Smart Way to Teach Oral Hygiene to Your Children Patients Through Dental Puppets for Dentist Offices?

Being a pediatric dentist is rewarding on so many levels, especially once you realize you are on a continuous mission of helping the youngest patients overcome their fears and kick their dental anxiety to the curb.

But then again, you are also bound to come up with fresh and inventive ways to approach every patient that enters your door. And that can be overwhelming at times. Luckily, there are certain tools you can use in your daily work to help you achieve better results with your patients. Some of them, like dental puppets for dental offices, has yielded some amazing results so far. Having that in mind, let’s look at a smart way you can teach oral hygiene to children by implementing these dental plushies in your everyday routine. 

Explaining Proper Brushing and Flossing Techniques

Dental puppets are education items that have proved to be truly essential in every pediatric dentist’s office as of lately and for a good reason. Namely, they are perfectly suitable for explaining proper brushing and flossing techniques to children due to their specific design. These cute animal plushies are made in a way to show all teeth and gums, which allows dentists and dental hygienists to explain to the kids in greater detail how they should brush and floss, and how to do it effectively. For instance, the children will see firsthand how to hold a toothbrush and what is the perfect angle for brushing gum line, and they will learn how to make a perfect stroke. All in all, the use of a dental puppet can certainly make brushing and flossing instructions more memorable for children.

It’s all About Psychology

Children love toys so they will love dental puppets as well. And because they usually perceive dental offices as cold and scary places, the use of dental puppets can actually create space for a different and more pleasant dental appointment, allowing them to relax and see the entire visit as some sort of a game they will gladly participate in. 

It’s also a fact of the matter that children have shorter attention spans. This means that you have to put extra effort to grab their attention. In this regard, dental puppets can offer considerable help, allowing you to keep the kids focused on your presentation. At the same time, the use of these puppets increases your chances of teaching them how to build and maintain a dental care routine successfully. 

Choosing Dental Puppets for Your Office

It would be best if you could select dental puppets that are designed in a way to be visually appealing to children. Browse carefully through the available selection of dental plushies and opt only for the ones with the best reviews – you’d want to avoid anything that is potentially creepy and could do you more harm than good.

Extra tip: you can come up with funny names for your puppets and be creative while at it (regardless of the fact they usually come with a brand name) This will make the entire visit even more interesting for children, and they will probably be better at adopting your instructions. If you do so, they will probably link the funny name and the puppet to your story and won’t have a hard time remembering your tips later at home.

Dental Puppets Aren’t Alternative to The Individual Approach

As in they can’t get all the work done. While there’s no denying they can be a great education tool, you will still have to do your best in the fields of communication and interaction with kids. Be creative, relaxed, and smile while presenting your patients with dental care routine tips and this won’t go unnoticed among your patients and their parents alike. What’s more, they will probably come back to your office in the future!

Final Thoughts

Working with the youngest patients is one of the noblest aspects of a dentist’s vocation. As a pediatric dentist, it is your job to help the little ones pave their way towards establishing a consistent oral hygiene routine, which is a base for a lifetime of dental health. However, this has proven to be truly challenging at times, especially in terms of approaching the individual needs of children, who are often suffering from different forms of dental anxiety and other related fears. So, if you think you’ve hit the wall in your everyday work and think about introducing fresh ways to teach your patients about oral hygiene, perhaps it’s the right time to obtain dental puppets for your office.

Have you already started to use dental puppets? How do children respond to them? Don’t be reluctant to share your experience so far in the comment section below!