For kids between the ages of one and three, it’s all about brushing, flossing and developing good dental habits. They’re going to need your help.
We recommend brushing your toddler’s teeth twice daily for dental health. Your child will start to get more independent and may insist on doing it themselves, but you still need to do the brushing for them. During these young years of age, children don’t have the ability to properly brush their teeth for good home dental care. Try to make it fun and positive by playing games. Your child can try to brush by themselves but it has to be followed by a more thorough brushing by a parent.
In non-fluoridated tap water areas such as Vancouver and surrounding areas, use a tiny amount of fluoride toothpaste (the size of a grain of rice) for ages three and under. This is a safe amount for toddlers to swallow twice daily. Fluoride is important to help prevent tooth decay in children of all ages.
If there is fluoride in the water, fluoride toothpaste might not be needed for your child. For children three years of age and older, you can start using pea-sized amounts of toothpaste.
As soon as two teeth touch together, you need to start flossing your toddler’s teeth for good oral health. It might be the easiest for you to lay down your child for flossing. We would be happy to show you age-appropriate flossing techniques and tools.
“Healthy” food such as yogurt drinks, gummy vitamins, granola bars, fruit pouches and dried fruits cause cavities. Be aware of simple carbohydrates in your child’s diet, especially if they are sticky.
We recommend your child only drink water and milk. Avoid juice, yogurt drinks, soda pop and energy drinks since they are high in acidity and sugar. Avoid food high in simple carbohydrates such as crackers, chips, cookies and fruit snacks. Of course, sweets and treats are acceptable in small amounts for special occasions such as birthday parties and Halloween.
Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and cheese for snacks are a healthy choice as they have fibre to cleanse the teeth and nutrients to make primary teeth stronger.
We recommend that habits such as pacifiers, bottles and thumb sucking are eliminated by age three to prevent permanent damages and malocclusion. The most important thing is that you explain to your child the reason why it’s important to wean them off the habit. We can discuss many tips to help your child.
To eliminate a toddler’s use of a soother, we recommend slowly decreasing the use of it. One step is to only use it for napping and bedtime. Another option is to cut the tip off. Some parents choose to invite the “soother fairy” to visit.
We offer a soother exchange program to help your child. Your child gives us the soothers, and we award the child with a certificate and prize.
Thumb or finger sucking is often a self-soothing mechanism. It’s important to help your child find a different self-soothing technique. Introducing a soft toy, fidget toy or breathing technique all provide an alternative way to self-sooth.
As a passive reminder, placing a bandage, tape or bitter-tasting nail polish on your toddlers’ thumb or finger often works well. Sometimes children unconsciously suck their fingers or thumbs at night. Placing an elbow guard (NIPIT) or sleeves that cover hands can also help stop this behaviour.
Around age one, we strongly recommend encouraging your child to drink from a cup. Otherwise, children can get attached to the bottle and it becomes more difficult to break the habit. During the transition period, it’s important to put only water in the bottle to prevent cavities on the front teeth.
We fully support breastfeeding. However, by ages one to three, it is best to stop nighttime feeding to prevent milk sugars from sitting on the teeth all night long. This is important as it causes weakened enamel.
This is mostly developmental and there is not much we can do at this age. Most kids grow out of it when the first adult molars erupt and the occlusion is stable. If there is excessive wear on the teeth and nerves are close to being exposed, we may decide to put crowns on to protect the teeth. If the grinding is severe in sleep, there might be underlying airway issues. If this is the case, we recommend consulting a medical doctor and dentist. Contact us to make an appointment.
Very patient with our nervous 3-year-old. They take the time they need to work with her and on the last visit she came home proclaiming “I love the dentist” and that she wants to be a dentist when she grows up. We will keep coming back.
A.N.
