How can you make your children brush their
teeth regularly? It is never a good idea to get into bad habits with dental
care, so teaching your children the importance of brushing in the evening, as
well as trying to make it fun, can have a huge impact.
Why is Dental Care
Important for Kids?
As well as requiring general dentistry services and regular
checkups, kids really need to develop positive habits.
It is easy to think that this is not so
important for children who still don’t have their adult teeth, but it
absolutely is. Not only do you need to ingrain these positive habits, but you
should also think about their gum health, and ensure that those adult teeth
growing through are looked after.
Dental care is vital for absolutely all of
us, and as a parent, you need to do all you can to get your kids to look after
their pearly whites. Without this, you could end up needing expensive work, or
setting your kids up for a lifetime of misery with their dental and oral
hygiene.
Make It a Group Activity
Why not brush your teeth as a family? Kids
are more likely to want to get involved if you are keen to turn it into a group
activity. Why not all get involved and brush your teeth together? If you’ve got
more than one child, you can make sure they are brushing their teeth at the
same time and even counting together to ensure they have brushed for long
enough. There’s no reason you can’t join in as well.
Pick a Cool Toothbrush
This is one of the things that can help you
to make things a little less dull. You only have to hold their attention for a
little while as they brush, and this means that a cool toothbrush may be all
you need to ensure they have a little more desire to actually brush.
The fact that you also need to regularly replace the brush means that your children can
pick a new, cool toothbrush each time. This might just be a personalized brush
with their name printed on it. You should also think about the environmental
impact, so if you can get an eco-friendly toothbrush such as a bamboo model
this is even better.
Kids are more likely to want to take part
in brushing if they have a toothbrush that is one of their favorite characters
from a movie, for instance. It just goes to make the whole experience a little
more engaging for them.
READ MORE: 5 key questions for your child's dentist
Let Your Kids
"Brush" a Toy's Teeth
Children have a lot of love for their toys,
and this can be a clever way for you to teach them how important it is for
everyone to brush their teeth. If they have a favorite
toy, encourage them to “brush” the toy’s teeth with a toy brush.
You can use this to drill home the message
of how crucial it is to look after your teeth. If they have a favorite toy and
want to take care of it this is a way to show them that brushing their teeth
should be a crucial part of their daily routine. It also makes it a little bit
more fun for kids to involve their toys in the routine.
Dance, Play and Brush to
the Music (Play "Guess the Song")
Let’s inject some energy into this! Why not
add some music? You can even brush along with the tempo of the music and all
brush together.
This is certainly a good way to get younger
children to engage and play along with you. There’s no harm in playing some
music, you can put some waterproof speakers in your bathroom or even just play
their favorite songs from your phone.
If you want to make it more fun, you can
also play the song, and get everyone who is brushing to guess which song it is.
This is also a fun thing to do with remixes or cover versions that will sound a
little different from the originals. Take every opportunity to turn it into a
fun game.
Reward Your Child
Children need to have their positive
behaviors reinforced, and rewarding your children is a great way to do
this.
One of the great ways to reward your
children is to put a chart up in the bathroom, when they brush their teeth they
can fill in the day of the chart, and eventually earn rewards. Do it for a week
and you can reward with an allowance or other small rewards to help incentivize
and build good habits.
Rewards don’t have to be huge, just make
sure they are enough to provide your kids with some extra incentive to brush.
Other articles by HVP News Reporters