Here are some of our favorite examples of games you can play with your toddler while brushing their teeth.
When it comes to the health of your children, there is nothing you wouldn’t do to keep them protected and safe from disease, injury and harming factors. When your child is stubborn and rejects treatment or prevention, you have to do the right thing and insist on what is best for them. Sometimes it doesn’t go very smoothly, but a parent knows that there are some tricks that can make unpleasant tasks a little more acceptable for the little ones.
Our adult daughter has cerebral palsy and requires being fully sedated when having anything done. The DAC was such a positive experience. Dr Hoffmann and his staff were kind and did great explaining things. As a mom, I had a lot of questions about how certain things would be done as usually she’s in her chair when getting examined at her local dentist and they had everything under control including transferring from her chair to the dentist chair and keeping her secured in the dentist chair as well as keeping her neck and legs comfortable. Many thanks to them!
Response from the owner:Thank you so much for your kind words. We’re grateful for your trust and happy to hear that you had such a positive experience with our team. Our goal is always to provide compassionate, attentive care in a safe and comfortable environment. We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.
TWENTY YEARS! That is how long our special needs son has been seeing Dr Hoffman and his dedicated team! Our son suffers from an intellectual disability, is non-verbal, and is unable to cooperate for dental cleaning, x-rays, or other routine dental work. He requires general anesthesia. It is such a blessing to avoid a hospital setting just for dental work.
The team is always well staffed, friendly, personable and very professional. Every single year we have been supported by a deeply caring team who are dedicated to patients with a very wide range of disabilities and needs. They have shared useful dental advice and tools (3 sided toothbrushes, blocks to hold open their mouth for daily at-home care, etc.) which improved our son’s daily dental care. We always receive a call back the day after to check his recovery-even on weekends!
Highly recommended and so appreciative to have this team supporting our ever long road of raising a special needs son.
Response from the owner:Wow — thank you for sharing such a heartfelt review! We are so grateful for your trust and for allowing our team to be part of your family’s journey over the years. It means so much to us to know that our care and support have made a difference. We truly appreciate your kind words and recommendation!
We've been coming to Dr.Hoffman for twenty years. There's a reason we keep coming back! He's great. His staff is great. He's double boarded as an MD (Anesthesia) and DDS!!! Our son with special needs needs sedation for even a cleaning. You get what you pay for. He's expensive and... we know he's getting the best care!
Response from the owner:Thank you for trusting our team over the years and for your kind words about Dr. Hoffmann and our staff. We truly value your confidence in the care we provide!
Omg!! This place is Amazing! The people who work here are so very nice and understanding. I love this team
Response from the owner:Thank you so much for your kind words! We truly appreciate your support and are grateful to have such wonderful patients.
Searching for a new dental clinic is challenging for someone who has
dental anxiety, fear, and traumatic experiences in a dental chair. The staff and doctors at the Dental Anesthesia Center were immediately very welcoming. Dr. Thoms put together a very detailed plan to repair and replace the previous work that I had in the past that was now causing problems. Putting my faith in him was the best thing that I could have done for my situation. I am more than completely satisfied with all of the extensive dental work that I’ve had with Dr.Thoms. I had my fourth sleep dentistry experience yesterday and I’m very happy with my results. I highly recommend this practice and truly want to give them more than five stars! Thank you for giving me back my health and confidence.
Response from the owner:We know it isn’t always easy to find a dental office where you feel at ease, so your words mean the world to us. We’re so glad you feel comfortable with our team and truly appreciate your trust and recommendation!
The best way to convince a toddler to do something he would normally reject is to combine play with that task. And when it comes to brushing their teeth, the possibilities are endless. There are so many games you can try that surely your toddler will come to like brushing his teeth.
Here are some of our favorite examples of games you can play with your toddler while brushing their teeth.
Sing a Song
Singing makes everything more fun, relaxed and joyful. There are plenty of songs about brushing your teeth that you and your toddler might love, but if you are more of an improv duo, you can invent your own rhymes and tune to brush your teeth. Use a simple song that lasts about 2 minutes because that is how long brushing should be.
Pretend to Be at the Dentist
Pretend play is always a good way to determine toddlers to do things that they would normally wouldn’t like. Imagining a scenario around a simple task can make that moment fun and easygoing. If your toddler has already been to a St. Louis pediatric dentist and it was a successful experience, you can use this scenario to get him to open his mouth, look at his teeth in the mirror and brush.
Brush Everyone’s Teeth
It always helps to be with a friend in times of hardship. If your toddler is not a big fan of brushing his teeth, bringing one of his favorite toys to the bathroom while you are brushing teeth might help him overcome his fear. Pretend that you are brushing your teeth or even let your toddler do it, brush the toy’s teeth and then move on to your toddler’s teeth.
Invent a Story
If your child is excited when it’s story time, you can use that opportunity to invent a story related to brushing. Create fun characters, like bacteria villains and superhero toothbrush and toothpaste, or anything that you think might spark your child’s imagination and make him enjoy these moments.
Red Light/ Green Light
A really good idea for bigger children is to adopt the red light/green light game to brushing your teeth. When he is opening his mouth, you can make silly noises or moves, then freeze when his mouth is closed. This can mean at least 2 minutes of fun, which will allow you to properly clean his teeth and make brushing fun.
Contributing to your child’s lifelong healthy habits is very important, and tooth brushing is one of the more challenging tasks at hand, but putting an effort into making it fun is going to impact your child’s perception for many years to come. Make it fun and stay healthy!
