Baby Bottle Tooth Decay

February is National Children’s Dental Health month, and at Dr. Paul Bernstein’s Bay Ridge dental practice, we wanted to observe it by sharing information about one of the worse scourges of children’s teeth: Baby Bottle Tooth Decay. This condition affects the youngest of children and can cause problems in their early dentation if not reversed.


Babies are dependent on other people to brush their teeth for them. Many parents are attentive to this and follow doctors’ recommendations that they begin to do so as soon as the first tooth erupts. But because of how parents often use bottled milk and formulas, babies’ teeth are often exposed to sugar for much longer periods of time than other those of other people. Formula and milk will cling to a baby’s teeth for as long as the baby continues to take swigs from the bottle, which could be for several hours. This contributes a distinctive pattern of decay on the fronts of their incisors.


The easiest way to avoid Baby Bottle Tooth Decay is to not let children have bottles for longer than a few minutes. Children should also be given water to drink afterward since this will rinse the sugar off their teeth. High-sugar drinks such as juice and soda should never be given to children in bottles.


Dr. Paul Bernstein runs Bernstein Dental Care at 350 91st St, Suite 1C, Brooklyn, New York, 11209. To schedule an appointment, visit Bernstein Dental Care or call 718-833-9191.


 

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