How to Make Teaching Kids About Oral Health Fun

Getting kids excited about dental health can certainly be a difficult task; compared to friends, playing outside, video games and TV, keeping a clean smile doesn’t sound like the most fun thing in the world.

However, teaching kids about the importance of oral health is absolutely vital – healthy kids grow up to be healthy adults. When you add a bit of flare and make it a fun, exciting, educational process, your kids won’t be able to wait to brush their teeth.

Here are some great ideas to get started:

• Use the ADA's website as a resource
  The ADA provides not only an ocean of useful dental health information, but they also create tons of kid-friendly content that will get your kids excited about protecting their smile. Use their colorful infographics, cartoons and game ideas to teach kids about the importance of oral health!
• Make it a game
  Everything's more fun when turned into a game! Maybe create a Candyland or Monopoly-esque game board out of cardboard, construction paper and some colored-pencils, and make game cards associate with dental health tasks, like brushing twice a day or going cavity-free. The possibilities here are endless, so have fun and get creative!
• Do a simple demonstration
  Visual learning can be very powerful, especially with young ones. One of the best oral health demonstrations for kids I've seen involves taking an egg, and splattering it with bright food coloring. Then, take a wet brush and show how removing the stains leaves the egg clean and white. This is a great demonstration for educating kids on the importance of plaque removal and preventing cavities! Again, creativity is the name of the game here, so have fun and be clever!
• Dental health checklists
  A dental health checklist lists daily oral health tasks, such as flossing, brushing twice, and using mouthwash. Find a colorful, kid-friendly dental checklist online that you can print, or make your own in a word document or on a photo-editing software! You can also, of course, make one using construction paper and colored pencils, which doubles as an arts and crafts activity your kids will love!