When to start brushing your babies teeth?

I’m often asked when is it a good time for babies or toddlers to start brushing or cleaning their teeth? I always recommend starting to clean gums at the first sign of a tooth, even if it’s a slither of white enamel poking through the gums. I recommended starting brushing once a day, the evening is best, if possible, right before bed.

When the children are still little the best and easiest way to clean the teeth and gums is by wrapping a baby flannel around your finger and massaging their gums and teeth for about 30 seconds or so. This not only cleans but also gets the child used to having their teeth brushed before bed. As they get more teeth, normally around 6 teeth, I advise switching to a baby toothbrush. Make sure it is small and soft. In parts of New Zealand where there is no fluoride in the water it is best to put a small smear onto the baby brush of a fluoridated adult toothpaste. This will help to clean away the plaque and bacteria as well as allowing the fluoride to systemically travel through the body and help build strong adult teeth. The adult teeth are already forming in the jaw. I recommended an adult toothpaste for non-fluoridated areas as it has a higher fluoride content then most child toothpastes and the child gets accustomed to the stronger adult toothpaste taste from the beginning.

If you have fluoride in your water then the baby toothpastes are fine as you are already exposing the child to fluoride. If however you want to start them with an adult toothpaste then great. I used this method with my children, they are now 4 and 2.5 and brush every night with adult toothpaste without fuss. You will need to brush your child’s teeth for them until that are at least 6-7 years old and by then I would advise to get them an Oral B electric toothbrush. Both my boys had an electric toothbrush from 2 years old that they use it 2-3 times a week while they are still little.

It is important to remember that children only need a very small amount of toothpaste. I have attached a picture guide to help. When starting with a toothpaste a general guide for a 1-3year old is a smear the size of a grain of rice, and from 3-5 year old the size of a small pea, and from 5 and up the size of a normal pea.