Teeth cleaning & Not spitting

[Whiterabbit88]

after some advice please!
my Ds is 4 and we brush his teeth every morning and evening but he doesn’t spit out the toothpaste! We still do the brushing and he mostly sucks the paste off the brush the minute we put it in his mouth.
we have always used the childrens toothpaste and when he was little used a smear though I must admit, recently I think I have been using slightly more than a pea size. Thinking about it now, im worried about Fluorosis and should I be doing more to get him to spit! We don’t live in an area where the water has added fluoride neither do we give him fluoride tablets. Any comments gladly received!

Little and often with the toothpaste,a smear for each mouth section, so they don't suck it all off on the first round.
I've spoken to 2 dentists about this and neither were that bothered. DD is now 9 and hasn't had any problems with her adult teeth, still doesn't spit though🙁

Many thanks @Fumnudge i was going to mention it at our next appt. I have only just realised that fluorosis is a ‘thing’ so abit worried that I haven’t been teaching him to spit sooner.

@Fumnudge I just wondered, have you always used a smear or did you use more previously and switched tactics with the not spitting out? I’m just slightly concerned because I have been using more of a chickpea sized amount for a while

Was advised by dentist last wk to continue with just a pea sized amount (no more) of standard Colgate (adult paste) with no water rinsing/spitting for 5 yr old

Stupid question but can he spit? If he tries and it just dribbles down his chin then he's not going to want to do it. Can you practise with spitting out plain water into the sink?

Really @ILoveTeeeeeea thats interesting. Did they explain why no spitting? I wouldn’t be that concerned but I think I have been liberal with the pea sized amount - mainly because last time we went to the dentist she said there was some yellowing in the back teeth so I have been trying to prevent that getting worse. No one has ever explained about fluorosis before. @Pixiedust1234 yes I will start to practice, he usually sucks off most the toothpaste before I put it in his mouth. I sound like an awful parent but I never really thought about the spitting before and didn’t know the consequences if they swallowed too much so haven’t really been actively encouraging it. It’s difficult out enough just to get them cleaned for anywhere near 2 minutes

I switched to a smear when I realised that only a few teeth could be getting any paste.

He said it’s best for it to stay on teeth, but did emphasise not to use more than pea sized amount, he was very clear about that, I guess especially as we’re using the standard Colgate, the red tube, so not a kids one for 5 yr old

@ILoveTeeeeeea thanks for the reply. We are using the 3-5 toothpaste and it has the same amount of fluoride as our adult one - 1450ppm