Nobody hands you the timeline.
From the first tooth to the full set, here is what to do and when.
A four-minute read for parents, from birth to three years
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Eight slides. Save them, or read the full timeline below.
Start before there is anything to brush.
- ✓Wipe the gums with a clean, damp cloth once a day.
- ✓It is not about cleaning. It is so a mouth being touched feels normal by the time it matters.
- ✓Never put a baby to bed with a bottle. Australian guidance is that bottles in bed are not recommended at any age.
The first tooth arrives.
- ✓Usually the two bottom front teeth, any time from four months to well past twelve.
- ✓Start brushing twice a day the day you see it. Water only, on a small soft brush.
- ✓Introduce a cup now, so the bottle has somewhere to go.
Half the job is the habit. The other half is the teeth.
Two things change at once.
- ✓The bottle goes. Everything moves to a cup.
- ✓Book the first dental visit: around the first birthday, or within six months of the first tooth appearing.
- ✓Plain milk and tap water from here. Juice is not needed at all.
This is the single most useful appointment you will make.
Toothpaste starts.
- ✓A small amount of low fluoride toothpaste, about the size of a pea.
- ✓Spit, do not rinse. Rinsing washes away the fluoride that does the work.
- ✓Store it out of reach so it stays a toothpaste and not a snack.
The full set of twenty.
- ✓Most children have all twenty baby teeth by about three.
- ✓The back molars come last, and they are the hardest to reach and the easiest to miss.
- ✓They will want to do it themselves. Let them start, then you finish.
Keep helping until around age eight.
The parts that never change.
- ✓Twice a day, morning and night, whatever their age.
- ✓You do the brushing. They help.
- ✓Water between meals, so teeth get time to recover.
- ✓Lift the lip once a month and look along the gum line. See the lift the lip check.
- ✓A dental check every six to twelve months, or as your dentist advises.
Timings from the Australian Dental Association and the Better Health Channel. Every child differs, so treat these as a guide rather than a deadline.
If you only remember one thing.
The first tooth is the starting line. Everything after it is just keeping going. Save this guide. You will need it again.
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For grown-ups only. We never ask children for their details.
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This guide is general information for parents. It isn’t a substitute for advice from your child’s dentist.
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