Having trouble getting your kids to brush their teeth? Finding brushing time with the little ones a chore?
Dentist and Oral-B spokesperson, Christopher Ho, explains that it’s important to get into good routines while your child is young, in order to set them up for a lifetime of good oral health habits.
Christopher shares his tips and tricks for making brushing fun so your child can get used to keeping their teeth clean.
1. Use the right tools
To help make the brushing routine more entertaining, I recommend parents look for toothbrushes which will be fun and appealing to their child. The Oral-B Stages range, for example, has a great choice of Disney characters to choose from in both manual and power toothbrushes.
I encourage parents to invest in power brushes as I find children often struggle with the necessary attention span to brush for the full dentist-recommended two minutes and find it tricky to brush the hard to reach places. This is where power brushes are a great help as they do a lot of the hard work for you, and many link to a timer so you can be sure that your child has cleaned their teeth for long enough.
2. Join in
Children love to copy their parents, so it’s a great idea to make brushing a group activity, by encouraging your child to copy you as you brush, along with siblings. Brushing will always seem more fun to a child if it becomes a special activity or game that they get to do with their family.
If you’re using a power brush yourself then your child is much more likely to want to try out power brushing for themselves and start off on the right foot when it comes to looking after their teeth.
3. Turn it into a game
To ensure your child is brushing for the full two minutes, you can download a timer App from Oral-B which is suitable for the Stages range with a smart device. The App activates a brushing timer which sees an animated toothbrush slowly reveal a Disney image after two minutes. The app contains a variety of images to keep kids guessing which character will appear at the end of their brushing session.
4. Reward good habits
Rewarding your child with a star every time they brush their teeth for the full two minutes is a great way to incentivise good habits.
Treat them to a trip to the park or a simple gift like a story book if they achieve 14 stars by the end of the week. Not only does this give your child an interesting incentive for adopting good oral health habits, it’s also a simple way of reminding them that they need to brush twice daily.
5. Trust in the Tooth Fairy
The Tooth Fairy makes brushing far more magical for little ones and helps to inspire them to care for their teeth. She can also help to encourage good brushing habits with the promise of treats or money when they leave healthy teeth for her to collect.
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