Useful information on dental hygiene…

Dental hygiene and taking care of teeth should be at least a twice daily event in your child’s routine. Monitoring children’s dental hygiene and teeth should start from as soon as there first tooth comes through at around the age of 6 months. Here is some useful information, highlighting different ages that teeth might appear and what you should be doing.

This information was found on the Public Health England website.

Age

What starts to happen?

Usual number of teeth at this age

What you should do

Around 6 months

Front teeth begin to appear

0-4

Register and attend a dental practice.

Seek advice on teething, tooth brushing and healthy foods and drinks.

Around a year

Top and bottom front teeth may be obvious

4-8

Make an appointment at the dental practice.

Seek advice of tooth brushing.

Around 18 months

Some back teeth will be in – others will start to come through

8-14

Make an appointment for a dental check.

Seek advice on tooth brushing.

Around 2 years

The very back teeth will be starting to come in

12-16

Make an appointment at the dental practice.

Ask for the first application of fluoride varnish.

Seek advice on tooth brushing.

Around 2 ½ years

Most of the baby teeth will be through

16-20

Make an appointment at the dental practice.

Ask for the next application of fluoride varnish.

Seek advice on tooth brushing.

Around 3 years

All baby teeth should be through

20

Make an appointment at the dental practice.

Ask for next application of fluoride varnish and seek advice on tooth brushing.

Another useful link I found on the Public Health England website is support when brushing teeth by singing songs. Here are a few I found.

Brushing teeth (sang to the tune of twinkle, twinkle little star)

Here’s my toothpaste

Here’s my brush

I won’t hurry, I won’t rush

Working hard to keep teeth clean

Front and back and in between

When I brush for quite a while

I will have a happy smile.

Brush, brush, brush your teeth (sang to the tune of row, row, row your boat)

Brush, brush, brush your teeth

Brush them everyday

We put toothpaste on our brush

To help stop tooth decay

Clean, clean, clean your teeth

Clean them everyday

Your teeth will sparkle for years to come

In the most beautiful way

Brush, brush, brush your teeth

Brush them everyday

Happy, healthy teeth you’ll have

If it’s done in this way.

We hope you find this information useful.