How to teach your baby to brush his teeth

For babies, brushing teeth is a skill that must be learned during the growth process, because brushing teeth is something that everyone with teeth needs to do. If you don’t brush your teeth, you are likely to have various problems such as bad breath, yellow teeth, oral infections, etc. So, how should parents teach their babies to brush their teeth? Next, I will introduce to you some relevant knowledge about teaching your baby to brush his teeth.

1. How to teach your baby to brush his teeth correctly?

Generally speaking, when brushing your teeth, the bristles should be placed close to the gums, tilted at 45 degrees to the tooth surface, brush the upper teeth from top to bottom, and brush the lower teeth from bottom to top. After brushing the outer side, you should also brush the inner side and the biting surface of the back teeth. Brushing your teeth should take at least 3 minutes to clean the teeth well. The best number and time for brushing your teeth scientifically is “three, three, three”. That means brushing your teeth three times a day, three minutes after each meal, and each time you brush your teeth for three minutes. Parents should remind their children not to use the sawing horizontal brushing method.

2. When to start brushing your teeth

Starting from the time the baby's first tooth grows after 6 months, parents should teach their children to brush their teeth. When you start brushing your teeth, because the teeth are not fully erupted and only the front few teeth are there, it is best to use gauze dipped in salt water to scrub along the tooth surface. Adults can also use finger toothbrushes to help babies brush their teeth. This oral care method generally needs to continue until the child is two and a half years old, when all the deciduous teeth in the mouth have erupted.

When a baby is about 2 and a half years old, that is, when the baby has 16-20 teeth, you can use a soft-bristled toothbrush specially designed for young children. You don’t need to use toothpaste at first to train the child to use the toothbrush and adapt to the habit of brushing teeth. Twice a day, morning and evening, parents should stand behind their children and teach them the correct way to brush their teeth (the brushing method). At this time, you should use swallowable children's toothpaste at the same time to train your baby to spit out the toothpaste to prevent your baby from accidentally pushing the toothpaste into his stomach.

Babies over 3 years old can switch to anti-caries toothpaste, and they must learn to brush their teeth in the morning and evening, and rinse their mouths after meals. To help your child develop good oral hygiene habits, this is the time for your baby to brush his teeth normally.

3. Things to note when brushing your teeth

Some parents think that they only need to brush their baby's teeth carefully with a toothbrush after all the teeth have grown. Usually, they only need to rinse their mouths before going to bed and after meals. In fact, this is the peak period for baby tooth decay. Therefore, you need to brush your baby's teeth from the moment his first tooth grows.

Generally speaking, children aged 3 to 7 should use children's fluoride toothpaste, and the amount used each time should be the size of a mung bean; children aged 7 to 14 should also use children's fluoride toothpaste, and the amount used each time can be increased to the size of a soybean.

If teeth are exposed to sudden heat or cold for a long time, it will not only easily cause gum bleeding and spasm, but also directly affect the normal metabolism of teeth, thereby causing dental diseases, shortening the life of teeth, and causing symptoms of dentin hypersensitivity.