Your Sweetpea’s Dental Checklist

Checklists have been proven to be useful when performing tasks. In fields like aviation, construction, and medicine, the usage of checklists has saved lives. In less life-threatening professions, checklists can help people do things more efficiently, and avoid costly mistakes. In our daily routines, checklists can help ensure we are completing our tasks with accuracy. Teaching your child, at an early age, how to perform their dental habits is important. Checklists can help you teach them.There are many habits that we know we are to perform each day. Habits such as brushing and flossing can sometimes become such a ritual that we forget if we’ve actually performed the task, or not. A checklist by your child’s sink where they brush and floss might help your goal of having optimal dental health for your little one.The best way to form a checklist is to find what works best for your child. Make sure it is visible for your child to see every time they enter the bathroom. Make sure it is an easy checklist to mark off, so the process does not become cumbersome. Ensure that it is reachable via a stool or low enough for him/her to reach. Make sure it is water resistant, so water drips or puddles won’t ruin it.Here are some fun ideas for checklists to help your child remember their daily dental routine.

• Use the bathroom mirror as a reminder board. Dry-erase markers are a fun and easy way to write down the dental checklist. The marker erases easily with a washcloth or paper towel.
• Laminate a calendar page. Use a dry-erase marker to put a checkmark each day that you flossed and brushed. You could color code the checks. Blue checks could represent brushing, and brown could represent flossing. There should be two blue checks and one brown check in each calendar box each day. Allow your child to color, decorate or add inviting stickers or stamps to make it visually appealing.
• For young children who can’t read, make their checklist with pictures to represent their daily dental tasks.

Your dental health and habits are important to us at Sweetpea Smiles. Call us if we can help your family with any of your dental needs.Posted on behalf of Sweetpea SmilesFollow us Google+Find Us on FacebookFollow Us on Twitter