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The June JADA cover story, "Motivating Parents to Prevent Caries in Their Young Children: One-Year Findings," by Dr. Philip Weinstein and colleagues, was an excellent presentation on early childhood dental prevention.

However, I was disappointed to see that on the "Menu of Caries-Preventive Options for Parents" box, the option for toothbrushing included the phrase, "Clean your baby’s teeth as soon as they appear."

If the instruction is taken literally, it means only babies, not infants or small children, need help cleaning their teeth, and only as soon as they first appear. This particular prevention phrase has been used too long, and is a poor use of language. Many parents stop helping their child as soon as the child can grasp a toothbrush. We don’t want to reinforce that behavior.

Research has shown that children, up to at least ages 6 or 7 years, cannot wield a toothbrush effectively, due to the lack of necessary skills and language.^1,2 Better wording for this option might be: "Always put your 6-year-old or younger child to bed with clean teeth by brushing the child’s teeth yourself every night at bedtime."

	REFERENCES

TOP REFERENCES

1. Unkel JH, Fenton SJ, Hobbs G Jr, Frere CL. Toothbrushing ability is related to age in children. ASDC J Dent Child 1995;62(5): 346–8.[Medline]
   
   
2. McClure DB. A comparison of toothbrushing technics for the preschool child. J Dent Child 1966;33(3):205–10.[Medline]
   
   

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