Does age range on toothpaste matter?

[Sprogonthetyne]

DS is autistic and when he was younger we struggled a lot with the sensory issues around toothbrushing. With a lot of trial and error we found a strawberry flavourd toothpaste he tolerates, and things got much better. The toothpaste is age 3-8, he's currently 8.5 and still hates anything minty. If I really have to switch to something else when he's 9, I'll start looking and gradually introduce it over the next few months, but do I really have to? The fluoride is 1450, which is the same as my adult toothpaste, so would it be OK for him to keep using it?

(or at least, would a calm thorough brushing with the wrong aged toothpaste be less bad then possibly missing bits while he fights me trying to use a right age one)

If it has the right level of fluoride then it's fine to keep using it. Nhs site says this:

Well i presume there is different levels of fluoride in it? Ir could be a marketing thing but I presume for the proper brand toothpaste it would make a difference but I am not a dentist

The under 3 one his little sister uses has less fluoride but this one has the same amount as my adult one (1450 ppm). Not sure if there's anything else that makes it age range specific

The next one might just have a stronger flavour or have a whitening action or something similar. If the fluoride is the correct level and he's happy to use it then I'd keep using it

DS also doesn't like minty toothpastes so is using 7-8 toothpaste at 10 - I checked with the dentist who was happy. You can get fruit flavour adult toothpastes but they can be expensive.

My dentist also said it's only the fluoride content that matters. There are some herby adult toothpastes if you want to try them yourself to try and find an alternative.

My dentist said it is fine to keep using “kids” toothpaste as long as the fluoride level is in the adult range (which I think the older kids ones are).

My DD is 14 and won’t use anything except the baby toothpaste, which has much less fluoride). The dentist said it’s not ideal, but obviously any toothpaste is better than no toothpaste, and asked her to brush three times a day instead of twice.

I'd continue using it then. Might just be for marketing purposes if the fluoride is the same as adult.

As everyone else says it’s fine. If he does start to feel self conscious about it later then the hi smile flavoured toothpastes are stupidly popular with teens I know at present. Expensive but often on offer.

You can also buy a flavourless toothpaste. I think k it’s also low foam?

So long as it’s not the 0-2 stuff, which does contain less fluoride because at that age they often swallow it, then it’s fine to keep using the younger kids toothpaste- whatever makes teeth brushing easier! There might come a point when he starts getting bad breath in the morning and needs the minty fresh but that’s a while off if he’s only 8.

Definitely fine provided the fluoride level is sufficient, which it appears to be. I had this with my youngest who has severe OCD and often wanted to eat shortly after brushing his teeth (yes I know, we just have to roll with it for now …!) so didn’t want a minty flavour in his mouth. He’s back to the mint now because he said his teeth didn’t ‘feel’ clean with the strawberry😆

Thanks everyone, that's such a relief. It's only over the last year we've got to the point where bedtime isn't a nightmare, so the thought of changing anything that would lead to meltdown during the bedtime routine, then hours of calming him down before anyone could get to sleep was terrifying me.

My daughters dentist said that the children's toothpastes are about marketing and that we should only use toothpastes with 1450ppm of fluoride and pick the toothpaste that she will tolerate out of those toothpastes.

To be honest, your 3 yo probably would benefit from a 1450ppm fluoride toothpaste too. My daughter was this age when we got this advice from the dentist.

Our dentist told us to switch to an adult toothpaste, didn’t really give a reason, but she did recommend Oranurse unflavoured non foaming toothpaste and my dd(12 also asd) has taken the change well.