Wanted to share some of the dental knowledge/experience I’ve gained recently.

I’m big on dental care – I have this annoying gap between my back teeth on the right side where food gets stuck and causes havoc. In order to manage, I floss everyday. Plus it’s nice when the dentist recognises your efforts at the half yearly clean haha

Habits form from repetition so when Bub’s milk teeth started coming out, I wanted to start getting him used to basic dental care (hopefully when he’s older he’ll be so used to it, it will become second nature). Started out with a baby toothbrush and just left him play with it in the morning and before bed. He took to it quite well, but during the heavy teething period, really didn’t like having it in his mouth as he was already teething and in pain.

After Bub turned 18 months, he was able to start on baby toothpaste. He likes the sweetness of the toothpaste and eats it more so than uses it to brush his teeth. He also won’t let me or his dad brush his teeth and is focused on doing it himself. But hey what can you do-forcing them will make the experience unenjoyable and they won’t want to do it at all.

It’s also recommended that once their teeth come out and after 18 months of age, you bring your Bub to visit the dentist. This is to start getting them used to the dentist. At Bub’s first appointment, the dentist just quickly used his finger and checked Bub’s teeth. He said milk teeth usually don’t get much plaque compared to adult teeth and to not worry if Bub doesn’t brush properly. Apparently once they turn 4 they will be able to understand and start having dental cleans, floss etc.

For us, the dentist also said that Bub had a low hanging frenum. A frenum is a band of tissue between the teeth and gums. Bub’s one hangs quite low between the top two middle teeth. Apparently this could impact Bub’s speech and cause that gap tooth look later in life. That freaked me out a bit initially as I don’t want Bub to be disadvantaged, but the dentist said no to worry. Once he’s around 2.5 years can assess and if it needs to be removed it’s apparently a 5 min procedure with a laser and no stitches.

So yea that’s my mini tutorial on milk teeth.

Lessons learned so far:

1. Dental care is important so start them early. Don’t force, let them explore and you should practice what you preach!

2. Take Bub to the dentist once their teeth come out and they’ve hit 18 months, you might learn something about their teeth to watch out for early on!