Parents often ask when their children should have their first dental visit. I like to tell them to bring the children to our office when the parents have a checkup visit so the children become familiarized with the office. Our East Setauket dental office is child friendly. Don’t wait until your child is in pain or has a problem before seeing the dentist.

Your child should see the dentist when their first tooth comes in. You can clean your baby’s gums with a clean, damp cloth. Help your toddler brush his/her teeth and only use a pea-size dab of toothpaste. Get your child accustomed to flossing. Don’t put your child to sleep with a bottle or let them fall asleep while they are nursing.  Children should eat healthy foods – fruits, vegetables – and limit sugars and starches, sodas and juices.

Regular dental visits are the best prevention. We place sealants to protect young teeth from decay. We also make mouthguards for children who are active in sports.

Tags: children's dentistry, teeth

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 10:33 pm and is filed under Children's Dentistry, Your Dental Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.