How To Encourage Your Children To Clean Their Teeth
Children can be notoriously stubborn when it comes to teeth cleaning, whether this is because they have not had a role model to teach them why it’s so important to clean their teeth, or simply because they don’t enjoy the sensation. Dental hygiene is particularly important for children, as it can set a precedent for how they continue to look after their teeth as they grow older. Breaking the habit of not wanting to clean their teeth is difficult, but here, we’re providing you with a few ways to help encourage your children to clean their teeth.
Clean Your Teeth With Them
Children respond to role models and modelling the behaviour that they should take when it comes to teeth cleaning is important. Even if you have your own routine, it is worth breaking it for the sake of your children’s dental hygiene. You may also want to introduce some form of incentive that relates to your own dental hygiene routine. For example, if you whiten your teeth at home, due the extensive advantages of home whitening, you may tell your child that they can do the same thing as you when they get older and start cleaning their teeth properly now.
Make It Fun
Introducing new types of technology into the tooth brushing routine can quickly gain your child’s interest. A regular toothbrush can seem pretty boring when compared to an electric toothbrush, so you might want to introduce one of these as an encouragement technique to get your children to start cleaning their teeth when they should. There are a number of other ways that you can make this routine fun, by introducing games and other methods to help encourage them. You can even find a dentist who is kid-friendly, like Tysons West Orthodontics and Children’s Dentistry clinic to cultivate the good habit of going for regular check-ups in your children.
Dissolving Agents
Getting messy and using dissolving agents can help your child to see where they are brushing and where they’re not brushing to help encourage them to brush more. There are a number of different options to choose from, with some dissolving agents making your child’s mouth purple and highlighting where all of the plaque is on their teeth. This can help to ensure that they are brushing their teeth as they should be, while encouraging them to do it properly.
Reward Positive Behaviour
As with any routine, rewarding positive behaviour is generally a more effective option than punishment for not doing it. If you offer your children rewards for cleaning their teeth properly – whether this is a small treat, or you track their progress over a certain time period and give them a larger treat at the end, there are a number of benefits that can come of this.
Ultimately, getting your children into a good routine of cleaning their teeth morning and night, and cleaning them properly, can help to ensure that they are protecting their own teeth. While it is important to have regular trips to the dentist in order to make sure that your child is cleaning their teeth correctly, encouraging the right behaviour at home can really help to ensure they keep up good oral hygiene throughout the rest of their life.
