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Best Ways To Get Your Young Child Excited About Toothbrushing

Some children are reluctant to brush their teeth properly when they're very young. Those feelings of reluctance can result in bad toothbrushing habits when a child gets older. Cultivating your child's interest in oral hygiene from an early age is an important part of caring for your child's teeth.

The following suggestions will help you motivate your child and encourage him or her to brush thoroughly and enthusiastically:

Tell Tooth-brushing Stories 

When your child is a preschooler, you'll spend equal amounts of time monitoring your child brushing his or her own teeth as you will brushing your child's teeth personally. To make this time more fun, make up a narrative about your child's toothbrush that he or she can enjoy while you two spend time together cleaning teeth. Make up stories about where the toothbrush comes from, what the toothbrush wants, what it says, feels, or thinks. 

Brush Together

Young children want to do what their parents do, which may be why toy vacuum cleaners and toy toasters are so popular. Take advantage of this interest and make tooth-brushing something that you and your young child do together. Your child will come to develop positive associations with tooth-brushing. Similarly, if your child has older siblings that he or she looks up to, encourage your children to brush their teeth together, so that your young child can see the way his or her older siblings brush their teeth. 

Let Your Child Play Online Tooth-brushing Games

If your young child is already interested in and allowed to play video games, encourage your child to play dentist and tooth-brushing games found online. There are a variety of tooth-brushing-themed free video games to be found on the Internet. While these games have nothing to do with the actual act of brushing one's teeth, playing video games related to the topic of dental hygiene will help your child build subliminal positive associations with tooth care.

Cultivate a Positive Relationship with Your Child's Dentist

The dentist can be another positive role model for your child, and can help your child get excited about brushing his or her teeth. To cultivate a good relationship between your child and the dentist, take your child to a practitioner who has pediatric dental experience and is comfortable working with small children.

Children who start going to the dentist later in life may already have tooth decay by the time they visit their dentist for the first time. This can start a child's relationship with the dentist off on the wrong foot, which can negatively impact the child's interest in cleaning his or her teeth.

Start bringing your child to the dentist from the first appearance of your child's teeth, or by age one. 

For more information about how you can encourage your child to brush his or her teeth, speak with the dentist when you bring your child in for his or her next appointment. To learn more, contact a company like Dr Tupman Family Dentistry with any questions or concerns you have.


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