As any mom knows, getting children to enjoy health checks and appointments can be a struggle. The dentist is no different. Sometimes children, and adults, avoid doing the things they should to take care of themselves because it’s not nearly as fun as doing something else. But as any good mom knows, if you can make going to the dentist fun, it won’t seem like a chore.
Reward them after
As a mom one of the easiest ways that you can make going to the dentist more exciting for your child is to plan an activity after each dental appointment. Even if you are on a tight budget, this doesn’t have to be something big or extravagant. It can be something as simple as taking them out for a picnic to a local park, or letting them have an extra hour of screen time where they get to pick the movie everyone watches. Planning something positive right after every dentist appointment will give children a reason to behave during the appointment and provide them with something fun to remember the day by. If children remember a fun picnic spent with the family, they might be able to ignore the discomfort of having a cavity filled. This type of reward also encourages the family to spend quality time together.
For example, if you have three or four children, you can choose to convert dental appointments into individual mommy child date days. You can arrange it so that daddy or a babysitter stays home with the other kids and then whichever child has the appointment gets mommy all to themselves so it offers an opportunity for funding, open and honest discussions about why taking care of our health is important, and of course, that reward at the end of the day. You can even work with the Dentist in Delray Beach to make the proposition of dental appointments exciting for them
You don’t have to wait until after the appointment to make things fun. Focus on making the car ride to the dentist or the time spent in the waiting room a fun opportunity for activities. Making a personal report card for each child or a checklist, or even an eye spy game based on the waiting room or what you normally see on the drive to the dentist can give children something to distract them and encourage a positive attitude.
Talk to them
As mentioned, discussing the importance of oral health and health in general is a critical part of making going to the dentist fun. Kids won’t understand as much about their Dental trips if you don’t explain why brushing teeth is so important. So prior to going to the dentist, you can turn it into a family activity where you read books about visiting the dentist or about brushing your teeth, have pretend play games where one of you is the dentist and you pretend that your child is going to their appointment, or you let them practice brushing the teeth on a parent or a toy. This type of activity will spark their curiosity and make them excited about their upcoming appointments so that they are much more likely to view it as a positive experience.
Remind them of their “gift”
Your dentist uses wholesalers for dentists to provide a range of products you get when you leave your appointment. If you have children, this can be a really easy way to make going to the dentist fun. Your child gets something for free like a gift. If they look at it as getting a gift, even if that gift is nothing more than a free toothbrush and a tiny tube of toothpaste, it will seem much more rewarding to go to the dentist. This can be increased and its reward if you know that your dentist supplies multiple colors of things like toothbrushes or different flavors of toothpaste and you allow your child to pick the one they like most. Giving them that level of control can also help customize or personalize the gift they received, making the trip to the dentist something to look forward to.
Avoid negativity
Good parents will encourage their children to go to dental appointments even if the parents themselves hate the dentist. It’s very important to be aware of how you speak about the dentist when it involves your personal oral health. If you talk about dreading the dentist or you frame it in a negative way, children will pick up on that. So it’s important that even if you, as a parent, have apprehensions about personally visiting your dentist, keep them to yourself end pretend to be strong, Brave, and positive about every dental experience so that your children can mimic that type of behavior.
