The article below offers several suggestions to help make brushing a fun routine for you and your children. Thanks for visiting us at Saddle Rock Pediatric Dentistry of Aurora, CO.

Since it’s going to be quite a while before your child masters tooth brushing for herself, we wanted to leave you with several practical suggestions to help you make it more fun and a matter of routine.

• Start Early. No teeth? No problem. Simply going through the motions by regularly brushing and cleaning gums still serves a very useful purpose.
• Brush Often. While we’ve focused thus far on bedtime brushing, technically speaking, your goal of brushing teeth is to clean food off of them, and the sooner the better. Yet few adults we know make a regular habit of brushing their teeth throughout the day. Start having your child brush after meals early in life and you stand a fighting chance of creating a lasting habit.
• Sing, Sing a Song. Or set a timer. Or come up with some other creative way to keep your child engaged in the act of brushing her teeth for the recommended 2 minutes, or for at least as long as it takes to make sure that your combined efforts leave them clean. Some toothbrushes even light up or play music for the amount of time a child should keep brushing, preventing kids from being fooled into thinking that they’ve brushed long enough.
• Check It Out. If your child is showing signs of independence and insists on brushing on her own, then by all means let her. Just don’t forget to get in the habit of proudly “checking out” her work at the end of each session while casually doing some touch-ups of your own.
• Appeal to Taste. If Cinderella, the Cat in the Hat, a race car, or an electric toothbrush similar to yours has better prospects of winning your child over than you do, then by all means oblige. Feel free to indulge her tastes by letting her choose toothbrushes and toothpaste that she can really get excited about. For toddlers too young for toothpaste, even the fluoride-free toddler toothpastes taste great and make it much harder for toddlers to resist opening their mouths.
• Hands Off. Right around the age when you’re likely to start brushing, your child is likely to start grabbing. By giving her a soft-bristled brush (or 2) of her own to have and to hold, you will be able to avoid a fight over yours—leaving you well equipped to get the job done. Sure, it may take 3 toothbrushes instead of 1, but it’s a small price to pay for a routine that really works.
• Go Where No Child Has Gone Before. We suggest you pay particular heed (and direct your child’s attention) to those teeth that are most likely to be neglected. While you’re helping her brush, describe what you’re doing in terms she can relate to by pointing out her “biting” teeth (the chewing surfaces), her “smile teeth” (you guessed it—right in the front), and the tricky teeth in the back. Your goal— to teach your child to leave no plaque unturned.

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