How to brush the baby’s teeth?
Brushing the teeth of babies is still the task of their parents at the age of 0 – approx. 1.5 years. In this developmental phase, the baby often does not yet have the motor skills to hold a toothbrush and perform the appropriate movements.
The first question that parents often ask themselves is which toothbrush is suitable for a baby and which toothpaste should be used. Experts recommend a special baby toothbrush for this. This can be bought regularly in most drugstores.
Baby toothbrushes have a small brush head, which is particularly suitable for the small oral cavity of babies. In addition, these toothbrushes have softer bristles to protect the still young oral mucosa. The handle of this toothbrush is also specially designed for children’s hands, so that as soon as children can brush their teeth themselves, they can grip and guide the toothbrush more easily.
In general, children should brush their own teeth at least twice a day. Up to the age of two this should be done once with a special baby toothpaste. This usually contains fluoride (fluoride content: max.
550ppm). Special attention should be paid to the fluoride content if the baby is not taking fluoride tablets. Fluoride tablets are important, for example, to prevent permanent, stained discoloration on the teeth and of course to protect against caries.
During the cleaning process itself, the children can either lie on the changing table or later sit on the lap. If you brush with toothpaste, make sure that you press the toothpaste (about a pea-sized amount) somewhat into the bristles.This prevents the immediate licking and swallowing of the usually pleasant tasting toothpaste. Important: Swallowing the toothpaste is not a problem, because according to the law, baby toothpaste must not contain any potentially harmful substances and the fluoride content is very low and therefore harmless.
Of course there are no exact instructions for brushing a baby’s teeth. However, it is important to make sure that you start with the chewing surfaces first, then continue with the outer surfaces and finally brush the inner surfaces (KAI scheme). It is well known that this is usually difficult in babies, as they do not like to brush their teeth, sit/lie still or hold their mouth open for a long time.
Tricks and other methods of the parents are needed to distract the baby to be able to brush the teeth. The duration of the brushing process is less important. The main thing is that the teeth are brushed at least twice a day.
Additionally, the sensitive gums can be massaged with the smooth side of a fingerling. Finally, the baby’s mouth is rinsed with water to completely remove toothpaste residue. In general, the baby’s own teeth should be brushed at least twice a day.
Up to the age of two this should be done once with a special baby toothpaste. This usually contains fluoride (fluoride content: max. 550ppm).
Special attention should be paid to the fluoride content if the baby is not taking fluoride tablets. Fluoride tablets are important, for example, to prevent permanent, stained discoloration on the teeth and of course to protect against caries. During the cleaning process itself, the children can either lie on the changing table or later sit on the lap.
If you brush with toothpaste, make sure that you press the toothpaste (about a pea-sized amount) somewhat into the bristles. This prevents the usually pleasant tasting toothpaste from being immediately licked and swallowed. Important: Swallowing the toothpaste is not a bad thing, because according to the law, baby toothpaste may not contain any potentially harmful substances and the fluoride content is very low and therefore harmless.
Of course there are no exact instructions for brushing a baby’s teeth. However, it is important to make sure that you start with the chewing surfaces first, then continue with the outer surfaces and finally brush the inner surfaces (KAI scheme). It is well known that this is usually difficult in babies, as they do not like to brush their teeth, sit/lie still or hold their mouth open for a long time.
Tricks and other methods of the parents are needed to distract the baby to be able to brush the teeth. The duration of the brushing process is less important. The main thing is that the teeth are brushed at least twice a day.
Additionally, the sensitive gums can be massaged with the smooth side of a fingerling. Finally, the baby’s mouth is rinsed with water to completely remove toothpaste residue. It is recommended to start brushing as soon as the first tooth is visible.
This means brushing at least twice a day with fluoride toothpaste. This is usually done by parents in the morning and evening. As soon as there are regular meals, it is possible to start brushing teeth after meals.
This, however, concerns rather young children to adults and less babies, who eat/drink several times a day. Brushing your teeth too often can also be harmful. The duration of brushing depends on the number of teeth present.
At the same time, it depends on the baby’s willingness to brush its teeth. Therefore, it is not possible to give exact information about the duration of brushing. Basically, you should take enough time to clean your teeth and gums thoroughly from all sides.
It is important that the parents brush their teeth at all. You often read that you should brush each tooth for about 10 seconds. However, this is difficult to do with small babies, as they will rarely hold still for 10 seconds per tooth with their mouth open. In the beginning, brushing the teeth will be very fast in itself, as there are only a few teeth to brush. In the course of time, when all teeth have gradually broken through, the time of brushing will increase.
