Encouraging your kids to brush their teeth is a great way to give them a head start in dental hygiene. Brushing one’s teeth helps to keep your teeth and gums healthy by removing food particle and bacteria that accumulates on your teeth. These harmful bacteria can cause cavities in your teeth and lead to tooth decay. If unchecked, one may eventually lose their teeth. Brushing is one of the many ways to help keep your teeth healthy. So, as a parent, how would you encourage your kids to brush their teeth regularly? Here are some great tips when it comes to encouraging kids to brush their teeth.
Kids love doing what they see their parents do and this extends to dental hygiene. A great way to get your kids to brush their teeth is to lead by example. You should have a regular routine where you brush your teeth and get your kids to participate. Ideally, you should all brush your teeth at the same time so that your kids can see you do it. Remember to help them if they face any difficulties in the process as this is also a learning process.
One of the great ways in making the process of brushing teeth fun is to make it a fun experience for the kids. This means adding songs and games to the process to make it as memorable as possible. Kids love to play and if brushing their teeth becomes one of the many games that they will play that day, it becomes a lot more likely that they will want to play it every day, which will be good for their oral health. However, as much as it is a game, you should ensure that they brush their teeth properly and thoroughly so that it is effective.
if your kids are old enough, you should explain to them the reason it is important to brush their teeth. Kids easily understand why they need to do things and if they know why brushing is significant to their health, they are far more likely to do it.
In order to ensure that the habit sticks, you need to set up regular teeth-brushing times and stick to that schedule. You can plan it in such a way that it does not collide with any other thing that the children need to do. For example, the time period after mealtimes and before bed is ideal for this process because it is something that is likely to happen every day. You should also ensure that if your children go for a sleepover at a friend's house, they also brush their teeth at exactly the same time, having regular teeth-brushing moments helps to establish a routine and your children are likely to adhere to this for a long time.
Kids love stories and including these in your teeth-brushing routine can help to make the process a lot more fun. You can create stories that involve toothbrushing or even just teeth (such as dragon teeth or the tooth fairy) This will make the process a lot more memorable and thus they are likely to keep doing it for all their lives.
