As a parent, you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders to protect your children’s health. This extends to their dental health, too. Looking after their teeth can be a tough task, though, with almost half of all parents worrying about their children’s dental health as a result of their brushing habits. Some children will downright refuse to have their teeth brushed, and this can cause issues as they grow up.
To ensure your children grow up to have good dental care habits, parents should make this a fun task. There are numerous ways to make teeth brushing and dental checkups fun, as outlined in the points below.
Make Dental Care a Routine
One of the first, and best, ways to make dental care fun is to establish a proper routine for the entire family. This might not seem like the most fun, but it will make the process a lot easier in the long run, especially if you begin early. While most people will first introduce tooth brushing and dental care to toddlers, this can begin even earlier as babies. Simply using a damp cloth to gently clean the baby’s gums will get them used to the sensation.
All aspects of dental care should be done as a family, if possible. This will allow parents to lead by example, showing their children that this is an important task to complete. You should make family trips to the dentist regularly; most people visit their dentist every six months to ensure their dental health is good. Choosing a dental practice that is experienced with patients of all ages, like Breckenridge Family Dental | Trusted Dentist in Summit County, CO, can be beneficial. Dentists like this will have the knowledge to treat your child’s teeth as well as your own.
Create a Game When Teeth Brushing
To help you establish a routine, you can begin introducing games to dental care, such as when your family brushes their teeth. This can be a very useful idea if you have younger kids. The game that you choose to incorporate when brushing teeth will depend on your child’s age and personality. For example, some children will follow the two-minute challenge, which is the simplest game. This includes setting a timer for two minutes and brushing for that length of time.
Other children might require a little more imagination to ensure they brush their teeth sufficiently. Holding a “brush off” might be a good idea for those who are competitive; this will see them competing to make the silliest face while brushing their teeth. If your child enjoys dancing and music, then you might have a “brush-a-thon” and play a fun song so they can hold a mini dance party as they brush.
The entire family should be involved in the games to ensure the adults set a good example for the children. This will also allow the kids to get involved when the parents brush their teeth; you might allow them to pretend to be dentists and check your own teeth are clean before bedtime.
Use a Reward System
If your children like to earn stickers and other rewards, then you might think about using a reward system for their dental care. This can even be added as an additional category to an existing reward chart; many parents like to create reward systems for simple chores their kids need to complete each week. For children who do not have a chart, it could be worthwhile enlisting their help to design it, making it truly feel like their own.
How the rewards are given out could vary depending on the child’s goals with dental care. If you want to ensure they brush their teeth for two minutes each time, you might put a sticker on the chart when they do so. Alternatively, you might want your child to choose healthier snacks instead of sugary sweets, and a sticker could be added when they do this, too.
A goal should be set for the number of stickers your child needs to accumulate before receiving the reward. They might need a week or two weeks’ worth of stickers to receive a trip to the park, an additional hour of TV time, or similar. You can ask your son or daughter what they’d prefer to receive as their reward.
To conclude, making teeth brushing and other dental care tasks fun can help your children learn to look after their teeth well and reduce health problems. The three points in this post will help you achieve this result.
A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.
