Family dental care in Otley
At Manor Square Dental Practice, we are committed to providing the highest standards of dental care for all the family.
We aim to help you and your family maintain healthy teeth and gums through excellence in preventative dental care and customer service, and to make your visits as relaxed and comfortable as possible.
As parents of young children ourselves, our dentists understand how children can often be apprehensive about a trip to the dentist, which can build into fear and nervousness. With the help of parents, we try to make visits relaxed and fun, simply aiming to get children used to coming to see us.
We also advise parents on how to care for their child's teeth, such as encouraging good brushing habits and how diet can affect their teeth.
A child's first teeth start to come through any time between six months and a year and should all be through by age three. By six, children start to lose their milk teeth and get their permanent teeth, and by fourteen should have 28 of their 32 permanent teeth. The final four wisdom teeth tend to come through between 18 and 25. All children develop at different rates.
You should start brushing as soon as teeth come through, using fluoride toothpaste - a smear for under-3s of at least 1000ppm fluoride, and a pea-sized amount of 1350-1500ppm for over-3s. Supervise brushing until your child is at least seven years old.
A balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables is good for dental as well as general health. Keep sugary and acidic foods to mealtimes, choose cheese, vegetables and fruit for snacks, limit dried fruit, and give children milk or water rather than sugary or fizzy drinks.
