Let’s talk about kids and good oral health habits for a minute.
It seems children have a special way of trying to avoid the toothbrush. Maybe it’s just because they know it’s good for them. After all, they seem to have certain tricks for veggies, too. Fortunately, there are some fun ways you can use trivia to entice your children to take care of their teeth.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Sharks’ Teeth Number Into the Tens of Thousands
Sharks’ teeth grow in multiple rows, and they lose teeth frequently throughout their lifetimes. When one tooth falls out, the guy next in line moves forward to take its place.
Over a shark’s entire lifetime, it can grow 20,000 or 30,000 teeth! By contrast, the average human will have a total of 52 teeth between baby and adult teeth.
How do you get your child to care about this fun fact?
Plan your own Shark Week by lining up a series of kid-friendly flicks that feature sharks as just-before-bedtime entertainment. They’ll be excited to talk about their teeth (and take care of them) during their bedtime brushings.
Everyone’s Teeth are Different—Just Like Fingerprints
No two people’s dental patterns are exactly alike. In fact, even identical twins will make different dental impressions.
Teeth are just as unique as fingerprints. Every person also has a unique tongue print.
How do you get your child to care about this fun fact?
Have a fingerpaint day where your child and her friends can place their finger and thumbprints next to each other and examine the differences, even when everyone’s looking at prints from the same digit.
When toothbrushing time rolls around, you can use that exercise as a fun way to talk about why teeth are special and why it’s important to keep them healthy since no one in the world has another set just like your child’s.
All Snakes Have Teeth But None of Them Chew Their Food
Snakes eat their food by swallowing it whole. On a related note, they can also open their jaws to a 150-degree angle (just 30 degrees shy of a straight line) because their jaws aren’t hooked to the skull; they’re connected by ligaments that enable their mouths to get huge, relative to their little heads.
How do you get your child to care about this fun fact?
Find a toy snake that’s built to showcase the interesting ways in which snakes’ mouths actually work. Stay away from the real thing, of course!
Our team at Centre Dentaire is proud to be the dental center Lachine residents of all ages look forward to visiting. Check out our frequently asked questions online, and give us a call if there’s anything we can do to help!
