Calling all DENTISTS please

[DevonLulu]

Posting in AIBU for traffic, sorry, cant seen a dental forum.

I am looking for advice from a dentist please. Signposting required.

I live in an area with no fluoride supplementation and low natural fluoride levels in the water.

Two DSs aged 6 and 4 years.

Clearly following dietary / sugar advice. Brushing teeth at least twice per day with 1450ppm fluoride toothpaste myself. No dental problems.

Aware that if we were going to the dentist, I would probably be offered fluoride varnish twice yearly.

Is there any guidance / evidence base regarding Fluoride Varnish? I see that Duraphat Varnish seems to be the only evidence based one but is dentist only administration. Is there something that I could give at home?

Also, fluoride supplementation. I can find no evidence / guidance regarding this. Is this something that I can / should be doing, as there are preparations that I could buy, Endekay for example.

Happy to do my own research but not sure where to look for evidence based dentistry.

Their routine appt was cancelled due to COVID (understandably) and are not being rebooked until Nov 2020. I am not sure how keen I will be to take them to the dentist then anyway, so wondering what I can do to help myself.

Thanks in advance

bumping for further traffic please

No. That fluoride is only administered by a dental professional. You can’t buy It

At 6 and 4 the fluoride in the toothpaste should have a maximum of 1100 ppm
1450 is the adult dose You can start them on the adult toothpaste at 7-8+ tho

Get the children to spit not rinse after brushing and keep the acidly sweet sugary sticky and fizzy foods and drinks to a minimum
A healthy low sugar diet is the best place to begin with dental health

Not a dentist however forgive me for butting in with advice you may already now.

Do you know the "trick" of a piece of cheese at the end of a meal?

This and keeping eating sweets to once a week worked fine for us in a non fluoride area. I declined the teeth coatings.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/605266/Deliveringgbetterorallhealth.pdf

^
This is the main guidance that UK Paediatric dentists use for dental health OP.
Have a look at Stephan's curve and acid attacks, and brushing with age appropriate fluoride toothpaste. It is extremely important that you or another adult physically brush your DC teeth. No rinsing out afterwards just spit.

After the age of 3 an adult toothpaste can be used. The dosage advice is based on potential damage (mottling of enamel) by large dose of ingested fluoride - young children tend to swallow or eat toothpaste. Once your child can spit out, adult dose is suitable.
Children’s toothpastes will have adult dose of fluoride after age 3, but they are often milder flavours.
Electric toothbrushes are easier for parent to use and OralB have a good website with videos to demonstrate use.
TePe disclosing tablets are an excellent way of checking that you and your child are brushing effectively, again go to the TePe website for instructions. They are available on Amazon.
Beware of fruit juices, smoothies and “healthy” dried fruit -based snacks all are heavy on sugar. A 250ml glass of orange juice has the same amount of sugar as a can of coke!
Download the Sugar Smart app. You can use it while you shop to check how much sugar foods contain using the bar codes. It shows you visually in sugar cubes.

RHRA -thank you. This is exactly the document that I was looking for. All the answers and evidence base. Thanks.

Angrymum22 -thanks to you too. You have essentially summarised it for me.

Bottom line, keep doing what I’m doing. Insist that I do the cleaning. Remain on current toothpaste and bite the bullet with COVID and attend the dentist for appt in Nov.

Thanks both again. Hugely helpful.