the teeth and mouth during the entire sleep period, accelerating the decay of the teeth one by one. For this reason, you should not give these foods to your baby just before bedtime. If you did, you should let him sleep after cleaning his mouth.