For parents

Children’s teeth

Baby teeth fall out, which is why they get neglected — and they hold the space, guide the adult teeth in behind them, and teach a child whether the dentist is a frightening place or a dull one.

First visit: By age one
Brushing: From the first tooth
Supervised until: Around age seven
Check-ups: Every six months

What it is

A baby tooth does three jobs. It chews, it holds the space that the adult tooth underneath is going to need, and it forms the child's idea of what dentistry is. Lose one early to decay and the teeth beside it drift into the gap, so the adult tooth arrives to find its place taken — which is a large share of the crowding that turns up as orthodontics ten years later.

The rest is routine and it is mostly done at home. Brush twice a day from the first tooth, floss once the teeth touch each other, and treat sugar as a matter of how often rather than how much: it is the number of acid attacks in a day, not the size of them, that decides whether enamel loses.

A child who has only ever been to the dentist when nothing was wrong is a child who is not afraid of dentists.
Dr. Polen Akkılıç

Which one you need

Start early
Wipe the gums with a clean damp cloth after feeds. It is a habit for the parent as much as the child, and the mouth is already familiar with being looked in when the first tooth comes.
Before the first tooth
Brushing
Twice a day, a soft brush, and a smear of fluoride toothpaste — a rice grain under three, a pea after. Children cannot brush well until their handwriting is neat, so an adult does it or checks it until roughly seven.
From the first tooth to about seven
Flossing
The contact point between two teeth is where decay starts and where no brush reaches. If the teeth touch, they need flossing, whatever age the child is.
As soon as two teeth touch
Watching for cavities
A white chalky patch at the gum line, a brown speck in a groove, sensitivity to cold or sweet, a child chewing on one side. Decay in a baby tooth moves faster than in an adult one — the enamel is thinner.
Any age
Sealants and fluoride
A sealant closes the deep grooves in a new molar before anything can get into them, and fluoride varnish hardens the surface. Both are quick, painless and preventive — which makes them the cheapest dentistry a child will ever have.
When the first adult molars arrive, around six

What happens to you

Two visits, and a wait at home in between

By the first birthday
The first visit
Early, short, and deliberately uneventful — a look, a count, and a conversation with the parent. The point is that the chair becomes ordinary before anything has to be done in it.
Every six months
Check-ups
Regular enough to catch decay while it is still a spot rather than a hole, and regular enough that the child knows the room.
Around six
The first adult molars
They come in behind the baby teeth without anything falling out, so they are easy to miss. They are also the teeth most often lost to decay, and the ones sealants are for.
7–12
Watching the bite
This is when crowding and bite problems become visible and when early orthodontic treatment is sometimes much shorter than the same treatment at fifteen.
Any time
A knocked-out adult tooth
Hold it by the crown, not the root; if it is dirty, rinse it in milk or saline, never scrub it; put it back in the socket if you can and hold it there, or keep it in milk. Then get to a dentist within the hour — the first sixty minutes decide whether that tooth survives.

By the first birthday
The first visit
Early, short, and deliberately uneventful — a look, a count, and a conversation with the parent. The point is that the chair becomes ordinary before anything has to be done in it.
Every six months
Check-ups
Regular enough to catch decay while it is still a spot rather than a hole, and regular enough that the child knows the room.
Around six
The first adult molars
They come in behind the baby teeth without anything falling out, so they are easy to miss. They are also the teeth most often lost to decay, and the ones sealants are for.
7–12
Watching the bite
This is when crowding and bite problems become visible and when early orthodontic treatment is sometimes much shorter than the same treatment at fifteen.
Any time
A knocked-out adult tooth
Hold it by the crown, not the root; if it is dirty, rinse it in milk or saline, never scrub it; put it back in the socket if you can and hold it there, or keep it in milk. Then get to a dentist within the hour — the first sixty minutes decide whether that tooth survives.

By the first birthday
The first visit
Early, short, and deliberately uneventful — a look, a count, and a conversation with the parent. The point is that the chair becomes ordinary before anything has to be done in it.
Every six months
Check-ups
Regular enough to catch decay while it is still a spot rather than a hole, and regular enough that the child knows the room.
Around six
The first adult molars
They come in behind the baby teeth without anything falling out, so they are easy to miss. They are also the teeth most often lost to decay, and the ones sealants are for.
7–12
Watching the bite
This is when crowding and bite problems become visible and when early orthodontic treatment is sometimes much shorter than the same treatment at fifteen.
Any time
A knocked-out adult tooth
Hold it by the crown, not the root; if it is dirty, rinse it in milk or saline, never scrub it; put it back in the socket if you can and hold it there, or keep it in milk. Then get to a dentist within the hour — the first sixty minutes decide whether that tooth survives.

By the first birthday
The first visit
Early, short, and deliberately uneventful — a look, a count, and a conversation with the parent. The point is that the chair becomes ordinary before anything has to be done in it.
Every six months
Check-ups
Regular enough to catch decay while it is still a spot rather than a hole, and regular enough that the child knows the room.
Around six
The first adult molars
They come in behind the baby teeth without anything falling out, so they are easy to miss. They are also the teeth most often lost to decay, and the ones sealants are for.
7–12
Watching the bite
This is when crowding and bite problems become visible and when early orthodontic treatment is sometimes much shorter than the same treatment at fifteen.
Any time
A knocked-out adult tooth
Hold it by the crown, not the root; if it is dirty, rinse it in milk or saline, never scrub it; put it back in the socket if you can and hold it there, or keep it in milk. Then get to a dentist within the hour — the first sixty minutes decide whether that tooth survives.

Questions

They are only baby teeth — do they matter?

They hold the space for the adult teeth. A baby molar lost early lets the teeth behind drift forward, and the adult tooth arrives to find no room — which is crowding that has to be treated later with braces.

When should the first visit be?

By the first birthday, or within six months of the first tooth. It is a short and undramatic appointment, and that is the point of doing it before anything hurts.

How much toothpaste, and with fluoride?

With fluoride, in the amounts children's toothpastes are formulated for: a smear the size of a rice grain under three, a pea from three. Spit, do not rinse — rinsing washes away the fluoride you just brushed on.

What about sugar?

How often matters more than how much. A sweet drink sipped across an afternoon does more damage than the same sugar eaten at once with a meal, because each sip restarts the acid attack.

My child is frightened of the dentist

Usually because their first visit was an emergency. Bring them along to yours, keep early appointments short and uneventful, and avoid promising it will not hurt — say what will actually happen instead.

Patients

The people who already came

Six of our patients, filmed at the clinic and talking about their own treatment. They are the clinic’s patients rather than any one procedure’s — what each of them had is in the film.