Children Dentistry

Baby Teeth : Why, When and How To Clean Baby Teeth?

In this topic, we are covering cleaning a baby mouth before the eruption of the first baby tooth which is about 6 months old.

Most of the first time mum are confused with this question. They know by heart that baby needs to be shower everyday, but do they have to clean their baby mouth every day?

 

DO I NEED TO CLEAN MY BABY MOUTH? THERE IS NO TEETH?!

Yes, you are right. A new born has no teeth in their mouth. (Only in very rare cases, baby is born with teeth)

There is no teeth to brush, and why should I be bothered to brush then?

The truth is you still need to clean your baby mouth even though you are not brushing their teeth.

 

WHERE TO CLEAN SINCE THERE IS NO TEETH?

The area that you need to clean is the soft tissue of the mouth.

These includes tongue, gum pad, inner side of the cheek, inside of the lip as well as lip.

 

WHY DO I HAVE TO CLEAN BABY MOUTH ?

Two very important reasons to clean baby muth:

First, by cleaning your baby mouth, wiping away the milk residue, you are preventing infection

Second and the most important reason is you are instiling a brushing habit to your baby, which is crucial to the future dental health.

Same as any other routine, the earlier you train them, the easier and less resistance you will face in the future.

The earlier you start the oral hygiene routine, the easier and smoother to transit to a brushing routine.

Seriously, DO NOT wait until your baby has many teeth then only to start the cleaning routine, you will get a lot of resistane and you will need much more effort to do it.

 

HOW TO CLEAN?

Before the first baby tooth comes in, you can use a wet gauze or softcloth to gently wipe against the soft tissue.

You can also purchase dental wipes for this purpose. I find it very useful whenever I am outside the house so that I do not have to skip cleaning my baby mouth.

Develop a routine of how you will clean the mouth so that you always remember where and do not leave out any area.

Step 1: Wet gauze or softcloth with drinking water

Step 2: Wrap it around your index finger

Step 3: Wipe the lower gum pad, upper gum pad, the inner side of lips and cheeks, then finally the tongue

Step 4: Ta-da, cleaned!

This is one of the prepackaged dental wipes available

 

There are two wipes in each package

 

Wrap it around your index finger and you are ready to clean.

 

WHEN TO CLEAN?

If you are hardworking enough, the best is to clean after every single meal.

This is not as simple as said, a newborn needs to be fed almost every two hourly and you are exhausted with the feeding.

Try to do it whenever you feel you can do it in daytime AND NEVER SKIP MORNING AND NIGHT CLEANING.

Make it as part of the morning wake up and night sleeping ritual.

After a while, baby will get it that brushing teeth twice a day is just part of the life.

 

CONCLUSION

Brushing teeth is like a battle between you and your baby, and it is a battle that last for years.

You never see the benefit of you doing it until many many years later.

Start earlier and it really help to ease the whole process of oral hygiene routine!

Good luck cleaning and I wish your baby to have healthy teeth in the future.

 

With Love,

Gwen Gan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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