Oh Baby, Oh Baby Teeth

Showing love to the cutest teeth on earth

February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. It is also a month to celebrate love. So I see no better time to give baby teeth some love! Like puppies, baby teeth are cute and small and precious. Also like puppies, they can cause big problems. Talk to your vet for puppy advice. For advice on baby teeth, just keep reading.

Teething

Ok, small known fact, and don’t freak out, but some babies are born with teeth. They aren’t extra teeth, they are the real deal. However, most babies are born bare buns and bare gums. Average teething starts around 6 months and continues until your little one is around 2 and a half years old. If you Google “baby tooth eruption chart” you can plan your calendar for potential fussiness. To stave off the cranky baby, try teething toys!  All of those textures allow counter pressure on the gums that helps relieve the pain of a tooth popping through. It helps even more if you put them in the freezer for some added cooling to ease inflammation.

Love, Care and Maintenance

Just like all other teeth, baby teeth need TLC to keep them happy and healthy. Babies are not actually born with any bad bacteria in their mouths. Us adults give it to them, usually by putting something in our mouths and then directly into theirs, sharing drinks or kissing them on the mouth. Swapping spit occurs in lots of forms!  With that in mind, when at all possible, avoid sharing your saliva with anyone other than your Valentine date. Ok, ok, I know. I’m a mom. It’s inevitable.

Let’s chat about brushing and flossing and babies. Us dentists have oral hygiene recommendations that start on Day One. After feeding your baby (either bottle or breast), it is best to wipe baby’s gums with a damp washcloth or a xylitol wipe (I like Dr. Brown’s grape flavor), and make sure not to let baby go to bed with a bottle to sip on. This helps keep the bacteria in baby’s mouth healthy and stimulates proper bone growth. It also helps get us in the habit of good oral hygiene for when they have a full mouth of chompers!

The AAPD (American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry) suggests having your baby visit a dentist by their first birthday!  I know; it’s early!  At this visit, you can expect a little knee to knee exam where we mostly ooh and ahh at your baby and play with them while sneaking a peek at their mouth and cleaning everything up. We will advise you on care and maintenance, make sure dental development is on track, and provide additional nutritional counseling.

As soon as those pearly white milk teeth pop in, it’s time to start taking care of them. Under the age of 2 brush with a training toothpaste. After the age of 2, you should use a TINY smear of fluoride toothpaste on the bristles and brush away!  Don’t forget near the gumline. As your baby grows and grows more of a mind of his/her own, you may notice they want space to do everything themselves. I advise parental help with brushing until age 7 to help make sure they don’t miss those hard to reach places.

Baby Tooth Booboos

Kids and parents are usually fantastic about brushing!  Where I see pitfalls that lead to baby teeth booboos is in flossing and diet. Baby teeth are more vulnerable to problems than adult teeth in that their outer hard shell (the enamel) is very thin. It’s only 0.5mm!  If kid’s start to get a cavity, it only takes 0.5mm of acid erosion to end up to the inside of their teeth. This fragility is then compounded with the fact that baby nerves/pulps are HUGE. So, even small cavities end up being “big” and needing more extensive dental treatment.

If we are only brushing and not flossing, we are only effectively removing 66% of the plaque. I liken it to showering with your clothes on! L  Get those babies clean and then put them to bed! Lol. P.S. this love note about flossing applies to people of all ages. Love up your teeth and gums and do something between your teeth (floss, yarn, waterpik, interproximal brushes…). The possibilities are endless.

You may think that sweet treats are the main culprit for baby tooth booboos. They can be, but usual suspect is actually carbohydrates. Kids love goldfish and snacks like that!  Processed carbohydrates break down into the same sugars as a Valentine chocolate, PLUS they mash onto teeth and stick in grooves making them even worse. Limit snacking to 1-2x/day. At snacktime limit to water, and stick to fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and cheese. If you want to reward with a sweet treat, do it with a meal so that it will do the least amount of damage. As for juice, I don’t recommend it under the age of 5. The American Academy of Pediatrics has provided research showing that juice provides no nutritional benefit under this age and just pours sugar onto teeth.

I know, this all sounds like a bummer, but we don’t want broken teeth and heartbreak!

Give those baby teeth some love this February (and every day after that)!  Cavities are one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood and left untreated can lead to lower grades, missed school, pain and infection. So while practicing good oral hygiene habits early may not prevent the heartache of losing orange juice, it certainly can help prevent the toothache of cavities and other dental problems. J