Kids Craft: Our Pearly Whites

Are your children afraid of the dentist? You can't blame them. All those noisy instruments, bright lights, and not so tasty creams they put in their mouth are enough to scare anyone away.

Perhaps, you can ease their visit to the dentist by spending some time playing with dentist theme crafts. Creating these crafts, and playing with them afterwards, might very well relax your children and even make them look forward to the visit.

Teeth Story Craft

Teach your children the purpose and importance of each type of tooth with this simple craft activity.

Materials needed:
template and information on teeth (Web Dental Office)
white card-stock
Popsicle sticks
scissors
glue
pens or other writing tools

The Web Dental Office page offers a picture of all the teeth found in our mouths and a description of each set.
To create a template of the teeth, copy and paste the picture from the site on a word document. Enlarge it and then copy the outline of the tooth on card-stock paper.

If the children are old enough to cut the shape of the teeth, allow them to do so with supervision. If, however, they are still too young to handle scissors, prepare all the teeth already cut and ready to assemble.

Once the shapes are ready, let the children glue each tooth on Popsicle sticks. As they dry, allow older children to write on another piece of card-stock paper (big enough to fit on the back of the tooth) the purpose of that specific tooth. For younger children, have these papers already printed and ready to go.

Once each description has been recorded, glue it on the back of the respective tooth.
With the teeth now ready, the children are ready to create their own little play about what each tooth does and why it is important to have in their mouth.

As an added instructional and fun idea, prepare an open mouth. Once the play is over, you can have the children place those teeth in a pre-assembled mouth made out of Styrofoam or clay (not the kind that hardens when exposed to air) following the teeth chart.

Cleaning Calendar Craft
Brushing and flossing is very important to keep teeth healthy. This activity will help children keep track of their brushing and flossing habits.

Materials needed:
Poster board
white card-stock
tooth template
empty floss containers or card-stock replicas
tooth brush template
Velcro dots
Scissors
Laminating paper (clear contact paper will work)
stickers for decoration
coloring tools

Cut the poster board in four parts, one per child. Create a grid, or let the older children prepare one, made of eight columns (one per each day of the week plus one for the reward) and six rows.
The first row will have the days of the week listed. The other rows represent the days in a month.

Copy, cut, and laminate seven teeth. Let the children choose the shape or they can choose a different shape per day of the week. Older children can prepare the teeth on their own. You will need to prepare them for the younger child.

Next, prepare the floss containers using the template, unless you have enough real containers for each day of the week. Give the children the chance to decorate these containers as they please. If you are using real containers, provide stickers for the children to use as decoration. Once the card-stock containers have been decorated and cut, laminate them.

Last, prepare four toothbrushes, one per week. Let the children color the toothbrushes as they please, before cutting and laminating them.

Once all the items are prepared, allow the children to place two bottom part of the Velcro dots on each space on the calendar (except for the first row) and the other part of the Velcro to the teeth, the floss containers (or their card-stock replicas), and the toothbrushes.

Now, the children are ready to use this calendar. For every day they brush and floss their teeth, they Velcro a tooth and a floss container under the specific day. For every week they complete, they Velcro a tooth brush in the eight column of the calendar.

Each following week, the children use the same teeth and floss container as they used the previous week, but they will use a different toothbrush per week.
When all the weeks show a toothbrush at the end, the children win a prize (previously agreed upon with the parents).

Brushing teeth should be fun. When children understand the importance of teeth and they have fun cleaning them, they will be willing to do it on their own. Cleaner teeth mean fewer cavities; fewer cavities mean a better experience at the dentist's office.