Strategies for Making Dental Hygiene fun for Kids

Make even the most mundane of life’s daily tasks seem like fun and you’ll have kids hooked. One of the most important of those daily rituals is tooth-brushing and oral care in general. The goal here is to make oral hygiene – which should be a part of all of our daily routines – a habit that will grow to become a lifelong practice in our children’s lives. Another motivation for finding ways to make oral hygiene more fun is that it reduces anxiety inducing trips to the dentist. At Family Health Dental Plans, where we have competitive discount dentist plans available, we would like to offer these helpful tips for making oral hygiene more fun for your kids.

• Let your child pick their own dental tools: Nowadays, there are a variety of character-themed toothbrushes, holders and even flavored toothpastes on the market. Let your child pick his favorite and he/she will be more likely to use these tools regularly. Just make sure they are American Dental Association (A.D.A) approved before purchasing.
• Brush and floss together: Small children in particular love mimicking their parents and spending time with them as well. Add further excitement to tooth-brushing and flossing by making up rhymes and songs about oral hygiene.
• Create a fun reward system: Use gold stars on poster board to indicate your child’s adherence to their daily tooth brushing routine. You can supplement the gold stars with healthy snacks like apples, etc.
• Read books and watch videos about teeth with your child: There are all kinds of profusely illustrated books available online and at local book stores written for kids on the topic of dental hygiene with titles like ‘Melvin the Magnificent Molar’ and ‘Clarabella’s Teeth’.

Yes, with a little ingenuity you can help your child see that brushing his or her teeth doesn’t have to be a chore. What will help you is the fact that our plans – which are the equivalent of having cheap dental insurance – will help you save money as well.