Share
Delicious
Save

Many people are under the false impression that children are not required to get any dental check-up because they have milk teeth which will shed off after some years to make way for the permanent teeth.  In India even adults don’t go for regular dental check-ups. When a tooth hurts or gums bleed or bad breath or some oral ulcer troubles, only then they visit a dentist.
I think we don’t discuss adults’ teeth – let it be Child Special post. As there is no concept of dental check-ups of kids, the health of milk teeth is at stake. Many kids sleep with bottle in their mouth and it leads to Nursing Bottle Caries. Some kids keep on indulging in other parafunctional oral habits like thumb-sucking, tongue-thrusting which adversely affects the symmetry of dental arches and lead to irregular arrangement of teeth (Dental Malocclusion).
Naturally there is a big question for parents – what is the time for the child’s first dental visit! First visit of a child should be at the age of one year. This is very important- it is not my personal view, this recommendation is being given world over.
A child’s first visit is very important. She is to be provided a friendly ambience. As at this age, generally 8-10 milk teeth have already erupted, so parents need to be guided for their regular cleaning.

Child's First Dental Visit

This 13-month cute baby had come to me with his mother, she had some dental complaint. Since he was running here and there, we made him sit for a while on the chair and he is so comfortable with dental assistant. Look at his curiosity …and he is of course happy to be centre of attraction.  I came to know that his mother is ignorant about the dental care at this age. So, I told her to come next day with a baby brush.

No, i dont need anybody's help

The lady came today with his toddler. I explained to her and demonstrated the brushing technique for this baby. No tooth paste is to be used. The brush is to be used very gently. She understood the technique. You can see in this picture that the child became so interested that he also started trying his hand. All kids do this – so, it is always advisable to keep two baby brushes. One of these will be used by a parent for cleaning toddler’s teeth while the other is to be given to the little one when he cries for getting that brush.
The reason for keeping the second brush is that the kids tend to bite on the baby brush , so it gets spoilt within a week.  The brush that is being used by the parent for cleaning his teeth is never to be handed over to him. After the parent has finished cleaning and the kids insists on grabbing that brush, just hand over the second one to him for a little while say a minute or so – he will get bored soon and return it happily.
How is the trick? – I advise parents of little kids to try it out to see if it works.