have people heard about the new recommendation from ADA that parents should start using a smear of fluoride toothpaste as soon as teeth emerge?
i was also surprised to read that in at least one dentist's experience, use of non-fluoride toothpaste did not make a difference:
Most of the children she sees with tooth decay are using “a training toothpaste without fluoride,” she said.
man, i thought we were doing the right thing!
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
That's what our dentist told us. We do fluoride in the morning and xylitol at night, though it's my understanding that the amount of xylitol in those tooth pastes isn't enough to do anything.
pomegranate / 3388 posts
Great. We'll we're almost at age 2 anyways, so it won't make much of a difference at this point.
pomegranate / 3890 posts
Ya our dentist just told us this so I went out and bought one with fluoride in it. I was surprised!
GOLD / coconut / 8266 posts
R gets multi-vitamin drops with fluoride in one bottle a day so I don't want to use a fluoride toothpaste as well. Something to ask about at her next ped appointment.
pear / 1812 posts
Yep, we were taught about this at our mom's group from the community health nurses.
pineapple / 12053 posts
Hm, our dentist said no fluoride when we brought her in just to hang out for my appt.
apricot / 444 posts
I *know* you should never read the comments... but I just did and they're terrifying! Someone reassure me that fluoride isn't going to make my baby brain-damaged?!
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
That is interesting, just goes to show how advice always changes.
So what about fluoridated tap water? I am assuming that is fine and if your kids drink it, you don't need the fluoridated paste?
grapefruit / 4800 posts
I think the problem is people often use way too much toothpaste. We've just used a tiny smear, a lot smaller than pea sized, since she got teeth.
Fluoride in excess is bad but some is good. I think it's been a seesaw of trying to figure out the right balance is and what excess means.
apricot / 444 posts
@Silva: seriously. but maybe I would be a major genius... albeit one with swiss cheese teeth.
honeydew / 7303 posts
Yep! I recommend fl toothpaste to high risk kiddos before age 2, but I don't think it's for every child. They touch on the risk of fluorosis which is something important to consider.
As a dentist, I won't be using fluoride until my LO can spit, but she is not at high risk for cavities because the risk factors aren't there. For me it's not worth the risk of fluorosis.
nectarine / 2085 posts
@looch: This is the assumption I was working with, too. LO is 3 and he often doesn't spit everything out after brushing. Until fairly recently, he swallowed pretty much all of the toothpaste, and even though I use a tiny amount, I was not anxious to switch to fluoride paste and have him swallow most of it.
nectarine / 2054 posts
@yellowbird: Thanks for adding what you recommend! Out of curiosity, what are the risk factors? Family history of cavities?
honeydew / 7303 posts
@Beehive: here are a couple good links!
http://www.ada.org/2057.aspx http://www2.aap.org/ORALHEALTH/pact/ch4_sect7.cfm
grapefruit / 4235 posts
We have a well and L drinks bottled water at daycare, so he literally gets no fluoride from water sources. My pediatrician said to use a rice-grain sized bit of toothpaste once a day. (um, i still haven't started brushing his teeth twice a day yet. bad mom.)
But yeahhh fluoride is pretty hot-button. The ADA has a site http://www.ilikemyteeth.org with links to studies and things.
GOLD / pomelo / 5737 posts
@edelweiss: yeah our dentist said not to even use toothpaste yet due to the positioning of our LO (laying) when we brush her teeth making it a choking hazard, and that non fluoride toothpaste does nothing. She didn't say to use fluoride though, just to drink water with it Uh oh!
pomelo / 5866 posts
Oh great. Now they tell us!! But it makes sense.
Ok so exactly how big is that pea, is the question I would have had as a first time mother. I am way past this stage though. Without cavities yet, whew!
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