As a parent and leader of your family, you accept responsibility for your love ones’ oral health, so you constantly look for ways to get them all on the same page with their daily routines. This can quite often be overwhelming, which is why your children’s dentist in Prince Albert is providing you with some tips to encourage everyone in your family to take their dental care serious and learn the value of preventive dentistry.
Education
One of the best ways to engage the children in your family is through education, but in a fun way. Here are some tips to help:
- Use a Doll for Brushing – You can use a doll to demonstrate the proper way to brush teeth, also allowing your children to practice on it. This gives them a point of reference that they can use to apply to themselves.
- Eat This Not That – This game involves having your kids cut out images of healthy and junk foods. You can then take two paper bags, labeling one as good food and the other as bad. The premise of the game, then, will be to have them sort the pictures into their respective bag, which will help them gain a better understanding of what types of foods are better for to eat.
- Happy Tooth Wand – Another fun activity to engage your children is to have them create their own tooth out of construction paper or cardboard, and then glue it to any kind of stick to represent a wand. Using the wand as a symbol of the magic of good oral hygiene, you can then make up a song based on a happy tooth being associated with cleanliness.
- Stringing Teeth – A final way of teaching oral hygiene is to cut 20 teeth out of paper, punch holes in each and run a string through each. As you slide the string back and forth you can teach your children how flossing works.
Encouraging Older Children to Practice Oral Hygiene
If you have older children, you may consider taking a different approach. One option is to place an emphasis on their desire to look the best by showing them images of what teeth look like when oral hygiene has been neglected and the person has eaten excessive amounts of junk food. Then when you visit your dentist in Prince Albert, he will be sure to reinforce the importance or daily hygienic practices to them.
The Importance of Preventive Care
Another way to instill healthy behavior is to take your children in for semi-annual dental visits. This will help to develop the habit of maintaining appointments for preventive dentistry well into their adult years.
Furthermore, these visits will allow them to experience having a clean mouth and beautiful teeth, which will encourage them to practice better oral hygiene and make healthier food choices in the future.
To schedule your first appointment just give your dentist in Prince Albert a call and be confident that your family will be able to enjoy the fruits of total oral health.
About the Author
Dr. Jerry Janzen received his dental degree from the University of Saskatchwan. A native son of Prince Albert, he practices at Jerry Janzen DMD and can be reached for more information through his website.