Family Dentistry

We hope that by providing a good and positive dental experience for children, we will set them on the right track for their future oral health.

We also advise parents on how to care for their child’s teeth, such as how to encourage good brushing habits and how a child’s diet can affect their teeth.

A child’s first teeth start to come through any time between six months and a year. These milk teeth should all be through by the age of three. By the time your child is six, they should start to lose their milk teeth and get their permanent teeth. By fourteen, they should have 28 out of their 32 permanent teeth. The final four, the wisdom teeth, tend to come through between 18 and 25 years of age. All children are different and develop at different rates.

Good dental health from an early age will set your child up for life. As soon as the teeth start to come through, you should start brushing them as part of their daily routine. You can buy special brushes for babies and make sure you use fluoride toothpaste.

For children up to the age of 3 you should use a smear of toothpaste containing no less than 1000 ppm fluoride, and for over 3s, a pea sized blob of 1350-1500ppm fluoride toothpaste. You can check the level of fluoride on the packaging of the toothpaste. You should try and make sure that they spit out the toothpaste and don’t swallow any if possible.

It is important to supervise your child’s brushing until they are at least seven years old. But, as your child gets older, they won’t want parents standing over them in the bathroom to make sure they’re brushing properly. Teaching them how to brush effectively in the early years will help spare them tooth decay and fillings. Your Manor Square dentist will be able to show you how best to brush your child’s teeth.

Eating a balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables is as good for your children’s dental health as it is for their overall health.

It is important to keep sugary and acidic foods to mealtimes only. If you want to give your child a snack, try to stick to cheese, vegetables and fruit. Try to limit dried fruit as it is high in sugar and can stick to the teeth. It is also worth remembering that some processed baby foods contain quite a lot of sugar, shown as fructose, glucose, lactose or sucrose in the list of ingredients.

Ideally, you should give your children milk or water to drink and avoid sugary or fizzy drinks. Fruit squashes are usually full of sugar which can cause tooth decay, while fizzy drinks and fruit juices contain acid which can wear away the enamel. If you can’t avoid these, get your child to drink them through a straw, which will direct them to the back of the mouth, avoiding the teeth. Also, look out for low sugar versions of their favourite drinks. However, although they have less sugar and so can help reduce the chance of decay, be aware that they still contain the acid which can cause erosion. If your child is very young, don’t be tempted to put sugary drinks or fruit juices into bottles with teats.