Managing your child's Oral health: Top tips from a paediatric dentist and clinical psychologist

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Dr Jess, AKA The Child Centred Dentist. Dr Jess is a Specialist Paediatric Dentist based in Yorkshire. I approached Jess after getting lots of comments in my Q&A about managing children’s oral health when your child is distressed around this. While this is not the focus of my work, I often speak with families around the difficulties of keeping their teeth clean and visiting the dentist. Whether this is related to typical developmental need for control, wider anxiety, or related to a developmental difference such as sensory processing differences in autism, there are many different things you can do to support your child with this.

Dr Jess and I spoke about all of the challenges that come with managing oral health in young children. Dr Jess provided evidence-based information and tips around starting brushing, types of brushes and what to look for in a toothpaste. We also reflected on the impact of sensory processing differences in managing oral health, as well as the impact of our own dental anxiety as parents when taking our little ones to a dentist. While there was so much more we could have explored, we hope that there are some tips that might help your family in the video below.

If your time is limited, you can find short excerpts from this video on my Instagram page. I have also summarised some of the main points and top tips in the infographic below. Please do feel free to ask us any further questions, or give us your thoughts on this topic!