Your kid's teeth?

[prairiemama]

I'm getting kinda berated over at Natural Family for not pinning Robin down and thoroughly brushing her teeth every night. How do you do dental hygiene with your kid? We give Robin her toothbrush with toothpaste on it and she usually brushes them sort of haphazardly, but they do get some attention. Sometimes she'll let me finish up. We don't brush in the morning, and I don't force her to do it or do it for her because I figure later on, I'll want her to have positive associations. But apparently this is dooming her to dental surgery under general anesthesia :P.

Comments

[bluepapermate.livejournal.com]

That was our approach with Suzannah as well. Recently, she went through this bout of really not wanting to brush or brush very well or have us help, so we were a little more pushy, but when she was Robin's age we were pretty relaxed.

We STILL don't usually brush in the mornings, though we probably should. But you know, now, at three, she's pretty good at brushing her teeth AND she seems to like it, so...there you go!

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

OK. Does Suzannah see a dentist?

The people in this post are seriously advocating for holding your child down and brushing their teeth 4x/day.

[bluepapermate.livejournal.com]

She has not seen a dentist yet. Age three is when my dentist starts to see kids, so we'll probably take her sometime this year -- but my understanding is that it's more just a "getting to know the dentist" kind of visit to make kids comfortable with it, rather than some huge cleaning thing.

We honestly have held Suzannah down a couple of times -- but generally if she's had a rare sugary/sticky treat or something and I know there's all kinds of junk on her teeth. And if we're supposed to do that four times a day we're definitely screwed. (Although at this point I kind of feel like we should be doing it in the mornings too. We'll work on that.)

[maggie-maybe.livejournal.com]

good lord those people need to chillax! srsly...it's borderline offensive and definitely reactionary. kind of like "omgz if you go overdue your baby is going to die!" type of stuff.
There are a few dentists in Austin's family (his dad almost became one even). It's their professional opinion and my anecdotal experience that: genetics have waaaaay more influence over your dental health than your dental hygiene habits.
Case in point: Austin grew up poor and rather neglected as one of 7 kids. He ate a SHIT TON of sweets constantly growing up and he pretty much never brushed his teeth until he was in 5th grade. And get this: he has never ever had a cavity! Meanwhile, I almost always brush 2x per day and floss almost daily...and I've managed to have 13 cavities in my adult life, not to mention all my childhood cavities. ALSO, most dentists will tell you flossing is more important than brushing...which def isn't an option for a toddler, right?
Another case in point: Both of my cats eat the same diet. One has had to have dental surgery for teeth removal and will probably need it again. The other barely has even any tartar build up. Again, genetics play a BIG ROLE.

/rant novel

I have a feeling I don't need to tell you this because you know in your heart that you're doing the right thing: Robin & you are fine!

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

I'm really surprised at this attitude coming from a normally crunchy/AP community!

ITA about genetics. Brian and I are much the same as you and Austin... Brian's dental hygiene is ABYSMAL (he brushes his teeth once a day in the MORNING) and he has NEVER had a cavity. I don't floss daily (hide) but I brush twice a day and use fluoride rinse and have had dozens of cavities and a root canal. We don't yet know whose teeth Robin got... I guess my feeling is that I want her to be cooperative about teeth brushing so that as we add to the routine, she'll be up for it. And hello, I want her to do it HERSELF, I don't want to be holding down a screaming 4 year old. It seems like if she's fine with it now, we can refine her technique, and add in a morning brush, and later on work on good rinsing, etc, without her fighting every step of the way.

[cathrynapple.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one in this situation. Chris brushes once a day in the morning, for like...less than 30 seconds. No cavities. Ever.

I floss twice a day, brush three times a day, and I have a cavity or two or THREE EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to the dentist. Not fair!

[ewake.livejournal.com]

genetics and which bacteria take up residence in her mouth (which is familial also, because you're kissing her, biting off food for her, etc). there are hundreds of strains of bacteria in there and only 2 cause cavities. those 2 have built subdivisions in my mouth for sure. i asked my dentist (who's very research-oriented) if they were considering using probiotics yet, and he said no, but it seems like a good idea to me. there's also xylitol gel which is a prebiotic (food for the bacteria) for the good guys, and that's pretty easy to rub on her gums/teeth, plus it's sweet.

[sandokai.livejournal.com]

This bacteria thing perplexes me... Does this mean who one kisses as an adult affects their future level of cavities? And wouldn't everyone end up exposed to those 2 bacterias?

