Try playing your child's favourite song or TV show – it can be a great distraction and enable you to do a thorough cleaning of their teeth, especially before bed! Your child’s mouth becomes dry at night time and any food or drink residue remaining on the teeth serve as ‘food’ for bacteria. The bacteria, in turn, produce acid which breaks down tooth surface and eventually leads to a cavity or hole in the tooth. 2minsx2timesaday is the ideal amount of time to be brushing your child’s teeth. Children actually require assistance with brushing until at least age 6 – their [...]

We recommend ceasing a thumb habit by age 3 in order to avoid permanent tooth movement from thumb sucking. Your pediatrician would suggest sooner to enable proper speech production and for your child to develop social skills with their peers. Breaking this habit can be a challenge for most parents but it is doable! Try these tips and remember it takes time: place a bandaid on the preferred thumb so your child will naturally avoid sucking on it because of the texture (buying ‘cool’ character bandaids for added enthusiasm is a great idea). At night, placing a sock on their hand [...]