Getting my kids to the dentist is actually harder than pulling teeth, they absolutely loathe going and it cause me all sorts of issues. I spoke last year with my dentist, the incredible Dr. Kami Hoss, who gave me some tips on how we can get the kids excited about going to the dentist. We have been trying these tactics for around 6 months now and I think (whispering quietly) that it has begun to work. If you have had the same sort of issues with your kids then here are a few tactics which you may be able to try which will give your kids a little bit of excitement when going to the dentist.
Fun Combination
I am not a massive fan of incentivizing kids when it comes to doing things which they don’t want to but there is a time and a place for everything, and with us that place is the dental surgery. And so I have made an effort to combine the trip to the dentist with a visit to the nearby amusement park straight afterwards, which seems to have work wonders in getting the kids up for going to see Dr. Kami.
Competition
Something which I am a massive fan of is competition and I love it when my kids compete against each other, as long as they do so in a respectful manner. And so when it comes to the dentist I have asked Dr. Kami to give the kids marks out of ten depending on how good their teeth are. The reward for the kids at the end of the year will be a day out of their choice, depending on who wins. The reaction this got from the kids was incredible and each and every day they are working hard to try and get the perfect set of teeth. Given that the trip to the dentist is the day that they get their marks, they are so excited to go and they can’t wait to hear how many points out of ten the dentist will give them.
Education
Here in California, especially in San Diego and Los Angeles, everyone really looks after their teeth and tries to get the best smile that they possibly can. I realize that I have spent a lot of time with the kids talking about how to get a great smile, how they can keep their teeth healthy and the importance of bright white gnashers. What I realized however was that I wasn’t educating them on the dangers of what could happen if they don’t look after their teeth. It was a risky move but I decided to show them some rather shocking images, or at least as shocking as I felt that they could handle, about what rotting teeth and gum disease actually looked like. This strategy, along with the other incentives worked wonders and my kids are now incredibly fearful of their smile turning to a rotten, yellow mess.
So far, so good.