Who is responsible for taking care of children’s teeth?

The parents are responsible for the state of children's teeth, don't feed them sweets etc, get them into good eating habits. Get them cleaning teeth after every meal and drinking water. More dentists are needed, perhaps check ups could be every nine months easing the load.Also everyone should have their child toilet changed before school it is not up to the teacher, there to teach. No wonder its hard getting teachers now.

Maybee17 After washing the toothpaste out of your mouth rinse your mouth with a fluoride mouthwash.

As for sweets and fizzy drinks, good parenting means limiting them. This is what my DS and DiL did and at 14 DGS still chooses to drink water in preference to fizzy drinks - however he is a chocolaholic.

A bag of sweets is a luxury to many.

I am educated but also very financially poor..... the two do not always go hand in hand, often it's bad luck, maybe bad choices, employer exploitation ( low wages prejudices against females in a male environment etc) and now ridiculously rising prices, the harder I try the further away a normal life gets. I cannot even afford a bag of sweets a month!

My mouth never felt clean unless I rinsed it. I suppose the thing to do is rinse and then brush again with a small amount of toothpaste.

I think some people still do that MayBee70
I've advised quite a few people not to do it.

Another stupid thing I did was getting my children to rinse their mouth after brushing with fluoride toothpaste. And I’m someone that is probably obsessively health conscious.

Whilst I agree that fluoride has a part to play in dentistry I am against it in the water.
It is mass medication as far as I'm concerned.
The beginning of a very slippery slope.

I say this as someone who had a fluoride rinse prescribed as a child.

It’s not so simple these days than just restricting sweets because so many manufactured foods have added sugars, and one of the main culprits causing decay in children’s teeth is sweet and fizzy drinks.

A public health intervention which could reduce the problem,
is fluoridation of water nationally.

My grandchildren have way more sweets than my own children ever had.
Mine joke about it now - how they had to wait till they had their own little friends to know you can eat smarties.

When my children were tiny we had an old fashioned sweet shop in the village we lived in, full of penny chews, flying suacers and cola bottles.

On Friday mornings we would go down to the sweet shop. I would give them 10p each and they would have a wonderful time choosing their sweets. It was also very good for their maths, by the time they were 3 1/2, they could add up to 10 to work out how many sweets they could buy.

We then went home and they ate their sweets, we usually had a light lunch on Fridays - and that was their sweet treat for the week.

Just an aside on the grandparent's and sweets thing.

We have two signs in our house saying 'Ma and Pa's House, Ma and Pa's rules'. One was bought by DD3!

Obviously, we don't go mad with sweets etc but they are allowed them. As we're our own children.

Sweets are best eaten straight after a meal and not every now and again.

NanaTuesday Modern jaws are shrinking in size because so much of our food is soft and does not require chewing. This means more and more of us are developing jaws that are too small for our teeth.

I had very prominent teeth as a child and when I had orthodontic tretament, the first thing that happened was that I had two of my upper teeth removed so that the front ones could be pulled back with a brace. I later had all my wisdom teeth out for the same reason.

My son was the same, but DD and both grandchildren have not needed orthodontic treatment.

MOnica

Interesting , I am obviously going on what is / has occurred with my DD & GD’s x3 & their teeth / dental health .

The other thing my DDx1 had too many teeth & had to have some removed pre teens to allow her other teeth to come through .

I never ever gave my grandchildren anything that their parents did not wish them to have.

Thankfully my very reasonable DS and DDiL always allowed sweets at Christmas and Easter.

Norah

Happilyretired123

Do any of you grandparents sneak your children sweets?

Sneak? No.

Give in front of dad and mum? Yes.

😀👍🏻

Happilyretired123

Do any of you grandparents sneak your children sweets?

Sneak? No.

Give in front of dad and mum? Yes.

NanaTuesday I have a missing tooth that never appeared. However, not genetic in my case as neither children or grandchildren have inheroted this characteristic.

I was also subjected to the regime of School Dentists circa 1950's /60's ,given gas for the endless fillings who knows if I had bad teeth or not ?
I can never remember having that many sweets , though now I do have a sweet tooth.
in the 1970's with my own DC I did not allow them many sweets & never as much as a sip of fizzy drinks unlike their cousins . They also had the 'Fischer ' I think it was called coating to prevent fillings/protect teeth . They all have teeth that are perfectly fine .
Though DDx2 has 1 missing tooth in as much as it never appeared & it appears as a genetic dental issue as all 3 of her DD's have inherited this same thing in one degree or another . see my previous post re this .

Oh my word what a lot of different responses here , so here is my opinion to add to the mix .
Greenlady102 I totally agree with for point of genetics 🧬 This very morning my DD took my 10yr old GD for a private Orthodontist 🦷 ( yes she is lucky she can afford this ) however my GD has visited NHS dentist as her sisters on a regular basis .
This morning this appointment picked up several things that have overlying health implications on my young GD . It appears that she is ‘Tongue Tied’ something that he pointed out and on further questioning he asked “ Did she suck her thumb, does she dribble , sid she have problems speaking ?
“ Yes” to all of the above - this took a private Orthodontist to pick up on . Elder GD now almost 18 had a brace fitted via private health care & 2 teeth removed via same , apparently this could of been done via NHS treatment but there is not enough known about what is & what isn’t available.
All 3 of my GD have missing teeth , something that is genetic .
So yes a parents input is vital in mouth health but an NHS dentist would not of picked this up .
And as others have also stated not all parents are on the ball as others with Dental Health .
Now when there is an extreme shortage of dentists & dental surgeries more than ever it’s a lottery .
I went down the private route pre Covid for my dental treatment as I also needed expert orthodontic treatment not available on the NHS , also my own dentist of many years failed to give me the heads up as to what was going on with my teeth . My then dentist did not even have a hygienist. I have stuck with the private one despite it being a 2 hour trip each way every time I have an appt.
Consequently, I have not done & will not as my at least 2 of my siblings & have full dentures !!!!
Others of my siblings have really bad teeth which is definitely genetic our Mum had a full set of dentures since an early age unfortunately.
So please stop pointing the finger at parents when it may be genetic.
Which in itself is a lottery for a it not 🤔

kittylester

I loved my dentist but he retired and gets under my feet all day now.

🤣🤣🤣

I loved my dentist but he retired and gets under my feet all day now.

Luckygirl3

Let us give parents the benefit of he doubt here. If there were proper preventive dentistry available to chidlren, then parents would get feedback and sound advice following a dental checkup - as things stand there are no dental checkups for children at which this can happen. Some of my GC cannot get onto a dentist's list either privately or NHS - just zilch available.

Luckygirl3,

I totally agree that it is the parents responsibilities to teach and train their children to take care of their teeth .. And to take them to the dentist for cleansings and check ups every 6 months ..

Unless you are my middle daughter kittylester - she used to love going to the dentist because she always came away with "sparkling" teeth. The dentists surgery was her "favourite place"!

I can see her (in my mind's eyes) skipping about with joy on her way home ... lots of praise from our lovely dentist, stickers and a new brush...

As an adult her teeth are less perfect unfortunately- but still pretty good.

And anyone who thinks Labour will fix the NHS should also read it kitty.