Parents have numerous responsibilities for their children, including helping their children to take proper care of their teeth. It is a good idea to make it more enjoyable for children to perform dental hygiene or to care for their teeth in other ways.
Choose a Favorite Toothbrush
Bring your children to a local store to choose favorite toothbrushes. Some children want to have a toothbrush in a particular color or with a certain cartoon character. There are also toothbrushes that play music or that use batteries to move the head of the toothbrush. Children should have a toothbrush that is the proper size for their mouths and hands to make the process of brushing easier.
Find a Mildly Flavored Toothpaste
Many children can’t tolerate strongly flavored toothpastes that have contain peppermint or cinnamon. If toothpaste burns or irritates your children’s gums and soft oral tissues, then they won’t brush their teeth without arguing about it. This makes daily oral health care unpleasant for your children, so you should help your children to find child-friendly toothpaste with fruit flavors such as grape or cherry.
Professional Dental Examinations
It is essential for children to have examinations from a dentist who can provide affordable dental care. Make sure to bring along your identifying information for the yearly checkups that will include a professional teeth-cleaning process. During the examination, your child will have X-rays collected, and if there is any tooth decay, then a dentist will fill a cavity in only a few minutes. We recommend you take a look at a Medicaid dentist.
Select the Perfect Dental Floss
Experts believe that after brushing your teeth, there is still a large amount of plaque that contains bacteria on the difficult to reach areas of the teeth. Using dental floss is a learning process, so you must teach your children how to pull the strands from the little boxes before standing in front of the mirror to scrape gently between the teeth and along the gums. Make sure to select dental floss flavors that your children enjoy to make flossing the teeth a more enjoyable experience.
Oral Irrigators
Modern children enjoy using electronic gadgets, so you can buy an oral irrigator to help them keep their teeth cleaner. Oral irrigators will blast strong streams of water from a wand, but you should supervise while they are using these devices. Using an oral irrigator is especially important when your children wear braces to remove the food debris and bacteria that collect on the brackets and the wires.
Consider the Age of a Child
Toddlers should begin to brush their own teeth, and a parent can make it enjoyable by playing music during the process. Older children may want to brush and floss their teeth more when there is a reward system in place to win prizes such as special activities.