Dental Care Day 3: Dental Care

Dental Care

Read: Brushing Teeth by Mari Schuh, Flossing Teeth by Mari Schuh and At the Dentist by Mari Schuh

Discuss: It is important to brush and floss your teeth every day, and visit a dentist once a year for a check up. Show an apple. Say the apple will be the tooth. Poke a hole into an apple and say that is what a cavity is, a hole in your tooth. 

 Cavities can form when we don't brush and floss our teeth. Let it set for a day and notice how yucky it gets in the apple.

Show the child how to brush the front, back, and insides of the teeth. Then show the child how to floss each tooth properly.

Comprehension Questions:

1. How can we take care of our teeth? Brush, floss, and visit the dentist

Stained Teeth

Discuss: Soda is bad for your teeth. It can stain them brown. You should brush your teeth after you drink soda.

Materials:

• Hard boiled egg
• Cola
• Cup
• Old toothbrush

Directions:

1. Show the hard boiled egg. Doesn't it look nice and white like our teeth? Why is there a shell around the egg? Because the shell protects the egg. Our teeth are protected by the enamel just like the egg.
   
2. Put the egg in a cup.
3. Pour in the cola.
   
4. Let it set for at least an hour (the longer the better).
   
5. When you take it out notice how dark it looks now. That's what happens to our teeth if we don't brush after drinking soda.
   
6. Try to brush away the brown with an old toothbrush. It's hard to get every bit of the brown, just like it's hard to get every bit of every tooth in our mouths. We need to brush every part of every tooth every day.
   
   
   

Brushing Molars

Discuss: It is important to brush all around every tooth, not just the front of the teeth.  We discussed the Proper Way to Brush our Teeth from page 2 of this download that I found.

Materials:

• Soda Bottle
• Scissors
• White Paint
• Old Toothbrush

Directions:

1. Cut off the bottom of the soda bottle.
2. Paint it white to look like a molar.
3. Show the child how to brush all of the tooth, not just the front where you can see.
   
   
   
   

Flossing Teeth

Discuss: It is important to floss your teeth to get the food that the toothbrush can't reach.

Materials:

• Egg Carton
• Tissue Paper
• Floss
• Red Construction Paper
• Glue
  

Directions:

1. Cut apart each section of the egg carton.
2. Cut out a semi-circle from the red paper.
3. Glue the egg carton sections around the round part of the red paper for the teeth.
4. Stick pieces of tissue paper in between the teeth.
5. Use the floss to get out the tissue paper.