Good dental care begins in the home. It helps to find ways to engage your children in fun activities about dental health. Here are some ideas for younger children:
Cavity Spread:
This activity will help explain to your child what tooth decay is and how it develops into a cavity. First, draw the outline of a tooth with a permanent marker on a paper towel. Then place a dot on a corner of the tooth with a watercolor marker. Tell your son or daughter that the dot represents tooth decay. Sprinkle a little water onto the dot and show them how the watercolor spreads along the tooth and let them know that when they don’t brush their teeth or floss or eat healthy foods, this can happen, and it’s called a cavity.
Proper Brushing:
Sketch the outline of a tooth on a black piece of paper. Provide your child with an old toothbrush and a squirt of white paint. Challenge them to cover the entire tooth with their “toothpaste”. You can help demonstrate different techniques like brushing up, down, sideways and circular motions to make sure that the entire tooth is white. This will teach them that the importance of cleaning the teeth so they stay white, as well as various brushing techniques.
Supermarket Collage:
Write on one side of a piece of paper “Good Foods” and on the other side “Foods that can hurt my teeth”. Draw a line in the middle. Then gather some supermarket fliers from the mail. Help your child to cut out various foods and glue them on one side or another. This will help them learn what is good for their teeth and what is bad, maybe helping them to be more compliant when you feed them healthy food.
If this is the time for a dental checkup in the Mesa, Arizona area, you can call Dr. Kent Stapley & Dr. Nathan Kitchen at 480-830-8946 for an appointment with Dr. Dr. Kent Stapley & Dr. Nathan Kitchen.