[ewake.livejournal.com]

i haven't read much about it, so here's my conjecture based on what i know about bacteria. babies are 'sterile' in utero and have to pick up bacteria on their way out. it's possible that in the early years, they are better suited to establishing new colonies of bacteria, because we rely on bacteria for a host of functions (like generating vitamin k) and need to get them set up quickly, so maybe the exposure as a baby is more important to the adult colonies. it's possible that it's related to the amount of exposure, so that the constant exposure as a baby has more impact than the occasional spin the bottle as a teenager. we're also not all the same in terms of our hosting abilities -- not every mouth is as hospitable an environment (inherently, not just hygiene-wise) and so some people are more prone to occupation by hostile bacteria than others. nutrition (in terms of access to micronutrients) probably plays a role (more so than the amt of sugar), as does overall environment, including environmental toxins (that might interfere with the formation of enamel), quality of water (hard/soft/added fluoride), etc.

all conjecture!

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we're already screwed in terms of colonizing her mouth, I'm sure...

Sounds like I need to look into xylitol!

[tesslouise.livejournal.com]

I think there are things you can do for Robin's future dental health besides holding her down. :p

Use xylitol in place of granulated sugar on oatmeal or wherever you would normally use sugar (if nowhere, then ignore).

Use xylitol wipes in the morning after breakfast--she might find them more pleasant than toothbrushing. Spiffies and Tooth Tissues are the two brands I know of.

Much of the info here may not be applicable to children (esp. young children), but it's worth reading; the blog author also has a book coming out in January: http://askdrellie.blogspot.com/

We did brush my nanny-kids' teeth twice a day but we never had to force the issue, and I wouldn't have wanted to hold them down if it had come to that. What I did when Spence was still a toddler, though, was I'd let him chew on a clean, wet washcloth--I'd use it to wipe his face/hands after breakfast, rinse it out, and give it back to him. We figured that got some of the goop off his teeth, and he loved it.

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

Xylitol wipes might work. Chewing on a cloth could work. I'll have to look more into xylitol. It's an ingredient in her toothpaste, but we haven't gone much beyond that.

Honestly, the thought of adding one more step to our getting-ready-in-the-morning routine... ugh! ;)

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

... interestingly, the mouth care 'system' she suggests is basically what i do right now, myself! *pats self on back*

[handstil.livejournal.com]

Avocados and cheese have great anti-cavity properties, weirdly. I try to give those as night time snacks lately since Elias is going through an "I'll do it!" stage with tooth brushing. We NEVER pushed the toothbrush on him, we always make is a fun "grown up" thing to do and let him call the shots on how serious an event it is. Forcing a kid to brush their teeth sounds like a recipe for major dentist fear.

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

Inorite????

[noelle-k.livejournal.com]

I really hate brushing Riley's teeth because he often struggles against it and I just don't like the fight. However, we do it morning and night - I'll only skip it if he's had a really horrendous day for some reason. Some ideas that have worked with him:
(a) bringing his stuffed animal or one of his little trains, and showing him how the train/animal gets their teeth brushed. He often is more amenable to having his teeth brushed after that, and/or he's more likely to brush his own teeth.
(b) an enthusiastic song whose actions involve the toothbrush flying in the air or one's tongue sticking out. He LOVES it and will open his mouth.
(c) Brush my teeth. Apparently tooth-brushing is much cooler if Mom does it first.

Sigh. I can't wait until he's old enough to bribe.

[mosscollection.livejournal.com]

We do the same EXACT thing as you. Whether that is good or bad, I dunno, but I feel the same as you about pinning her down will give her bad association and she will not want to do it at all, whereas now she actually enjoys brushing her teeth and I let her do it whenever she feels like it (which is usually a few times a day) and I will put Tpaste on the brush at least 2 of those times. Ocassionally I feel diligent about trying to help her pay more attention to the front teeth b/c she has a geminated tooth, but that is my only concern b/c it is easy to get cavities in those.

[http://users.livejournal.com/____beep/]

i don't brush oslo's teeth for him. i've tried a few times and was met with great resistance and just decided it was best not to make it a battle. he enjoys brushing his own teeth, so that's what happens around here. we use xylitol, like someone above mentioned-it's awesome and oslo LOVES it. he literally wants to suck on the bottle and will ask for "more more!" like it's candy.

i also agree about the role genetics play. i got my dad's amazing teeth-i have really hard enamel and have never had a cavity and i've gone 5 years without going to a dentist with no consequences. hopefully oz has inherited mine! regardless, i think the toddler dental health fears are a little much.

[wanderingwoman.livejournal.com]

i didn't read the link, but here's my take.

for us, brushing teeth is an absolute must. we do everything we can to get dd to cooperate but in the end she has to do it. she just turned 3 and even with brushing 1-2x a day with flouride toothpaste (which we started after she broke a tooth), flossing and xylitol gel she has already had a pulpotomy and has at least 3 more cavities on her front teeth. getting her pulpotomy was insanely stressful, i do not want to go through that again.

fwiw - and someone may have already posted this, but until they're 8-9 they don't have the dexterity to brush all of their teeth on their own. we usually let dd play around for a while and then we take over and finish up.