Dental Health Lessons for Kids

Learning how to properly care for teeth is an important step in a child growing up. You can make teeth cleaning fun and engaging for little ones with a series of games and activities aimed at teaching children how necessary it is to have a healthy smile. These activities will make caring for teeth seem like less of a chore.

Dentist's Advice

• Getting advice straight from a dentist can help bring home the tooth care you've been trying to share with your child. At his next visit, have the dentist go through the actions of dental care with your child, demonstrating proper tooth brushing movements and how to carefully floss. When you get home, challenge your child to mimic the dentist's actions as closely as he can remember.

Games

• Consider downloading and printing some tooth care games for free. There are numerous free word searches and crosswords available that deal with dental care, or consider making your own dental worksheet game by drawing a Hangman game on a sheet of paper, using dental vocabulary words -- plaque or cavity -- you're trying to teach your child.

Reading

• If your child enjoys reading, you may be able to get across some dental lessons through childrens book designed to educate little ones on oral hygiene. At your local bookshop, inquire into any titles they may have on the subject for kids, or do a search with online retailers, where you may find a wider selection.

Crafts

• A craft aimed at teaching dental lessons can be both fun and educational. Give your child two identical coloring sheets depicting a mouth. Let the child color one mouth as he thinks a healthy set of teeth looks, and one how he thinks an unhealthy set of teeth looks. This can open up a discussion on what steps he can take to make sure his teeth always look like the healthy picture.