It is a matter of concern to the whole family that the baby has teeth. Many parents have gradually paid attention to the baby’s oral problems and will start brushing their teeth when they know that the baby has teeth.
However, how do you choose toothpaste when your baby brushes his teeth?
It is said that fluoride toothpaste can prevent dental caries, but the three aunts next door added: “fluoride toothpaste is poisonous and cannot be used by children!” ] Who should I listen to?
Today, we will invite Dr. He Jianliang from the Department of Stomatology to talk to us about fluoride toothpaste, children’s toothpaste and how to choose toothpaste for babies.
Many young parents still dare not choose fluoride toothpaste when choosing toothpaste for their babies, fearing that their babies will not rinse their mouths thoroughly or swallow carelessly, resulting in fluorosis. In fact, this kind of worry is unnecessary.
Fluoride toothpaste is really not poisoned.
Fluorosis is a chronic systemic disease, which is often manifested as fatigue, loss of appetite, headache and hypomnesis. In serious cases, it will also lead to [skeletal fluorosis]. Naturally, the main culprit is excessive intake of fluorine.
How much fluorine will lead to fluorosis?
Studies have shown that intake of more than 5 mg of fluorine per kilogram of body weight per day is the [possible toxic dose].
The fluorine content standard of toothpaste in China is 0.05% ~ 0.15% for adults and 0.05% ~ 0.11% for children.
That is to say, a 6-year-old child of about 20 kg must swallow more than 200 g of toothpaste before fluorosis may occur. A child toothpaste is 40 g, and the baby must swallow more than 5 toothpaste to achieve the dose of poisoning. This is the rhythm of eating toothpaste as a meal!
I don’t think parents will do this, so the rumor that fluoride toothpaste will cause fluorosis will be dispelled.
Fluoride toothpaste recommended for all children
In fact, fluoride toothpaste not only does not cause fluorosis in children, but also should be recommended to all children.
Because fluoride toothpaste can effectively prevent the occurrence of dental caries in babies and plays a very important role in protecting babies’ teeth.
If parents are still not at ease, they can use low fluoride toothpaste for their babies, which is safer.
Is fluoride-free toothpaste useless?
Toothpaste is used as an auxiliary for brushing teeth, but its main function is still the existence of friction agent. To a certain extent, more than 90% of the functions of a toothpaste are exerted by friction agent. Fluoride is only an additive with anti-tooth decay effect, so even toothpaste without fluoride can clean teeth well.
Of course, the amount of toothpaste used is very important. Babies aged 0-3 only need toothpaste the size of rice grains, while babies aged 3-6 can increase to pea size.
Are the additives in toothpaste safe?
Now more and more toothpaste still contains various additives. Many parents are worried about being harmful to their babies, such as some preservatives, foaming agents and sweeteners.
In fact, these are all substances allowed to be added in toothpaste standards.
Preservatives: Once toothpaste is opened, it will come into contact with the external environment. Preservatives can prevent toothpaste from growing bacteria easily.
Foaming agent: It plays a sufficient foaming role and is the source of rich foam when brushing teeth, which can clean up the dirt on the tooth surface more cleanly.
Sweeteners: The taste of ordinary toothpaste is relatively exciting, causing many babies not to brush their teeth. Therefore, toothpaste manufacturers have added various sweeteners such as xylitol and even various fruit-flavored food additives, which may be another way to make babies love brushing their teeth!
As for the safety of various additives, as long as they pass the safety certification of relevant departments and choose toothpaste produced by large factories, they can be well protected.
Is it good for teeth to change toothpaste frequently?
In fact, the role of toothpaste is mainly friction, followed by the fluorine contained in it can prevent dental caries. Even if the brand is different, the function is nothing more than these two points. In other words, whether to change or not is the same.
However, one advantage of changing toothpaste is that the baby will have different tastes to try, which may improve his enthusiasm for brushing his teeth. For example, this month is strawberry flavor, next month is banana flavor, and next month is apple… The thought of brushing his teeth, the baby is really a little looking forward to it!