Ongoing Care, Dental Routine & Tips to Make Brushing Fun
Kids can be stubborn. Especially when it comes to doing things that they don’t want to do. So if you struggle to get your kiddos to take care of their pearly whites, just know you’re not alone.
In fact, nearly half of parents have trouble getting their kids to brush their teeth, according to Delta Dental.
Thankfully, there are several things you can do to get your little ones excited about establishing and maintaining a dental care routine.
We hope this blog post will serve as a helpful guide to establishing healthy habits with your kids in a positive, encouraging, and fun way that sets them up for optimal health throughout not just their childhood but also their entire adult life.
Why Establishing a Dental Care Routine Matters
We’ve all heard that brushing and flossing are important. But why?
The health of our mouths is linked to our overall health.
So when you help your kiddo maintain a bright, healthy smile with activities like regular brushing, flossing, and rinsing, not to mention eating healthy foods, you are actually helping them prevent a range of issues, including pain, poor nutrition, and sleep disturbances.
All of these things have the potential to negatively impact your little one’s physical, social, and academic lives. Providing dental care, or the lack thereof, is both a parenting issue and a health issue.
Did you know that children with dental problems are more likely to miss school and perform poorly academically?
Imagine if you had a toothache and you had to head in-office for an important meeting. Might you be likely to try to postpone or get someone else to cover it? Very likely! Clearly upping your kids’ flossing and brushing teeth game is important.
“But how?”, you ask. We know from experience that getting kids to focus on their oral health is often easier said than done. The secret is to meet your little ones where they are, developmentally, and lead by example. There are various ways to do this, as we’ll cover below.
How to Make Brushing, Flossing, & Dental Care Fun in 5 Steps
Step 1: Brush Up on Your Dental Knowledge
Do you know how long kids should brush their teeth? Two minutes. How about the right way to floss (no sawing)? Before you endeavor to teach your kiddos how to take care of their mouths, you may want to refresh yourself on what to do and what to avoid.
Not only will this give you peace of mind about how to teach your child helpful information, but it will also help you model the right behaviors (more on that later).
We recommend the following resources, which are chock-full of helpful articles, tutorials, and product recommendations:
- The Super Dentists’ Blog: The Super Dentists University
- SuperMouth’s Blog: “Explore the Science Behind Superior Oral Care”
- Dr. Kami Hoss’ Blog and book “If Your Mouth Could Talk”
Overwhelmed by options? Our recommendation is to start with the book because it will give you the most comprehensive understanding of what a healthy dental care routine looks like in addition to several key statistics and facts about why establishing healthy oral habits is important.
Step 2: Empower & Inspire
The first step in establishing a dental care routine is to make it fun so your kids will want to engage. The sentiment “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink” very much applies here. In other words, if you try to force your kids to brush or floss, they may rebel or see these tasks as chores.
On the other hand, if you create fun activities for brushing teeth, flossing, and so on, they’ll likely see these activities as things to look forward to.
Here are six tips to get your little one excited about their oral health:
- Let your child choose their own toothbrush.
- Explain the importance of brushing and how it keeps their mouth healthy.
- Provide a toothbrush holder for safe storage when not in use.
- Allow them to practice brushing your teeth, so they can observe all the grooves, curves, and edges.
- Use a toothbrush timer or play a two-minute song during brushing.
- Brush your teeth together to create a consistent routine.
We also recommend starting early! During infancy, we suggest you wipe down your child’s gums with a soft, damp cloth. Then, when their teeth start to develop, which normally happens around 6-12 months old, you can begin brushing their teeth twice a day with a soft-bristled toothbrush. Once your child’s teeth start touching, we suggest you start teaching them how to floss.
Step 3: Gamify Dental Care
Gamifying dental care is about turning ordinary, routine tasks into games or fun activities.
Start by turning teaching tasks into fun experiences. For brushing, we recommend starting out by watching our fun tooth-brushing sing-along video.
Once it’s time to dive into the process, keep the games going! A great way to do this for brushing and flossing is to use a SuperMouth musical sonic toothbrush or Glow Globe musical toothbrush. These types of toothbrushes provide an augmented reality experience that fits right in with the animated shows they likely watch, sparking their imagination and providing extra motivation.
Step 4: Model Good Behavior
Kids are often more impressionable than you might think, and they’ll model good behavior (as well as bad behavior).
So do your best to practice what you preach and lead by example, practicing healthy dental hygiene habits yourself, up to and including bringing your kids into your oral hygiene routine until they’re able to do it all themselves.
It can also be a good idea to bring them to your dental appointments if your dentist is okay with doing so!
5. Find the Right Dentist
Explore more tips for making brushing and flossing fun now with The Super Dentists.
Meanwhile, we encourage you to find a pediatric dentist who specializes in providing fun and educational dental care in a welcoming, safe environment like The Super Dentists!
Doing so will ensure that both you and your kids not only get the right care but also look forward to going to the dentist’s office.
