Something to Smile About: February Is National Children’s Dental Health Month!

Flossing, brushing, and how to clean your teeth – while we all know these are very important topics, they’re not always the easiest to get kids, preteens, and teenagers excited about. So to get kids to care about having healthy teeth, you need to be a little creative.

To help with this, each February, The American Dental Association, or ADA, gets the word out about National Children’s Dental Health Month (NCDHM). This month-long campaign brings together dental professionals, educators, and health care professionals to promote good oral health and spread the word about taking care of your teeth.

This year’s campaign slogan is “Sugar Wars.” The ADA has released illustrated posters that feature the Smileys, McGrins, and K9 aboard the USS SweetSwatter spaceship. Armed with toothbrush swatters, the characters fight against the Sweet Tooth Invaders. For preteens and teenagers, there is a different poster geared towards them, showing the importance of dental health through regular brushing, flossing, and eating healthy snacks.

The ADA provides free downloads of these posters, as well as a PDF of the NCDHM Program Planning Guide. The planning guide provides teachers, parents, and program coordinators resources to promote pediatric dentistry and raise dental awareness in a fun, easy-to-understand way. The ADA also has fun activity sheets such as crossword puzzles, word searches, coloring sheets, and more available for download – for teens and for kids, and in both English and Spanish versions.

The family dentists at Dakota Dental are proud supporters of Children’s Dental Health Month. Community dental care is very important to Dakota Dental, and they work with families to provide and maintain the best dental care possible.

Contact Dakota Dental today to find out more about their children’s dental services and how to create healthy habits that will last a lifetime!