When Should I Start Brushing My Baby’s Teeth?

🚀 Short answer

You might be surprised by the answer:

As soon as the first tooth shows up!

Baby teeth might be temporary, but they’re far from unimportant.
Too often, they’re overlooked because they eventually fall out — but they actually play a crucial role in your child’s development.
These first baby teeth will help your baby transition to solid foods, and chewing isn’t just about breaking food down — it’s the first step in digestion.
It will help the body to absorb all those important nutrients that support the baby’s growth and development.

Besides that, healthy baby teeth will help with speech, jaw development, and keeping space for adult teeth to come in correctly.
On the other hand, tooth decay and root infections in baby or toddler teeth can cause discomfort and impact a child’s overall health — especially when root infections go untreated.

So yes, they’re “just baby teeth” — but they deserve just as much care.

🪥 How to Clean Baby Teeth

For sure, a traditional toothbrush isn’t the easiest tool to use in your baby’s tiny mouth. Thankfully, there are better options early on:

• Gauze Compress: Maybe you never heard about it, but they are unexpectedly effective. You just need to wrap a clean, damp gauze around your finger and gently wipe your baby’s teeth and gums.
  It’s simple and gentle as it gets. Try it yourself—you’ll see how much plaque it picks up!

  

• Finger Toothbrush: There are soft silicone brushes that fit over your finger and let you clean your baby’s teeth and massage the gums comfortably.

• Baby Toothbrushes: Designed with small heads and soft bristles, they make it easy to cover all tooth surfaces as more teeth come in, but it takes some time to practice.

The goal is to remove plaque, not just to brush. So find what works for you and your baby—you’ll both get used to the routine together.

🛁 Brushing Habits Start Early

In these early months, brushing is more about building healthy habits than a long dental routine.

Once or twice a day is enough, especially before sleep time. While brushing try to:

• Gently brush all sides of the teeth
• Start making brushing part of the bedtime routine
• Let your baby see you brush your teeth, too

🍬 Avoiding Sugar Is Just as Important

Brushing is key, but sugar control is equally critical—maybe even more so at this stage. The biggest risk to baby teeth isn’t forgetting to brush once or twice, but rather exposing them to sugars, especially before bedtime.
Usual suspects are:

• Sweetened milk or drinks
• Fruit juices
• Baby snacks with hidden sugars

🤱 Breastfeeding is not a cause of tooth decay, as the myth is often heard. On the other hand, breastfeeding is extremely beneficial for your baby. Breast milk contains antibodies and lactoferrin, which help fight bacteria that cause tooth decay. So, if you’re breastfeeding, there’s no need to worry about cavities from breast milk alone.

🫧 What About Toothpaste?

If you are worried about toothpaste and its ingredients, then you will be happy to know that toothpaste is not essential especially in the beginning, and a toothbrush is the king, and that goes for every age, including adults. With a toothbrush and good effort, you can achieve great results.

Toothpaste is only an addition to the toothbrush that helps speed up the process. Most baby toothpastes come with flavors that children love, so to make brushing more fun and encourage your child to enjoy the routine.

If you prefer to avoid fluoride, that’s also okay. But if you want to use a fluoride toothpaste, choose one specifically for infants and use only a tiny smear (about the size of a grain of rice).

Everything about fluoride and toothbrush vs toothpaste will be covered in some of the next articles, so stay tuned!

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📌 No Time, Have to Rush

• 🦷 Start brushing with the first tooth
• ✋ Use a gauze, finger brush, or baby toothbrush
• 🛁 Focus on building the habit, not perfection
• 🍬 Watch for hidden sugars, especially during weaning
• 🤱 Breastfeeding is beneficial, not a cause of cavities
• 🪥 Toothbrush > toothpaste, especially in early years

A clean start leads to a healthy smile. 😁