All About Dental

[clarabella]

thebusybee:

Hi Parents,


Can you share the most effective way/s to teach young toddler to brush teeth correctly?

My 22 mth son likes to 'brush' teeth - rather enjoy sucking the sweet edible toothpaste and biting the bristles which make the brush uneven. That worries me as it's merely going through the motion only.

I tried brush for him but i think he feels painful (maybe I used too much force to brush :nunchuk: )

I'm trying to get it right before he gets tooth decay soon as he eats many types of food already, and I can sometimes see veg stuck in between his teeth.


All methods are welcome!

:please:

p.s. I've yet to teach him gargle with water.

Hiya thebusybee
My kids found it great fun, when they were about your son's age, to brush MY teeth. It's messy, of course, but for us it helped to reinforce the 'how to brush correctly' lessons.
It's also good to get a nice dentist to show them how - sometimes the message is stronger coming from authority!

It's quite natural for them to play with the toothbrush at this age. Perhaps you can try brushing his teeth together with him. My dentist friend showed me how to quickly brush, one side/row at a time, when kiddo opens his mouth to brush on his own.

If it's painful for him when you brush, check your toothbrush. Is it too big/wide? Or are the bristles not soft enough? My kids didn't do well on the Oxxl-x brushes when very young, esp stage 1, so we used narrower and much softer ones.

One thing you may want to note. My dentist advises not to brush immediately after a meal, as acidic foods soften tooth enamel. If you brush immediately, it expedites the acid's eroding effect on the teeth. Just get him to rinse out his mouth first. Wait about forty-five minutes/an hour before you brush.

As for gargling/rinsing and spitting out, I just show my kids how I do it, with great exaggerated motions. They especially liked to be asked to pretend they're the Merlion

[thebusybee]

Hi clarabella,


Thanks for the tips.

My son enjoys brushing teeth with me, he’s starting to do a bit of the brushing motion but i find it not effective. I’d exaggerate the expression ‘Eeeee’ and say ‘brush brush’ for him to follow, he’ll just go left, right then back to sucking, biting again, haiz.

I’ve just changed to the thinner type of toothbrush (found out the OralB one’s too broad). The baby ones are too soft as the bristles got out of shape easily. Any recommendation of which brand’s best?

I doubt he can take instruction or learn from the dentist at this age…

I ever do quick brush for him and still doubt the effectiveness, as mentioned food does stuck to his teeth, ever saw vegetable at his lower front tooth and gotta force brush him, ended up struggling and dislike me brushing for him.

Will take note about not to brush immediately after meal…

Actually I know i’m not doing the right order too… he’ll brush teeth, go to bed then…milk…'cause he fall asleep easier after milk… guess i gotta change this habit soon…

Very good on the Merlion part, I’ll show him this spitting statue one of these days.

The painful part - i guess i have ‘heavy’ hands, now trying my best to brush lightly. My thinking - brush harder more effective, haha! i forgot he’s still ‘tender’.

[Lauracwj]

mincy:

....
But now he have gone back to sucking the toothbrush in his mouth and refuse to upgrade to other children's tooth paste. Now I probably manage to convinve him to let me brush his teeth like twice a week...

May i know ideally around which age should we \"upgrade\" their baby toothpaste (from those non-floride) to those kid toothpaste (with floride and a little mentol)??

My girls are 2 yrs 7 months and 4 yrs. Should I upgrade them now? Will it be too early?

Does any one of you have any idea what is Aminfloride (http://www.elmex.de)? And, whether young childen with milk teeth are suitable for it? :?

[3greatkids]

I started brushing my children's teeth from as young as 5 months old - my 2 elder kids had their first teeth from 4.5 months- using the first teeth toothpaste and finger brush.


I still remembered how when we were in school, the sight of someone coming to the class with the dental card would turn all students into jelly, fervently praying \"not me, not me!\" and thereafter, developing into \"dentist phobia\" where when we step into adulthood, gg to the dentist occurs only when we have a very bad toothache.

I was adamant that this is not going to happen to my kids, thus, when my dd1 was 2.5, I role played with her about going to the dentist and told her how it would be a wonderful experience. I researched long and hard to find a good paedetric dentist and finally settled on GPA Dental @ United Square. No doubt it was expensive, (it was about 120+ for consultation and polishing) but I felt that it was money wellspent. The dentist spent time assuring my dd, showing her the equipments used and letting her test it on her fingers on how it would feel, etc.

When it was time for my son to visit a dentist (recommended that they go at 18-24mths), I brought him to the same place and reaped the same results. Both my elder kids have absolutely no phobia now abt gg to the dentists. At the same time, it serves as a good reminder for them to brush their teeth well. Sometimes when ds doesn't want to brush, we would tell him, remember what the dentist said? den he would obediently open his mouth to brush, haha.

However, having said that, it does not mean there aren't cheap and good alternatives out there. Having made sure that they are not afraid of the dentists, I brought them to the School Dental Service(SDS) subsequently and my eyes nearly popped out when i saw the bill... a whooping.....$24! for both children :shock: I felt that this is also a good place, albeit a longer waiting time for appointments but if there are no major problems with the child's teeth anyway, it's definitely ok.

