It took me almost 10 dentists before I was able to find one which the kids didn’t hate, and that man was Dr. Kami Hoss. Sadly, just after we found Dr. Hoss, he relocated his offices from Los Angeles to San Diego, but that didn’t stop me. In fact San Diego has a great dental community and because of how the kids felt about their new dentist, we would make the 6 monthly trip from LA to SD so that they could get their dental checkups. Just after I found Dr. Hoss I asked him how I could get the kids to care more about their dental health, and the tips he shared with me worked a charm. If your kids aren’t too interested in dental health, here are the tips which helped my 3 kids to get engaged.
Information
We can often be guilty as parents of telling our kids what to do without actually explaining why they should be doing it. When it comes to brushing their teeth do your kids actually know what they are doing and why? Once you explain this to them you may very well find that they become a lot more engaged in what they are doing.
Routine
Kids love doing things as a family and that includes brushing teeth together! My husband and I decided that we would all brush our teeth at the same time morning and night, and the 7 o clock club was born. Within just a few days of setting this up the kids would start shouting us 15 minutes before 7, to give us an early warning that it was almost time to brush our teeth. I was stunned at how engaged this got the kids and with regular brushing came more questions from them about their dental health, mission accomplished.
Ownership
Kids love having their own things and one great piece of advice which Dr. Hoss gave me was to let the kids choose their own toothbrushes, something which I hadn’t done previously. This worked incredibly well and the kids could’t wait to get their new brushes out of the packaging and get started on their teeth. So simple yet incredibly effective.
Marks Out Of Ten
If you have a friendly dentist who is good with kids then ask them to mark your kids’ teeth out of ten when they go for a checkup. We did this with my 3 and it became a real competition to see how could get the highest marks. I even decided that there would be a trophy for the winner, and they could keep it until the next 6 month checkup. This was easily one of theist ways in which we got the kids more engaged about caring for their oral health and it is a tip which I am sure can work very well for you and your kids.
Give them a try and see what works best.