How to encourage healthy oral habits in children and young people

Miranda: ''One of the biggest barriers that I've found whilst being in dental surgery is that it's not necessarily the children you have to stress the importance of oral hygiene to, it's the parents. You can suggest various techniques to the child, such as stickers or colouring charts - and although the parents may be on board with these techniques, they may not have the time to think about these things ... especially if they're looking after other children too.''

 

Laura: ''I also think that sometimes the kids can be quite reluctant to be honest about their oral hygiene habits in front of their parents. You can look in a child's mouth and immediately know for a fact that they're not brushing everyday, despite what they may be saying in front of their parents. So, it's really important to educate the parents at the same time as the children.''

 

Miranda: ''Absolutely - and no one patient will have the same dynamic (between parent and child). For example, you'll often see a parent with a young and an older child - and whilst the parent is concentrating their efforts on the younger child, the older child may be missing out on needing help or supervision.''

 

Laura: ''It's all about finding out about the parents' barriers and how we can overcome those issues. So, each piece of advice a dental professional gives should aim to be somewhat tailored and patient-centred.''

Laura: ''There needs to be some more done in schools, in terms of oral health education being included in the curriculum. We need dental professionals to volunteer to educate children and young people about the importance of oral hygiene ... Children are taught basic oral healthcare in primary school, but leading into older education, dental education is severely undeveloped. The education-led programmes are usually just teachers reading from worksheets - but some of these children won't even get to go to the dentist, so they'll never be advised by a dental professional.

 

And it's a great if you can just go out as a dental professional and explain who you are and what you to do these kids as it can make it less scary and more fun for them. Most importantly, if they consider oral hygiene tasks to be fun, they'll be more inclined to do it.''

Laura: ''Visual aids are really important when educating younger patients. For example, we've got these huge teeth and big toothbrushes to demonstrate brushing techniques, but we also use flip charts, colouring sheets, word searches, brushing charts - all of that!''

 

Miranda: ''There are also apps, isn't there? There are brushing apps that work as an interactive game for kids - for example, where the kids have to brush their teeth to keep a character alive, a bit like a tamogotchi! But there are loads of ways of encouraging children to look after thier teeth ... It can even be as simple as puting on their favourite song in the morning and they can brush along to that, or using a little egg timer - whatever works with the individual child!''

Miranda: ''The best way to reinforce the importance of brushing and encouraging brushing in children's schedules is to actually get the parents to look in their child's mouth whilst you're doing the examination. You can then highlight whihc areas need care, which areas are healthy an so on...''

 

Laura: ''It's quite important to engage with the parents actually, otherwise they may sit on their phone and not actually listen to the advice you're not only giving to their child, but to them too. There is a common misconception that when you come to see the hygienist therapist, you're in to get your teeth cleaned but that's not true - we're here to provide education too.''

 

Miranda: ''In my experience, I'd always treat the kids for actual treatments, not simply to clean. I will be carrying out restorative work, so I'd be filling the patients' baby or adult teeth - or evem taking out baby teeth as they have decayed, or simply not come out at the right time. In this case, the young patient would be in the chair for longer and then there's a barrier of injections and treatments and so on. So, it's incredibly important to encourage the parents to actually into their child's mouth to try and reduce the need for those treatments.''

Miranda: ''I was quite fortunate when it came to treating kids who were anxious as I would do the inital check-up, then perform whatever treatment they needed, and so I had the ability to build a rapport with the patient. However, I'm aware that many children will meet multiple clinicians, and so it takes that little bit longer to build that connection. So, in that case, I'd say that it's all about making the child feel comfortable, and 'breaking them in gently'. One patient may not come in and sit in the chair, especially if they'e anxious, while some may regard that as a waste of tume, it's not!

 

Instead, the clinician can take that time for the paitent to feel comfortable, so maybe the next time they can skip in, or simply sit in the chair and go from there. It's all about taking it one step at a time and giving the child control. I think that's where most dental anxiety stems from - yes, there is the element of the unknown, but it's usually a lack of control. I'd rcommend encouraging the child to sit in the chair, but at any point should they feel that fear creeping in, that they can simply raise their hand and I'll stop. It's equally important to hold yourself accountable, because if you say you'll stop, but you keep going, kids will immediately cotton on and the trust is broken.''

 

Laura: ''I think some of the anxiety you see in young patients originates from home too. You'll have a parent whose clesrly nervous, and they'll be saying things along the lines of 'I hate going to the dentist', which naturally the child picks up on. Although there's not much to be done to prevent this from happening, I'd always recommend making the experience as fun as possible for the anxious child. I used to have a separate area in the clinic where I'll talk to my young patient as a person - just asking them aout their favourite football team, or something like that. The aim is to come across as a normal person to them, so even though you're a clinician, you're still human. 

 

Similarly, if you do so happen to encounter a particularly nervous parent, you can gently suggest to them that they leave the room - as nine times out of ten, once the nervous parent has left the room, the child will be absolutely fine. This can be difficult to do, but it's simply about having the confidence as a clinician to suggest that the parent waits outside, as long as everyone is happy with this, we'll call them back inside once we're done!

Much like we discussed earlier, it's all about adapting to the patients' needs. So, with the really young patients, I'd always try to make it quite jokey and fun, whilst with the older patients I adopted more of a nurturing approach. This can only be done by using plenty of explinations and lots of communication, so that the older patients (teens) are not completely bamboozled! you could even suggest to a nervous older child that they have the option to listen to something through their headphones, or watch something, whatever would help them be more relaxed.''

 

Miranda: ''Absolutely. With younger children, I'd always suggest that if they feel a little unsure, that they could bring in a squishy toy, or teddy. And if they do bring in a teddy or something similar, I can always show the child what we're going to be doing next by demonstrating on the teddy first - which is a fantastic technique to help calm nerves, as well as engaging the child in developing good oral hygiene techniques.''

 

TePe offers a wide variety of products suitable for children, for an excellent range of toothbrushes to our toothpastes wiht adjusted flouride levels to suit a range of ages - not forgetting our selection of award-winning interdental bruhses of course, which are suitable for children to use (if/when required). 

 

Please contact your supplier or visit tepe.com/uk/our-products to find out more.