Any thoughts on a 5 yo who can't tolerate toothpaste? - Page 2

[eepster]

Originally Posted by eclipse

FTR, it's my understanding that, other than as a means of delivering flouride, toothpaste's only benefit is that many people like the taste/feeling of brushing with it rather than with plain water. If you aren't going to use flouridated tooth paste anyway, there's really no reason to use it if your child prefers to use plain water.

Originally Posted by crl

That's my understanding too. I seem to remember that the mechanical action of the toothbrush removing food particles, etc is actually more effective without toothpaste. So if you don't want fluoride, I think water is just fine.

Catherine

Yes, many years ago I read n article in some magazine that actually recommended brushing with out paste first b/c some study showed that it got the teeth cleaner if there wasn't paste and bubbles in the way, then follow up with paste only to get the benefits of the fluoride.

If you don't want her doing fluoride, then tooth paste is actually a negative. The only reason we give DS tooth paste (non-fluoride) is b/c he likes it and it acts as an incentive to brush.