The Blog of Mountain View Family Dentistry

I understand the idea of  ’family dentistry’…about having the entire family (including little kids) go to the same dentist. But I’m not sure when to start it. I have a newborn (she’s 3 months old), and I’m not sure when her first visit to the dentist should be. Do you have any advice or tips ?

Lisa in Flagstaff

Lisa…

Mountain View Family Dentistry generally sees children for the first time between the ages of 2 and 3.   By the age of 2, most, if not all, of your child’s baby teeth have erupted into their mouth.  Cavitites can even sometimes appear this early, so you don’t want to wait any later than age 3 to bring your child in for their first checkup.

Scheduling a visit early is also a good idea if you want your child to have a healthy, relaxed attitude towards dental visits. If the first visit to the dentist is an emergency appointment because of tooth pain or an injury, your son or daughter may associate the dentist with pain, distress, and discomfort. Much better that their first visit be a normal, pain-free experience. We have a lot of other dental tips for parents…please check them out !

I’m a new parent, and one of the many things I wasn’t real sure about was when to start cleaning my daughter’s teeth. Most of my older brothers and sisters have had kids, and everyone of them had a different take on what the proper procedures were for dental care for kids.
One lady I talked to, a family friend, actually said that her family never worried about tooth care or cleaning for very young kids, since those teeth were just going to fall out anyway. That sounded pretty ridiculous to me.
I wanted some advice from someone who has a lot of experience with treating kids teeth. What should my gameplan be ?!

Lucy in Scottsdale

Lucy,
It’s a good idea to have a plan for your children’s teeth, but try not to be too serious with your children about it. Treat their oral hygiene as just one of those things, like picking up their clothes and brushing their hair and eating all their vegetables, that they need to do every day as part of their routine.
And yes, it is a little silly to say that baby teeth do not need to be cleaned. Getting children to pay attention to their teeth (even ones that are eventually going to fall out) early helps ensure that they develop a life-long diligence in maintaining them.
Please check out our dental tips for parents. It’s an entire page on our site devoted to your concerns. You can use it as a road map for developing your ‘gameplan’  for your children’s dental care.