8 year old’s teeth

[plumbus39]

Please don’t judge as I know I’ve taken my eye off the ball on this one and feel stupid. I realised recently that DS has not been brushing his teeth properly. I had a look at his front teeth after brushing and they had a load of build up on them. I asked to clean them myself and noticed that his gums are obviously quite inflamed - they bled really easily. He had a dental check at school in February and they didn’t flag any issues but there clearly is now.

He’s booked in for the dentist over the summer, do hygienist appointments/cleaning exist for kids?! He would hate it. I’ve got him some of those tablets that turn plaque a funny colour but am worried that might traumatise him. He doesn’t like the sound of electric toothbrushes otherwise I’d get him one. anyone else struggling with this??

You need to look at his diet too, I don’t think better tooth brushing alone will fix this

Definitely get him to a hygienist. There are independent hygienist practices now which do cheap rates for kids. Find a practice with a GBT machine; hopefully they can remove everything without the trauma of the ultrasonic scaler. I would also recommend starting to use floss picks. Now the adult teeth are coming through you need to do everything you can to protect them from decay

Thank you! I haven’t heard of a GBT machine. I think I’ll get him an electric toothbrush too and he’s just going to have to get used to it. Good point on the floss picks actually.

If he’s not keen on the noise I would get him a Suri toothbrush as they’re a lot quieter than standard electric toothbrushes

OP, did you manage to get him a hygienist?
I have 7 year old twins and both have yellow build up and front and back of bottom teeth. They use an electric toothbrush twice a day.

Dentist said they won’t get their teeth cleaned until they are 18…

I would definitely recommend an electric toothbrush. My DD, also 8, uses one and does her teeth much better with it. That said, we do a fair bit of supervision and will often still help with the gumline/hard to reach bits. You need to at least check his breath his and there and make sure he's properly cleaning. If we don't do this with our DD she gets lazy with it...

I always remember a friend saying her dentist friend was bushing her own kids teeth until 10 and recommended that for others as most kids wont do it properly till that age!.

Hope you get it all sorted. It's hard work for sure!

My dentists offers hygiene appt for kids - half the time of adult appt.

Def get electric toothbrush and reduce how often he eats sugary food esp in between meals