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We all want to make sure our kids have perfect teeth. Not only does this help us save our coins by avoiding costly dental procedures, but it also makes it so they can develop awesome dental hygiene habits that will stick with them through adulthood.
But making it clear how important it is to them to brush their teeth, at the minimum, twice a day is not always so easy.
If you use the tips in this guide, your kids won’t just brush their teeth they’ll look forward to brushing time. Here’s how to make that happen.
Start early
You should always start as early as possible to make brushing teeth a habit. Start out when they’re infants by brushing their gums and start taking them to the dentist the moment they develop those first teeth.
The reason to start early is to make it a habit and to show them how important it is. Ingrained behaviors at this age are guaranteed to last.
When my first son was born, my mom constantly drilled it into my head about how important it was to brush his gums with the finger brush at least twice a day. At the time, I was super young and just felt like it was an unneeded task, but I’m glad I did it anyway.
I remember my son’s first dental visit like it was yesterday. He was super calm while the dentist cleaned and examined his teeth. The dental assistant even complimented on how well-behaved and calm he was compared to some of the other toddlers that they saw.
See Also: How to Teach Your Kids Good Dental Hygiene
Get toothbrushes that represent their favorite cartoon characters
The next step is to buy them something they can have fun with. A toothbrush that represents their favorite cartoon character is always a way to get them interested.
There are so many options these days for custom toothbrushes, including Minions, Batman, and Spiderman. Sometimes parents will even buy whole sets of toothbrushes as a reward for regular good brushing.
Ask your kids what they would like on their toothbrushes. Let them have the final say. It’s always good to teach them how to make choices from a young age.
Make sure to take a look at the video below to see one of my boy’s dental routine’s:
Give them multiple toothbrushes
Different brushes help with different things.
The Tung Brush is a type of brush that every kid should have, alongside their usual toothbrush. It’s clinically designed for the tongue, which is where 90% of bad breath comes from.
Did you know that a normal toothbrush isn’t meant to be used on your tongue?
The harshness causes a lot of damage to the tongue and causes that awful gag reflex that can make you stop in the middle. Not to mention the fact that it also transfers bacteria.
The Tung Brush comes with a special gel so you know you’re eliminating all that bad bacteria. If you don’t get rid of it, the bacteria can harm your teeth too.
See Also: 4 Reasons to Brush Your Tongue with a Dedicated Brush
Make their bathroom inviting
The bathroom should be a place they want to spend time. Decorate their bathroom their way. Sprucing up your son or daughter’s bathroom will encourage them to brush because, to them, it’ll be one of the coolest rooms in the house.
Some great ideas include: getting a themed shower curtain, choosing their favorite color scheme, and letting them make the decisions.
You don’t have to spend a lot of money to create a cool bathroom. The smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.
See Also: Where’s J.D.? featuring Tung Brush (video below)
Lead by example
If your kids see you using multiple brushes and brushing at least twice a day they’re more likely to do it. Kids look up to their parents and they imitate them because it makes them feel like they’re all grown up. If your oral care is lacking and you end up needing aligners, read up on your options and the best Byte reviews. This can be a lesson for your kids to learn, treat your teeth like pearls when they are young so you don’t have to get braces or wear aligners when you’re older!
My youngest son especially loves doing things that I do. Whenever he sees me brushing my teeth he automatically asks if he can brush his too. He’s interested in his oral hygiene and there’s no fight over getting him to go to the dentist.
You can easily make your kids want to brush their teeth
You only have a small window when they’re young to encourage regular brushing in the right way. It’s much harder to train them to brush right when they’re older. Bad habits do start from a young age. Kids are impressionable, and you don’t want them to think that certain things are okay.
Do you have any other ideas for teaching kids to brush regularly?
It was a problem getting my girls to properly brush their teeth when they were younger, but now they’re older so teeth brushing is very important to them.
Brushing the tongue is so important! It prevents babd breath and I do it all the time but I need a tongue brush.
These are really great tips. If you make brushing fun with different toothbrush featuring their favorite characters, kids will be more likely to take of their teeth. It does still take a bit of reminding and encouraging, but once it’s a habit they will keep it up.
This is great!! Awesome ideas! My 3 kiddos love brushing their teeth!!
These are all such great ways to do it. The multiple toothbrushes totally works with my 7 yr old. Part of her favorite thing is picking the one to use each night.
I didn’t have good habits as a kid, and ended up with cavities. I’m trying to prevent the same future for my kids. The Tung brush sounds like a great wait to up our routine.
Funny story, I told my son to not forget his tongue one day and he said he didn’t believe it was a thing to brish your tongue. He asked the dentist about it.
Great post idea. We have all had this battle before!
I really love this post. Making the bathroom inviting is a real key to this.
This is some really awesome advice! Getting them to brush there teeth is a chore in itself sometimes!
Those are all great ideas to encourage kids to brush their teeth.
This is exactly what we did with our girls. And now they’re fantastic about brushing twice a day without us asking!
Great tips here! We used to do a toothbrushing song with ours, they really enjoyed the few minutes dancing while brushing their teeth and I would sing!
Great tips. Getting my kids to brush their teeth when they were younger was a breeze. They always wanted to. Now…it’s like pulling teeth. They don’t want to take time away from whatever else they are doing.
I think the Tung brush is such a good idea because there is so much bacteria that can grow on our tongues. I agree: starting kids early on brushing their teeth will teach them good oral hygiene habits.
Dental health is really important for me and I think these are awesome tips on how to get your kids to brush their teeth regularly.
It can be a real problem trying to keep the kids maintaining good dental habits. When my grands were much younger, I always kept each one of them a fun toothbrush at my house. They were always ready to brush their teeth while they were at our house! Thanks for all the good tips!
I don’t have kids but these are all great tips! I might have to use this kind of encouragement on myself so I don’t slack off on my dental hygiene haha.
These are great tools! I remember when I was younger, we use to use this stuff that would show you any leftover plaque on your teeth. It would be died a blue colour so you always wanted to brush really well to prevent it!
The TUNG is amazing! Totally works so much better than a traditional toothbrush! Brushing our tongues is so important and better for our health! You have super cute kiddos too!
Joely,
Thanks.
Such great tips. I slacked when my kids were toddlers then they started being less than compliant and this fight went on until they were tweens. I am finding out now, at an older age, how important all the dental care and dental check ups were.
Where were these tips when my kids were little. They were TERRIBLE about brushing their teeth. It was a real struggle.