Yes, they fight you at bedtime. That’s the age.

Quite a lot. We can book them at a quieter time of day, keep the first appointment to nothing but a ride in the chair and a count of the teeth, use tell-show-do so nothing happens before they have seen it, and let them hold the mirror. If treatment is needed, nitrous oxide, oral sedation and general anesthesia are all in this building, so your child is not sent somewhere else to a stranger. Nitrous oxide and oral sedation do not mean treatment happens asleep: they are techniques for keeping the appointment comfortable while your child stays awake. General anesthesia is the one where your child is asleep. Tell us before the appointment instead of on the day, and we will build it around them.

Make it a fixed part of the routine, not a decision you renegotiate every night. Let them have a turn first and then take yours. Lay them back across your lap instead of fighting them standing up. Use a timer or a song with a clear end. Brush your own teeth where they can see you. And if it has become a battle you regularly lose, raise it at the appointment, because a broken routine is a much easier problem to fix than the cavity it causes.

No. Most children stop on their own between two and four. If it is still frequent at around four it starts to affect how the front teeth and the palate develop, so it is worth working on. Pressure and shaming do not work and usually make it worse. Rewarding the nights they manage without, and dealing with whatever the habit is doing for them, works far better. We can help, and in a small number of cases a simple appliance is the right answer.

Usually it is how often the snacking and sipping happens, not how much sugar is in it. Sometimes it is brushing that is happening but not thoroughly, because the child is doing it alone. Sometimes it is the surfaces between the back teeth, once the molars are touching and flossing has not started. And sometimes it is none of those and the enamel simply formed differently, which is nobody’s fault. Worth knowing which, because it changes what we do next.

Yes. Decay reaches the nerve and hurts exactly as much in a baby tooth, it keeps a child awake and off their food, and an infection can damage the permanent tooth developing above it. A baby tooth lost too early also lets the neighbouring teeth drift into the gap, so the adult tooth arrives with nowhere to go. The molars at this age are not lost until around ten to twelve, so they have a long way left to run.

Every six months for most children. Every three months if they have already had a cavity, if there is a medical reason, or if their enamel formed unusually. For children in that higher risk group the shorter interval does more good than anything else we offer, because the whole point of seeing them is catching things while they are still small.

Usually not at this age. Sealants matter most on the permanent molars that arrive around age six. Baby molars are sometimes sealed if a child is at high risk of decay and the grooves are deep, so ask about your particular child instead of assuming it either way.