# Dental care and thumb or pacifier weaning

**When should dental care start, and when should thumb-sucking or the pacifier stop?**

When you start dental visits and brushing and how you handle thumb-sucking and pacifier use.

In short: Parents choose between 3 main approaches: First visit by age 1; wean by 12 months; By 2-3; Child-led. Evidence: evidence leans one way. Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational. Best settled: 6–12 months.

- Area: Health, body and toileting
- Evidence: Evidence leans one way
- Best settled: 6–12 months
- First published: 2026-10-03
- Last updated: 2026-10-05
- Page: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/topics/health-body-and-toileting--dental-care-and-thumb-or-pacifier-weaning

## Dental care and thumb or pacifier weaning: what are the options?

1. **First visit by age 1; wean by 12 months**: You see a dentist by the first birthday and stop the pacifier or thumb by one year.
2. **By 2-3**: You stop the pacifier or thumb between two and three.
3. **Child-led**: You let the child give it up when they are ready.

## Dental care and thumb or pacifier weaning: what does the evidence say?

**Evidence leans one way.** Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational.

Pediatric dentists: first visit by age 1, a rice-grain smear of fluoride toothpaste from the first tooth

Sources:

- [AAPD](https://www.aapd.org/resources/parent/faq/)

## What else is worth knowing?

Dentists suggest a first visit around the first birthday and brushing from the first tooth. Thumb-sucking and pacifiers are normal comforts that can affect teeth if they continue for years. Parents differ on when and how firmly to stop them.

## Questions to ask each other

- When do we want to start dental visits?
- How would we handle a child who is attached to a thumb or pacifier?
- What would we do if the dentist raised a concern?

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General information, not medical advice. Two parents can each answer this and compare: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/explore?cat=health-body-and-toileting&topic=health-body-and-toileting--dental-care-and-thumb-or-pacifier-weaning