Professional guidelines suggest this would be too much toothpaste on a young child’s brush. Children ages 3 to 6 should use no more than a pea-size amount of fluoride toothpaste, officials say.CreditCreditElaine Thompson/Associated Press

Many parents are squeezing potentially unhealthy amounts of toothpaste on their children’s brushes, health officials warned in a study released on Friday.

The study, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said nearly 40 percent of children ages 3 to 6 used more toothpaste than recommended by dental professionals. For young children with emerging teeth, swallowing too much fluoride toothpaste can cause discoloration of their teeth, a condition called dental fluorosis.

Parents of children in that age bracket should squeeze no more than a pea-size amount of toothpaste on their brush, the C.D.C. and American Dental Association recommend.

The C.D.C.’s survey of nearly 1,700 children in that age range found that about 38 percent of them used more than the recommended amount of toothpaste, which has the potential to exceed the daily recommendation of fluoride intake. Exceedingly high concentrations of fluoride in drinking water can also contribute to dental fluorosis, the dental association says on its website.

*Original article online at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/science/too-much-toothpaste.html

Note from FAN:

See Toothpaste and Toothbrushing: a new report by the CDC and the many articles that have covered it.