Baby S First Tooth Care

Dental care for baby teeth can start before your baby s first tooth appears.

Baby s first tooth care. Over the next couple of years your baby s gummy smile will gradually be. Your baby s first dental visit your baby is hitting new milestones every day and his or her first dental visit is another one to include in the baby book. If your baby develops teeth early she may get her first tooth as soon as 3 months. A general rule of thumb is that for every 6 months of life approximately 4 teeth will erupt.

After weeks of watching your baby drool and fuss you finally spot that first little tooth bud popping up through the gums. Besides checking for cavities and other problems the dentist can show you how to clean the child s teeth properly and how to handle habits like thumb sucking. Most babies get their first tooth when they re between 6 and 10 months old. After the first tooth comes in and no later than the first birthday.

This helps your baby get ready for brushing when the first tooth appears. Very rarely a baby s first tooth is already visible at birth in other cases you may have to wait until she s a year or older. Some babies are even born with teeth. Girls generally precede boys in tooth eruption.

Here s a schedule of when teeth start to appear and when baby teeth begin falling out to make way for permanent ones. Once your baby is about three months old you can gently wipe your baby s gums using a damp clean face washer or gauze twice a day. Use a clean damp washcloth a gauze pad or a finger brush to gently wipe clean the first teeth and the front of the tongue after meals and at bedtime. Your child s first dental visit should take place after that first tooth appears but no later than the first birthday.

Keep in mind that this is a general timeline. Parents can help ease teething pain by massaging their baby s gums with clean fingers offering solid not liquid filled teething rings or a clean frozen or wet washcloth. Dental care for baby teeth and gums. The american dental association and the american academy of pediatrics recommends that baby get his first dental exam at age 1 or when his first tooth appears.

A dental visit at an early age is a well baby checkup for the teeth. Tooth brushing can begin as soon as baby s first tooth pokes through the gums.