A little more elaboration on the SDS. The SDS is the provider of dentists for all the schools and what a difference a couple of decades made! I remember school dentists as a fierce and rough bunch, but the SDS nowadays is definitely different from what it were in our times. They do spend time to assure the children as well. The environment is definitely not as conducive as it is separated by cubicles and there are no tvs showing hi-5 but the dentists were patient and stickers were given to the kids oh well, after all, I'm only paying a fraction of the price so who's complaining

I think other than having good dentists, preparing the children for the dentist visit is also very impt. If you spend most of the child's 1st 2 years telling him stuff like \"if you dun brush your teeth, I ask the dentist to pull out all your teeth\" it would be small wonder that in their little mind, the dentist is someone evil. Therefore, parents play a very important role in making sure that this kind of unnecessary threats do not affect them as well.

So would I be bringing ds2 to SDS or GPA when he turns 2yo? Definitely GPA as I still feel that it really is very important to build a positive impression during the first visit. As SDS is separated by cubicles, if it happens that there are screaming children in other cubicles, it might scare the little ones. JMHO

:celebrate:

[jedamum]

3greatkids:

A little more elaboration on the SDS. The SDS is the provider of dentists for all the schools and what a difference a couple of decades made! I remember school dentists as a fierce and rough bunch, but the SDS nowadays is definitely different from what it were in our times. They do spend time to assure the children as well.

Totally agree!
When my boy told his dentist about his teeth grinding problem, the dentist turn counsellor for a while and asked if he faced any problem with school work or friends and even told him to take it easy on peer pressure. and when i told her of my boy's fear of 'patching' his teeth, she reassured me that she'll gave him an earlier last time slot for the next appointment so that she can spend more time on him. :celebrate:
so different from our times.

[schellen]

My DD breezed through her first two dental checkup at school. I don’t know if the SDS has changed all these years cos I was never afraid of the dentist. Maybe cos when I was in kindy and pri sch, my aunt (who is very particular about hygiene) would ensure that my cousin and I brush properly at least twice a day when I stayed with them during the sch hols. I remember she took me and my cousin to a private dentist when I was in kindy. After that, my visits were all at sch. I was always in and out of the chair in no time at all. (On the other hand, sashimi hates dentists but luckily, we didn’t tell DD that until she was older.)


DD had her teeth brushed by us using non-flouride toothpaste for babies and a finger brush when her teeth came in at about 3-1/2 to 4 mths. Before that, we just used a soft and damp washcloth to clean her gums. I also brought her along on my own private dentist visit before when she was 3 or 4 since he was very nice and patient, and I have no fear of dentists. It was a good experience. I didn’t send her for any dental checkup until she entered pri sch. I regret that cos after her first checkup, she came back with a permission slip for filling her cavities. Sigh…

[Chiew]

[Moderator's note: Topics merged.]


My girl had a fall yesterday, one of her front tooth was being pushed backwards into her gums (now is still swollen)...

Any mummies there who has encounter similiar experiences, pls share with me on how you manage your child.

Thanks :?:

[jedamum]

please discuss dental problems http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=266&start=30.


mods, do consider to merge.

in such case, best is to seek dentist's advice.

[RRMummy]

Chiew:

My girl had a fall yesterday, one of her front tooth was being pushed backwards into her gums (now is still swollen)...


Any mummies there who has encounter similiar experiences, pls share with me on how you manage your child.

Thanks :?:

Hi Chiew,

A similiar incident happened to my gal a few months back. Her front tooth was knocked slightly back by the impact. There were lots of blood and the pain persisted for the next 2-3days especially when she wanted her bottle feed. We resolved that by giving her a straw instead of her milk bottle. We stopped the bleeding by putting some sugar over it..

We were also extremely worried that the tooth would have fallen off/loosen or something.. it was a wee bit shakey but she refused to let us check.. we had to calm her down and convince her that I would be extra careful to only check very gently..

She is now ok.. the tooth did not fall off but a slight rise in the gums on the impacted place is still evident.. but otherwise she is okay.

Oh and yes, I took over brushing her teeth for those few days and she kept reminding me not to brush the front.. when the reminders stopped, I knew she had no more pain and had forgotten about the incident..

As we could not see the extent of the bruise, do use your instinct to gauge if you should bring your daughter to the dentist as soon as possible..

Hope your gal gets well soon..

[nmhmum]

My son got the same problem two months ago. So after the fall, we brought him to see a dentist. The dentist did a x-ray for him and found his two front teeth moved slightly inwards. He said there is a fracture. So we were told to monitor for two weeks to see if the teeth changed colour or not. After two weeks, one of this front teeth infact did change slightly, so the dentist asked us to monitor another 3 months cos he said by then, he should be able to know whether the teeth needs to extract out or it will heal by itself. At first, one of my son's teeth did change colour, but now we realised it seems to become better. So hopefully it heal by itself, then don't need to extract it out. I think you better bring your girl to see a dentist and let him do a x-ray for her to see how bad is it. If you want to adopt the wait and see , then maybe you need to make sure her teeth did not change colour or any discharge coming out from the teeth means there is some damage done. Now I am also hoping my son's teeth dont have to extract out too.