5 Effective Teeth Brushing Techniques
Posted on 02 11, 2008 under The Manual by gregoryng | View Comments
Your kids have noses so you wipe them clean. Your kids have armpits and you scrub them down during bath time. So the fact that your kid has a brand new set of white chompers means that they need them brushed regularly.
No matter your own oral hygiene habits, for your kids, it means brushing every day. Or those pearly whites will turn into pearly browns. The real problem you will discover, is that getting your kids’ interested in brushing their teeth is like getting you interested in the Ya Ya Sisterhood.
You see, when you need motivation to brush your teeth, you think about that looker of a woman you saw on the subway with the 3 teeth and you SonicCare the hell out of your teeth as soon as you get home. Unfortunately, your kids only think of teeth brushing as something you are making them do. Here are a few techniques you can use to get your kids to brush well and brush regularly.
• Let them brush first — This will give them a sense of accomplishment and pride in doing it themselves. Just make sure you do the full brush afterwards. You will discover, little toddler hands do not have the dexterity to brush fully and completely.
• Fancy toothbrushes — There is a toothbrush branded with every possible cartoon character imaginable. My daughter is all about Princesses and she has a pink and purple Beauty and the Beast toothbrush that she can’t get enough of. Good for her. Good for us. There are also new kid toothbrushes that have lights that blink for 2 minutes (30 seconds per quadrant): engage the light, and brush until the light stops blinking.
• You brush them, they brush you — One good technique is to have your kid brush your teeth while you brush theirs. They will be so into getting your teeth clean that they won’t even notice you scrubbing theirs.
• Sing Songs — Sing a song while brushing their teeth. With our daughter, we used to sing the alphabet. It gave us another excuse to expose her to the alphabet and it gave us a good benchmark of brushing time.
• Spitting Contest — Every kid likes to spit. Use that to your advantage by showing them how fun it is to spit a whole bunch of toothpaste. In this case, spitting is good because you don’t want them to get in the habit of swallowing the paste.
Good luck noodads.
