In our Playa Vista family dental office, we are always looking for new ways to get children, adolescents, and even teenagers to be excited about oral health. Creating an oral hygiene routine early in life is beneficial since it influences the patient throughout their lifetime. If they do not establish good habits now, there is a greater chance that they will have cavities and gum disease as they age. With that in mind, we recommend that you bring them in for teeth cleanings twice a year and set a good health routine at home. This is sometimes harder than it sounds, but we have ways to help.
We are using media and specifically short videos to teach kids how to brush the right way and how to brush long enough. This works a lot better than charts and timers. Videos are more fun and kids are used to getting information this way. Whether through things they watch at home or even videos in school, this is now commonplace. When you visit our dental office, we will show your kids how to brush properly and remind them to brush for two minutes at a time. At home, you can use videos to reinforce these concepts until the next appointment.
The American Dental Association has a website that provides resources for parents and children. On the website, they have brushing tutorials and a rewards chart that you can use to help motivate your children or tweens about brushing teeth. There are a series of two-minute videos that we recommend playing while your child brushes. The videos are not boring instructional videos with a guy in a lab coat but popular cartoons like Adventure Time and sing-alongs for the younger kids. With these videos, the child can actually watch something they are interested in for a full two minutes while benefitting their health. As a family dental office, our hope is that these videos will help younger patients fall into a healthy routine of regular brushing. Adolescents and teens will also become familiar with brushing for the proper two minutes thanks to the length of the video. Once they are older and the videos are gone, they will hopefully continue with this habit.
For parents that are not too fond of videos, the children can dance along to their favorite music instead. Take turns picking songs and play something for two minutes at a time. This can be a fun game where you can even pick a song and make them guess where it is from or what band sings it. The goal is to do something that is fun with your children and incorporate oral hygiene into it. This creates positive associations that will encourage them to keep brushing as they get older. If you need help, visit our family dental office in Playa Vista so that we can confirm what you are doing at home and remind your kids of the benefits of brushing regularly.
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