Your child’s first dental visit: when and what happens

The right age for a first visit

The usual advice is to bring your child at around their first birthday, or within six months of the first tooth appearing, and by the age of three at the latest. It sounds early, but that appointment is mostly a conversation with you: bottles, breastfeeding, dummies, when to start brushing and which toothpaste to use.

After that, check-ups usually fall every 6 to 12 months depending on each child’s risk of decay. Children with deeply grooved molars, those who graze between meals, and those who have already had a filling come in on the shorter interval.

Getting ready at home

What you say beforehand matters more than anything we do on the day. Talk about it in an ordinary tone, like any other new thing, and steer clear of phrases that plant the idea of pain even when they are meant to reassure.

• Book a morning slot, while they are still fresh.
• Avoid “it won’t hurt” and “there’ll be no injections” — it puts the thought there first.
• Never use the dentist as a threat about sweets.
• Tell them we are going to count their teeth with a little mirror.
• If you have a check-up due, bring them along to watch — children learn a lot that way.

What we do on the day

We take it slowly, using tell-show-do: the child sees and holds the mirror and the suction before anything goes near their mouth. Then we look at the teeth that have come through, the grooves in the molars, how they bite, whether the lip or tongue tie is causing trouble, and whether there is wear that suggests grinding.

If all is well, the visit ends with a brush and some advice for you. If we spot something, we explain it and agree together when to deal with it, without rushing. Radiographs are not taken routinely — only when they are needed to see decay between teeth or to check how the adult teeth are coming through.

Fissure sealants and fluoride

The first adult molars arrive at around six, behind the baby teeth, and often go unnoticed. They have deep grooves that a toothbrush cannot clean, and that is where a great many childhood cavities begin. A sealant fills those grooves with a flowable resin: no drilling, no anaesthetic, and a few minutes per tooth.

Fluoride varnish is the other simple measure. It is painted onto clean teeth to strengthen the enamel and, depending on decay risk, repeated every six months. At home, fluoride toothpaste is what counts, in the right amount: a smear the size of a grain of rice up to age three, a pea from three to six, always with an adult supervising.

Habits, age by age

Most childhood decay is about frequency rather than quantity: a pudding after lunch is not the same as grazing all afternoon. And the evening brush is the one that counts most, because there is less saliva overnight to protect the enamel.

• 0–2: wipe the teeth with a gauze or a small brush; never a sweetened bottle, and none at bedtime.
• 2–5: brush their teeth for them twice a day; phase the dummy out by around three.
• 6–9: supervise brushing and start flossing once the back teeth touch.
• From 10: they can manage alone, but check the job once a week.
• Any age: water between meals, and keep juice and smoothies to mealtimes.

Book that first visit

If your child has never been, now is a good time: the visit goes best when there is nothing to fix and no hurry. Call 972 30 65 64 or write through the contact form and we will book them in with our paediatric dentist.