Anniversary Party II: Son of Dental Care!

This May is going to be a month of celebration at Dr. Eric Johnson's office. On Thursday, June 7th, we're having an open house in celebration of the second anniversary of Dr. Johnson's arrival, as well as the newly minted merger with Dr. Risbrudt. Details on our web site here. We also think moms deserve more than one day of appreciation, so all May long, we're going to be celebrating the moms out there with flowers -- and we're dedicating our blog this month especially to information about dental care for mothers and babies. To that end, let's talk infants.

Do You Need 'Dental' Care Before You Have Teeth?
The short answer is 'not at first'. In general, a baby that is consuming solely breast milk and water doesn't need much by way of oral care; the breast milk itself acts to protect the baby's mouth and gums. It's only once a baby starts eating other foods that you have to be concerned with oral care.

We all recognize in adults that sugar from any source is problematic for oral health for a variety of reasons. What we don't all realize is that many foods that are designed for toothless babies are sugary (after all, sugar dissolves in their mouths, so it's easy to eat with no teeth.) This includes foods that don't explicitly have sugar, but are made from finely-ground grains (which actually break down into sugars upon exposure to saliva.)

That means that once your child begins eating non-breast-milk foods, whether it's formula, rice cereal, arrowroot cookies, or a nice rare steak, it's up to you to make sure they maintain good oral health. Start brushing their teeth once each day, with a child-sized soft (that's a technical term, look for an "S" or the word "soft" on the package) toothbrush.

Use a tiny (grain-of-rice sized) amount of non-fluoridated toothpaste -- it's hard to find in major shopping chains, but it's not too tough to order online. Brush for two seconds on each surface of the gums (the inside, outside, and top of the molar area, and the inside and outside of the canine area and the front-most gums.)

Do this every day as part of getting ready for bed. Sleeping time is the time when the mouth is left alone for the longest, so it's the time when the bacteria in the mouth have the longest to multiply and become problematic. Brushing right before bed is the best way to keep that time as short as possible and thus minimize the chances of a problem developing.

So what about kids who have that full set of teeth? Come back next week and find out!