On the list of awesome things your kids love doing, going to the dentist may not be in the top 10. And while we don’t take it personally, we do understand the challenges associated with taking your children to the dentist.
Here are a few tips and tricks to alleviate the frustration and get the kiddos excited to go.
1. Impress the Dentist
Kids love feeling validated. And they love working hard to get that validation. So make daily oral care a mission to impress the dentist when they eventually get there. When they’re brushing their teeth, remind them that the dentist will be looking. When they go for a piece of chewy candy, remind them that the dentist said no to chewy candy, but yes to chocolate.
Tell your dentist about your strategy in advance and they’ll play along. We’re good like that – and we have kids of our own so we get it.
2. Make a day out of taking your children to the dentist
Kids are smart enough to understand the “if/then” construct. And in other aspects of their lives, it works like a charm. If they eat their dinner, they can have dessert. If they put this toy away, they can play with that one. So port it over to this: if they go to the dentist, they can do something cool.
Yonge Eglinton Dental is good for this kind of deal because there’s so much to do around here. You could take them for a post-visit milkshake at Uncle Betty’s up the street or a movie across the way at the Yonge Eglinton Centre if they’re a bit older. And now that winter’s coming, you could head east to Greenwood Park or west to Eglinton Park for snowman-building.
3. Remind them about the tooth fairy
In a previous blog post, we talked about the tooth fairy and how kids can earn more per tooth if they’re healthy teeth. Well, who do you think makes that determination? Feel free to tell them that dentists have the tooth fairy’s direct line and can set the PPT (price per tooth) as they see fit. As a bonus, this strategy gives them their first lesson in free market economics.
Whichever method you employ to get your kids here, just get them here twice a year so it becomes a habit. Their adult teeth will thank you.
