HealthLink Online

Here are some practical strategies to prevent dental disease:

• Have toddlers and preschool children do “Classroom Circle Brushing” after meals: With the children seated as a group at a table, supervise them brushing their teeth with toothpaste for 2 minutes. No rinsing of the mouth is needed.  
• Teachers can demonstrate for the group how to clean all tooth surfaces while brushing their own teeth or while helping a different child do good tooth brushing each day.  
• All children should brush with fluoride toothpaste. Use only a rice grain-sized “smear” for children less than 3 years of age, and a “pea-sized” amount for children older than 3. With such a tiny amount of toothpaste, children can safely swallow it. 
• Staff can ask their own dentists to donate sample toothpaste and tooth brushes. Ask community service organizations, e.g. the Rotary Club or Kiwanis to donate the cost of supplies. 
• Consider using the Head Start poster, “Classroom Circle Brushing” at http://www.ihs.gov/headstart/documents/ClassroomCircleBrushingPoster.pdf. View the richly populated Health section of the Head Start Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center website at http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc. This website has many materials and activities to use in the program and to share with parents.  
• Use the following method for tooth brushing in the program:
  • Choose toothbrushes with soft, rounded, polished nylon bristles and handles that fit the storage rack. Put the child’s name on the handle with permanent marker. 
  • Rinse toothbrushes with water after each use, then store them upright to air dry. Space them so they don’t touch or drip on each other. Use a commercial rack or a well washed and sanitized Styrofoam egg carton, closed and placed flat-side down. Write children’s names on the egg-shaped protuberances after making holes in the protuberances for the toothbrush handles.
  • Replace toothbrushes every 3-4 months -sooner if the bristles are worn or splayed. 
  • Give each child toothpaste on a square of wax paper or on the edge of a paper cup. Children can scoop up the toothpaste with their tooth brush.  

• Limit juice to no more than once a day. Give juice only when children are sitting down at a meal. Offer no more than a total of four to six ounces per day, combining amounts the child drinks at home and in  school. 
• Use only 100% juice or don’t serve juice in school at all 
• Give children a regular cup to drink from (not a sippy cup) - just start with a few ounces in case the cup spills  
• Offer only water between meals; make wa-ter freely available. Ideally use tap water with fluoride. 

Share information with parents about preventing dental disease. Urge them to take their children to the dentist within 6 months of the first tooth, or by 1 year of age at the latest.

• Starting at a year of age, children should get fluoride varnish applied to their teeth in the dentist’s or their primary health care provider’s office, every 3 to 4 months.
• Emphasize these reminders:
  • 1st dentist visit by 1st Birthday! 
  • 1st tooth, 1st toothbrush!
  • 2 X 2 or “two times two” – Brush twice a day for two minutes!
  • Children need adult help with brushing twice a day for two minutes until they are 7-8 years old.