Dental Hygiene Lesson Plan to Help Children Properly Brush their Teeth

Dental hygiene is so important for children to learn. Proper teeth-brushing skills need to be instilled in children from a very young age. This teeth-brushing lesson plan provides a fun and effective visual for how properly brushing teeth using toothpaste and a toothbrush can keep teeth healthy and white.

Objective. The overall goal of this tooth brushing lesson plan is to teach children the importance of brushing their teeth and to show them how to properly brush their teeth. This lesson plan works for preschoolers through lower elementary aged children.

Supplies. The supplies needed for this dental hygiene lesson plan are a boiled egg (or several depending on how you plan to implement the lesson), cola, several small containers, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.

Procedure. The night before the teeth-brushing lesson is to be conducted, place your boiled eggs in the cola, covering them completely. Any full-sugar brown colored cola will work. You may choose to just submerge one egg and use it as a demonstration tool for your tooth brushing lesson plan, or you can submerge an egg for each child, or every two children, to have them actually do a hands-on learning activity as part of the dental lesson.

To begin your dental hygiene lesson plan, give the children a quick overview of how important it is to brush their teeth. Next show them a clean egg (one that has not been soaked in the cola). Tell the students that we are going to pretend that this egg is a tooth. Now place the "tooth" in some cola. Bring out the other eggs, or teeth, that have been soaking in the cola overnight. Remove the eggs and show the children how brown they are. You can compare the stained "tooth" to the white "tooth" to show just how stained the egg gets after soaking in cola, a drink that most kids very much enjoy.

The next part of this teeth-brushing lesson plan can be done as a demonstration or as a hands-on learning activity for the kids. Using a toothbrush with a small amount of toothpaste, gently start brushing the egg as if it were a large stained tooth. Use small circles, just as you would if you were brushing real teeth. The toothpaste will start to remove the cola stain immediately.

While you demonstrate, or while the children are brushing their own pretend teeth, explain to them the proper way to brush their teeth and for how long they should brush their teeth.

Close. To end this teeth-brushing lesson plan provide new toothbrushes for the children to take home. Remind them how important their teeth are and just how well toothbrush and toothpaste can work to take care of their precious teeth. This fun and easy dental hygiene lesson plan provides a powerful visual for children that can stay with them for life!