Dr. Chheda – Yay, your child’s first tooth came in! Now what? Well, in the beginning it’s okay to just take a washcloth with a little bit of water and just kind of wipe the tooth. You want to make sure that there’s no food, especially milk, sitting on the teeth all night long. This will help prevent cavities.

As soon as more teeth start coming in, you do want to introduce a soft brush, a toothbrush. You can use a finger toothbrush, you can use a washcloth, you can also use your own finger and put some fluoride on the teeth at nighttime.

The goal is not brushing for two minutes. The goal is to make sure the fluoride is on the tooth. So you can take your finger and just smear a little bit of fluoride, and you want just a little smear. You know, less than the size of a rice grain – that’s how much fluoride you should be using for all the teeth in the mouth until your child is about 2 years old.

After the age of 2, then you want to start using a pea-size amount, so the size of a small green pea, twice a day. Brush the teeth, and that should be enough to help prevent cavities.