Teeth and brushing

[fivefour3twoone]

Hi can you all help me please.
Ds is 3, he only reliably brushes his teeth once a day I'm going to start that twice a day. But I let him brush so obviously his brushing technique isn't great...am I supposed to do it for him or should they do it themselves?
He's been to the dentist and will go every 6 months...so far they've just looked in his mouth and said all fine.
He mostly drinks water and milk, drinks and eats nothing after cleaning his teeth at night (except water). Has no dried fruit or much fruit at all really, no fizzy drinks.
Does have biscuits and chocolate as treats - weekends mainly.
Is this ok for teeth or should I be brushing his teeth myself and doing anything else? Keep reading stories of kids getting teeth extracted and obviously don't want this to happen.
Any foods I should be avoiding too?

Teeth brushing is non negotiable for me. More than one dentist has said to me that parents should be brushing children's teeth twice a day until they are 7 years old and can do it themselves.

It really is important.

Mine have a fairly normal diet, some fruit and juice at the weekends as a treat but mainly milk and water. They have no filings at almost 6 and 9 and I'm relieved. As a child I had awful teeth and didn't want them to go through similar. And yes, that sometimes meant dh holding them while I forcibly brushed. That was when they were small though. Not brushing was not an option.

There's no way your 3 year old can brush their own teeth properly and it should have been twice a day everyday from when they got their first teeth.

what's the correct fluoride level I should be looking for in toothpaste too?

You should definitely be brushing his teeth for him, twice a day, he's not capable of doing a good enough job yet.

A minimum of 1000ppm fluoride is recommended. Some of the kids ones for that age group will have 1450ppm and that's fine too

Twice a day from as soon as they get teeth.

No way would a 3 year old be able to do this themselves, you need to brush for him until the age of 7. He can have a 'turn' after you have brushed but you need to be doing the brushing.

I'm quite relaxed over a lot of things but teeth brushing is completely non negotiable.

Our toothpaste has fluoride protection 1450 ppm - is that ok?

Yes that's an ideal level

My DSD is 5.
I let her do her own - put the toothpaste on her brush and then brush for maybe 60-90 seconds. Occasionally she'll shout that she's done and I'll just say - 'no they need a good scrub remember, we have to look after them!' And off she goes again then I'll go into the bathroom to check them, praise her, and brush them again she's actually getting very good (used to forget to do the back ones), and I do think it's important she learns the motions.

Thanks everyone - What's the recommended brushing time?

Well electric brushes normally have a timer for 2 minutes so that's how long we do ours for (30 seconds per quarter section)

Thanks pixie that makes sense, I couldn't think if it was 2 or 3 minutes