Selin Saygılı

Rather than fixing on a particular brand, I would suggest looking at a few basic criteria.

From the moment the first tooth comes through we always want a toothpaste with at least 1000 ppm of fluoride. A smear or a grain of rice up to the age of three, and a pea-sized amount after three, is more than enough for both safety and effectiveness.

For the brush we recommend a small-headed, soft-bristled manual or rechargeable brush that suits your child's mouth. We all know that even the best product is useless if it is not used properly: until at least the age of seven or eight a parent has to do the brushing, or you should go over the teeth again after the child has brushed.

When it is carried out by a specialist team with uninterrupted monitoring and emergency equipment at hand, general anaesthesia is a safe and controlled process. The real danger is that treatment postponed out of fear of anaesthesia puts the child's general health, nutrition, growth and development, and psychology at risk.

According to international guidelines, general anaesthesia is a medical necessity in young children who cannot be treated in the chair, so that dental infection and pain can be cleared. Carried out in an operating theatre with an experienced anaesthetist and an independent observer present, current practice meets an extremely high standard of safety.

A deaf child had come to me as a patient; the mother was getting ready to interpret, as she did everywhere else. The child sat down in the chair timidly, eyes constantly searching for her. When I said hello in sign language and asked their name, they first stared in disbelief, then their face lit up; it was probably the first time in an examination room that the words had been addressed directly to them.

From that day on, our examinations were between the two of us. I explained to the child first what I was going to do, handed over the instruments for them to examine, and asked for their consent at every step. In one session the mother, her eyes filling, said she was watching her child carry a healthcare conversation without an intermediary for the first time.

I had learned Turkish Sign Language for exactly this moment. In paediatric dentistry the technical side of treatment is half the job; the other half is the child feeling safe and understood. A child greeted in their own language is no longer a child something is done to, but a child worked with. The difference shows in every minute spent in the chair.