we brought cc to have her very first dental visit on Saturday morning. she has 6 teeth and another 2 are just coming out.
the reasons for such an early dental check up are:
1. we have the family dental plan, so, cc is covered from day 1. the book also recommend the first dental checkup at age 1.
2. she loves thumbsucking and i would like to have some advice from the dentist on how to stop that.
3. her 2 upper front teeth are positioned slightly forward compared to the two at the side. that seemes odd to me.
4. to learn how to brush the teeth of a toddler
5. to find out what the dentist think about bottle feeding and night nursing
the dentist is a very young but friendly guy. below are his answers:
1. normally dentist will do cleaning to a age 3 toddler, but it has no harm to bring a age 1 young toddler for the first check up. i still can bring cc to him if i have any concerns before she turns 3. concerns would be anything i worry about her teeth. the dentist also treat gum infection.
2. dentist agrees thumbsucking is not good but there is very limited ways to stop a young toddler to do so. i could try to put commercially available thumbsucking prevention kit to apply on the nail, but that does not work all the time. normally toddlers will stop thumbsucking by their own before having adult teeth. if this bad habit still continue even with the adult teeth are out, dentist could put a metal piece at the back of the upper front teeth (hold by the molar), that metal piece will be able to prevent young kid to put the thumb in.
3. that is normal and is not caused by thumbsucking.
4. the dentist demostrated how to brush a young toddler's teeth with him and i sitting facing each others on the chairs. cc was being placed face up, head rested on dentist's lap and her legs were on the sides of my waists, and i was holding her hands. she was screaming but that was what the dentist want (a wide open mouth), he used a new baby toothbrush and gently brushed her teeth, then moved to the gum at the back. cc was stuggling and sreaming during the whole process but she quickly calm down when it was done. although this method did brush the teeth but i worry it might leave bad memories about teeth brushing to cc. the dentist reassured me young toddler has very short memory span and 15 to 20 seconds of forceful teeth brushing will not make her to hate teeth brushing in the future. (when we were talking, cc already stopped screaming and happily sucking her thumb in my arms.)
5. dentist was ok for occation bottle feeding at day time. the main reason for weaning from bottle feeding and night feeding is mainly to prevent teeth decay. toddler then to drink very slow from the bottle and that allows milk to linger in the mouth and causing teeth to be constantly bathed by the milk. another reason to wean from the bottle at 1 is because young toddler will be more flexible to changes compared to those of 3 or 4 years old.
other advice from the dentist:
-- it's best to brush twice a day (morning and night time b4 going to bed). but, if parents are busy and could only brush toddler's teeth once a day, then the night time brushing should be done, just to avoid leaving milk or food in the mouth or on the teeth over night.
-- toothpaste is not necessary at this young age. if using toothpaste, must choose those that are floride free. i could wait till cc could stand properly in front of the mirror and brush like us.
the whole dentist visit was pretty quick but fruitful.
after the dental visit:
at night, after bathing her, then only i remembered about the teeth brushing. i placed cc on our bed and brought out her toothbrush given by the dentist. cc was so happy to see the toothbrush, she simply grabbed it over and placed it into her mouth and started to brush her teeth!!
i was amazed, a dental visit and forceful demonstration in the morning had taught her how to brush her own teeth???
but then, i realized she must be treating the toothbrush as a toy and her habit is to placed any toy into her mouth. she watched me brushing my teeth so many times in the bathroom, she was just imitating me. i asked her permission to have the toothbrush so that i could do the job. she was puzzled to my request but when i had my hand on the toothbrush, she finally realized my intention, she then quickly held the toobrush tighly and moved far away and beyond my reach.
i held her baby safe mirror in front of her, and let her do the teeth brushing by herself. she was very happy and studied her own reflection. occationally i tried to grab the toothbrush and brush for her, she quickly got it back with serious face and brushed again by herself (i guess she starts to have this do-it-by-myself behaviour).
so, i guess i am pretty lucky. cc loves to "brush" her own teeth. what i need is just a baby toothbrush, mirror and lots of adult demonstrations.
