Taking care of your own teeth means establishing a regular flossing habit – but when it comes to taking care of your child's teeth, you have to be even more vigilant than you would be with your own oral health. The problem is that your kid probably doesn't like flossing any more than you do, and they can be squirrelly when you're trying to get that dental floss in between their tiny teeth. But that doesn't mean that flossing their teeth has to remain a hopeless endeavor – you just have to find ways to make flossing fun. So if you're looking for a few ways to make flossing enjoyable for you kid – and less frustrating for you – then here's what you need to know.

Up the Flavor

Lots of the time, the taste of unflavored dental floss can really turn your child off to the whole flossing experience – but don't think that the solution is to give your kid some of the mint-flavored floss that you use. Mint flavors are incredibly strong, especially to a child whose palate isn't quite as used to the overstimulation that mint gives to it as you might be. Instead, look around your supermarket's dental health aisle to find other flavors. Tasty offerings like tropical fruit, wild berry, bubblegum, and other smoothie-inspired flavors can make flossing not only fun, but also delicious.

Change the Delivery System

Even the best-tasting floss can make your child turn their nose up at it if they hate the physical side of flossing – the long, wet string of floss, the pressing of your fingers on the sides of their mouth as you attempt to work the string up and down, etc. Luckily, there's an easy solution if this is your kid's problem with flossing: change the delivery system. Hand-held pick flossers do just as good a job as their stringy, finger-driven cousins but are much easier to use and much more kid-friendly. Not only will these small disposable flossers make it easier to get in all the nooks and crannies of your kid's mouth, but they'll also be a lot easier for your child to use once they're old enough to floss by themselves.

Give Some Incentive

As with most things that aren't pleasant to do, humans will do them more regularly (and more happily) if there's a reward at the end of the rainbow. This reward doesn't have to be big, obvious, or edible, just so long as it encourages your child to floss on the regular. The key to this is to have the reward be at least semi-immediate – if they have to wait four or five months, they won't register it as a reward, and will lose interest. One cheap way to reward your child is to have them pick a sticker of their choice to put up on their calendar every time they floss.

For more information, contact Dentistry For Children or a similar location.