Kids and oral hygiene: friends for life?

Some of my patients at the White Clinic^® are children. They are very welcome from the moment their primary teeth first give signs of showing up. Nowadays parents are much more aware about the importance of regular and early check-ups: these can avoid so much trouble in the future!

But much of the work is done out of the chair. There are a lot of rules we must teach children about the importance of oral hygiene, to make sure they treat their teeth well. Today I thought I’d leave a few useful tips to help parents teach their kids.

The toothbrush

Teach them to wash their hands before brushing their teeth and the toothbrush after they finish. The excess water must be wiped and the brush must be stored in a closed cupboard, away from germs and bacteria. Tooth brushes must be changed regularly!

Curiosity
A long time ago tooth brushes were made with animal hairs and were very expensive. So families had to share one tooth brush! Please, don’t do this at home.

Dental floss

Help them to thread 40cm of dental floss around the middle fingers of each hand and hold it with the thumb and the index finger. Then they must let the floss slide across each the base of each teeth, close to the gums. A clean portion of the floss must be used for each teeth.

Curiosity
Cleaning between the teeth is actually a very old idea. Archeologists found that the Neanderthals used pointy fragments to clean the teeth 60 000 years ago. Toothpicks became very popular much later, in the Victorian Era, with gentleman personalizing their own in gold and ivory.

5 tips to turn brushing time into fun time

1. Come up with tricks to do while they are brushing their teeth.
2. Try to have different flavoured toothpaste.
3. Play some music!
4. Help him brush the teeth of their favourite toy or doll.
5. Become his best example: brush your teeth together!

I hope I helped to make brushing time a little bit more fun and lot less stressful! Share this tips with your kids. Also, I’m curious: how are the oral hygiene rituals with the kids ate your own home?