Reno Cosmetic Dentist Dental Hygiene Tips for Babies

Babies need daily dental hygiene care in order to prevent tooth decay and mouth irritation, which help them to have good dental care habits from the time that they are done. This can often seem hard to teach to your baby when they are an infant, yet it sets your child up for a lifetime of healthy gums and teeth.

Dental hygiene care should be given directly after birth, and after a feed, it is best to rinse out your infant‘s mouth with a clean and damp washcloth. There is a treatable fungal infection called thrush, which is caused by yeast, and it can develop in portions of the mouth that have torn tissue. This may be produced by your baby sucking on a bottle, pacifier, or even breast-feeding. The small tears can become a moist, and if the yeast is not removed, it could cause a serious condition. Some of the symptoms of this include white patches on the tongue, cheek, and gums, irregular patches that cannot be wiped away, or pain when your baby is feeding or using a pacifier. If this is not treated right away, the mother could also develop this on her breast, although it is normally not contagious.

Teething usually starts at around 6 to 7 months old, but it can start as early as three months. When your child is teething, he or she may have excessive drooling, biting, irritability, a rash on the face, a loss of appetite, crying, a fever, or changes in the bowel movement. It is important to help with the pain of teething by using a cool washcloth to softly massage the gums, or you may want to give your child a teething biscuit or a teething ring that is appropriate to their age. Make sure to supervise your child in the time that a teething biscuit is used because they could choke. You can also discuss with your pediatrician about any over-the-counter numbing creams to stop the pain.

Furthermore, there are things that you can do to prevent baby bottle tooth decay, otherwise known as early childhood cavities. This is something that can commonly happen to children up to the age of three if they normally use a bottle. This can leave your baby at the risk for serious cavities as they grow in their permanent teeth, and it may be caused by excessive carbohydrates and sugars in the diet. This can include beverages that contain sugar, like fruit juice, sweetened drinks, milk, or infant formula. This will also depend upon how frequency your child feeds, or if you let your baby go to sleep drinking a bottle that has juice in it.

These type of issues can be prevented by giving your child a pacifier instead of a bottle when they are sleeping, and you can also speak to your dentist about how to give your child fluoride so that you can strengthen their teeth and prevent tooth decay in the future.