By Susan Demming
How many of you have taken your child for their first dental visit by their first birthday?
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentists and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend taking your baby to the dentist sometime between when their first tooth erupts and their first birthday. Head Start is proactive by promoting the first dental visit by age one and making oral health a priority in every program.
Tooth decay is the most chronic disease of childhood and the sign of tooth decay in children under the age of 6 is called Early Childhood Caries. Baby teeth can decay just like adult teeth and are very important for normal face and jaw development, talking, smiling, and chewing nutritious foods. The pain, suffering, and costs of treating baby teeth are preventable if early preventive action is taken. Taking your child to the dentist early in their life can determine the decay risk for your child and the beginning of a lifetime of healthy teeth.
Your primary physician can also help determine if your child is at high risk for decay, apply preventive fluoride and help direct you to finding dental care. In 2008, Medicaid began reimbursing physicians and nurse practitioners for fluoride varnish applications, a topical fluoride to protect baby’s teeth, in order to help promote early oral health care.
The Michigan Department of Community Health has a Babies Too! Program which helps medical offices and WIC programs learn to look in a child’s mouth, do decay risk assessments and apply fluoride varnish.
Some tips on caring for your baby’s teeth:
Begin wiping baby’s gums (before teeth come in) after each feeding. If left on teeth for long periods of time, the sugars in milk (including breast milk) can lead to decay.
Do not pass decay-causing germs to your baby by sharing forks, spoons or toothbrushes. Licking pacifiers to clean can pass decay-causing germs too.
Offer baby fluoridated water in a bottle or sippy cup instead of liquids with sugar.
Fluoridated water can help strengthen developing teeth.
Never put baby to bed with anything other than water in a bottle or sippy cup.
Use a smear of fluoridated toothpaste if the physician or dentist has told you your child is at high risk for decay. Children should not swallow toothpaste.
Brush your child’s teeth twice a day yourself until the child is 6-to-8-years-old.
Children this young do not have the physical skills or know how to reach all surfaces of their teeth.
Limit how often sugar and starches come in contact with the teeth. Frequent snacking can increase tooth decay.
Susan Deming, Education/Fluoridation Coordinator with the MDCH Oral Health Program, is the new Head Start Dental Hygienist Liaison for the National Center on Health-Oral Health Project. Partnering with the American Dental Hygienists Association, each state will use their Liaison to strengthen collaboration efforts between Head Start and oral health and assist in connecting people with the challenges Head Starts face in finding dental homes for their children. Contact Deming with any questions or concerns about oral health and Head Start at demings@michigan.gov
This was printed in the February 10, 2013 – February 23, 2013 Edition
