How to take care of the baby's first teeth
The prolonged use of the pacifier and bottle, as well as the permanent consumption of juices, or improper hygiene during the first months of your baby, can trigger many problems in your oral development. Caring for the baby's first teeth, known as baby teeth, will prevent many problems in your final dentition.
The formation and hygiene of the baby's teeth
From the first weeks of pregnancy, the teeth of your future child are forming inside the jaws, even though they are not visible to you at birth. Later, around 6/8 months of age, the first milk teeth will start to emerge.
The latest studies in oral health, advise hygiene from breastfeeding -maternal or bottle feeding-, carefully wiping the remains of milk from your gums with a wet gauze after each feeding. When their first baby teeth appear, parents should brush them with a soft baby brush, without toothpaste and with proper technique, up to three years and at least twice a day.
It is a common mistake to consider milk teeth as a temporary thing that does not have to be taken care of, when in fact the health of the teeth is fundamental for the general growth of the child, correct feeding, learning of pronunciation, development of the self-esteem and socialization, and for the formation and placement of the definitive denture. For this reason, the first visit to the dentist must be done after the first year of the baby's life and every six months thereafter.
Goodbye to the bottle at the end of the first year
Around the first birthday, the bottle should disappear and the glass should be used regularly. Your pediatrician will establish the guidelines to modify the diet and incorporate semisolid foods and then solid but, in general, since they start to come out the teeth, you have to start giving food so that you learn to chew and have good growth of all the structures of the head.
To avoid cavities in the bottle, it is very important to avoid giving the baby a bottle with milk or cereals when the child is lying down, since the remains of the food will be retained in the mouth and can cause very severe dental destruction. During the night, the self-cleaning capacity of the mouth decreases, so you should only drink water.
On the other hand, it is worth remembering that if at birth you choose maternal nutrition you will favor the growth of muscles, bones and the rest of the structures of the head, since breastfeeding forces the child to perform a type of very beneficial movements. With artificial lactation it is important to take care that the perforation of the teat is not large.
Juice abuse harms baby's teeth
Maybe you have not considered that the frequent and continuous intake of fruit juices, natural or packaged, can be harmful to the oral health of your child. This is because, the natural acid contained in fruit juices and carbonated drinks lowers the pH of the mouth, favoring the erosion of the enamel. In addition, the bacteria colonize on the softened enamel and, with the natural sugars of the juices, they will form acids capable of damaging the enamel. The mouth has mechanisms to compensate this cycle by raising the pH in about 20 minutes and remineralizing the surface.
Therefore, it is not a problem to drink a juice from time to time. Problems arise when "sips" of juice are taken continuously, so that continuous "drops" in pH make the compensating mechanisms provided by nature ineffective. The advisable thing is that the usual hydration that your baby needs is given by the water and the sooner you use the glass, instead of the bottle, it will be better so that your oral development is adequate.
Paula Bodes
Advisor: Dr. Elena Barbería. Professor of the Department of Prophylaxis, Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics of the Faculty of Dentistry of the Complutense University of Madrid.
