Games to Brush & Take Care of Teeth

Dental health should be taught from a young age and encouraged throughout the years. When children first start to brush their own teeth, they may resist, complain, or downright refuse. Making a game out of the dental care experience can make this a lot less stressful. With luck, your child will be so excited to try the next game that the idea of refusing will be a thing of the past.

Silly Game

• Sharon Kennedy Wynne of the St. Petersburg Times suggested a silly game to get kids excited about dental health. She suggested taking turns brushing the child's teeth. Allow the child to brush his teeth for 15 seconds while you keep a straight face. When the time is up, get an excited expression on your face and announce "it's my turn." Take the toothbrush and make silly faces and noises as you get your 15 seconds to have fun brushing his teeth. Hand the toothbrush back stating that it is his turn and put a straight, even bored, face on until it is once again your turn. Do this until two minutes are up.

Plaque Tablets

• These are the reddish tablets you get from the dentist to see if you are brushing thoroughly. To make a fun game of this, do it with your child. Model a good brushing technique for your child. Stand next to one another while brushing. Put a sand timer or cooking timer near you. Stop brushing when two minutes is up. Both of you should then put a plaque tablet in your mouth and chew it. The red dye will go all over your teeth and settle on the areas that didn't get brushed completely. Make silly faces and stick your tongue out at each other to see who has the least amount of red dye on their teeth. As a reward, maybe the winner can choose what to have for dinner, what game to play next, or what movie to watch.

Humming

• Humming is a great timing device for brushing. If you demonstrate this with your child the first time and make it a fun experience, it will have more of a lasting impact. Start brushing and begin humming the alphabet. If you add in some silly dance moves, this will become a game, not a chore. Go through the song twice. This should be sufficient time to scrub the food and bacteria off of your teeth. By the end of it, the child will hopefully be excited to do another musical number the next time around.

Fun Accessories

• There are toothbrushes on the market that you can trigger a blinking light for an allotted amount of time. It may blink for one minute, enough time to brush one row of teeth. It may also blink for two minutes, enough time for the whole mouth. If the child is not afraid of the dark or if there is a night light in the bathroom, turn the main light off and watch the blinking light move around in the dark. Follow the brushing with some fun mouthwash and dental floss. There are also some mouthwash caps that can blink as well. Take your child with to purchase these fun accessories to make the shopping experience a game as well.

Question and Answer Game

• Do a question and answer game with your child or students. Ask such things as "how often should we brush?" "why do we need toothpaste?" "how long should we brush?" or "how much toothpaste should we use"? Allow the child/students to give their answers first before you give them the correct answer. If you are a teacher, you could contact a dentist beforehand and inform him about your upcoming dental health discussion, you may be able to get some free samples and toothbrushes to pass out to the kids. The samples can be given to students that answer the brushing questions. If you are a parent, you can easily obtain a fun toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, and dental floss for your children before this discussion. The main point is to get them educated in a fun way.