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All about teeth, a guide for parents

Last Updated - August 27, 2025

All about teeth, a guide for parents

Welcome to the Teeth Web guide for Parents – your friendly resource for supporting children’s teeth from baby to the teenage years. 

Babies start to cut their first teeth, called milk teeth, around 6 months. You may notice more dribbling than usual and/or pink/red cheeks. These could be signs of teething. Babies and toddlers often have their bottom front teeth erupt first, followed by their top teeth. Milk teeth will keep erupting until approx 3 years of age. At approx 6 years old the permanent teeth start to arrive. From 6 months to 13 years, teeth will be coming and going.

You’re entitled to free NHS dental treatment if you’re pregnant when you start your treatment and for 12 months after your baby is born.
To get free NHS dental treatment, you must have a valid maternity exemption certificate (MatEx) issued by your midwife or GP.

NHS – Health things you should know in pregnancy

Your child should be brushing their teeth twice a day. Try using star charts to remind and encourage them. You will need to supervise and give your child a hand to brush until they are around seven.

  • You can begin brushing your baby’s teeth before they erupt. Use a soft baby toothbrush (widely available at chemists/supermarkets).
  • Brush twice a day, once before bedtime and one other time of day that’s convenient for you(preferably after breakfast).Clean right to the back of the mouth, start at the front and work backwards.
  • Follow the curve of the mouth when brushing, don’t brush straight back as this will cause your child to gag.

Help your child to; Use a pea sized blob of fluoride toothpaste once they are 3 years old (just a smear is needed before this).

Use the ‘spit don’t rinse’ rule. This keeps the fluoride on the teeth as long as possible.

You don’t need much toothpaste, just a smear for 0-3 year olds. Babies and toddlers don’t like the strong minty taste of adult toothpaste. Your baby or toddler can’t spit just yet, so will swallow. This is ok and usual.

Brush for two minutes – you can use timers or play songs to help keep to time. Have a look at the BrushDJ app.

Make sure your child sees their carers taking care of their teeth too. Being a good role model makes a big difference.

Sugar is the enemy of your teeth. Low sugar doesn’t mean not harmful to teeth – any sugar is harmful.It’s better to have all your sugar in one go, rather that a little at a time. The more times you eat, the more times you coat your teeth in sugar.Have consistent meal times and limited snacks (regular meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner). Toddlers need snacks in-between, so make them sugar-free.

  • Start with water or milk.
  • Keep other drinks for mealtimes.For night-time drinks, give water rather than milk, as milk leaves a sugar coating on your child’s teeth.
  • Ditch the bottle and introduce a free flow cup from 6months.
Child Brushing teeth
  • You can introduce a toothbrush to your baby before they get teeth. This will get them used to the brush and can help with teething.
  • Once teeth arrive, use a tiny smear of toothpaste on the brush.
  • Brush your baby’s teeth twice a day, once in the morning an hour after food and before they go to bed.
  • All children should be supervised cleaning their teeth till the age of 7.
  • Let your baby see you cleaning your teeth.Never put fizzy drink, milkshakes, tea, squash into bottles/sippy cups as it can cause tooth decay.Take your baby to your dentist appointments so they can get used to the environment.
  • Keeping your child’s milk teeth happy will help ensure they have healthy adult teeth.
  • If your child has milk teeth removed, they are more likely to need orthodontic work such as braces later in life.

Night Feeds: The advice for babies having night feeds is to wipe the mouth out with a damp gauze after each feed. This will reduce the risk of tooth decay.

The Top Tips for Teeth Leaflets provide top tips for children’s oral health, with advice for 3+ year olds. Some of the key messages are –

  • Help your child brush twice a day from the moment their first tooth appears until they’re at least 7 years old.
  • Too much food and drink containing sugar can lead to tooth decay. Swap snacks and drinks containing sugar for healthier options like fruit and veg
  • Don’t rinse with water after brushing as it washes away the fluoride. Remember, as they get older teach them to spit instead.
  • The sugar in medicines can be just as tough on teeth as your child’s favourite treats. Choose sugar-free medicines where possible to help prevent tooth decay.
  • Under 18s are entitled to FREE NHS dental treatment in England.

Ideally little ones should visit the dentist by aged one – then visit every six months or as advised by your dentist. If your child hasn’t visited the dentist yet, then make an appointment as soon as you can.

  • Register your baby at your dental practice as soon as possible, due to the NHS waiting list.
  • It is recommended that all children should be seen by a dentist by the age of one but this isn’t always possible if you are on a waiting list.
  • If you don’t have a dentist, please contact the dental helpline:
  • 03330 063300

AccessDentalHelpline@nhs.net

How to help your baby with teething and how to look after their teeth. Information and advice from the NHS on –

It is important that children are helped to make tooth friendly choices; as a family try and eat ‘lower sugar’ foods. Visit NHS Healthier Families for information on healthy eating.

Drink tap water or milk – using an open cup not a bottle or a beaker with a valve.

Always brushing teeth before bed and one other time every day.

Teeth grinding (also called bruxism) is often related to stress or anxiety. There are things you can do to help and treatments available from a dentist or GP. Find out more from this NHS website

Download the leaflet here: Top tips from Better Heath, Start for Life or visit Start for Life for more tips and advice.

Dental decay is the most common oral disease affecting children and young people in UK, yet it is largely preventable. The link to top tips provide a summary of the simple steps that you and your family can take every day to protect and improve your child’s dental health. Click on the link for The Institute of Health Visiting has more information and top tips.

Click on the link for trusted advice from the NHS on Looking after your baby’s teeth. including a video: How do I brush my child’s teeth? (6 months to 7 years)

Big Brush Club are working with schools and early years settings to offer supervised toothbrushing for children every day. They equip staff with all the tools they need to run toothbrushing sessions, as well as provide expert guidance and ongoing support help parents and carers to understand the importance of oral hygiene by providing lots of support and resources for families.

NHS England has selected At Home Dental, to deliver the Big Brush Club supervised toothbrushing programme for children in Early Years settings across the Southwest.

Click here to find out more about tooth brushing at home.

 The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry have downloadable leaflets created to support patients and their parents. They highly recommend their fun videos made with Dr Ranj – and Supertooth – which are on their Kidsvids page and top 3 tips for preventing tooth decay.

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    Date- 10/8/2023

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