Wednesday, February 06, 2008

February is National Children's Dental Health Month


Me: Open your mouth really WIDE like a shark!!
Kid Patient: *opens REALLY wide*
Me: Good job!
Me: Now, let’s count your teeth! How many teeth do you think you have?!
Kid Patient: Yells ten! *giggles*
Me: 1,2,3 . . 11,12. . . 20! Yikes! You have 20 teeth!
Kid Patient: *cheers*

She is my most favorite patient ever! She opens her mouth really wide, sits still, doesn’t cry, doesn’t bite my fingers, and is a good brusher! Most of all she is always happy to see me! Okay, maybe she’s only happy to see me because after her cleanings I give her stickers and a pink toothbrush=)

Each February, the American Dental Association sponsors National Children’s Dental Health Month to focus on providing oral health education to all children despite their economic status. The best part about my job is going out to the public and private schools in Saipan to teach the kids about good oral hygiene and how to brush their teeth. Lori and I tell them a story about teeth, ask them questions, and give them stickers. You hope that they remember the importance of brushing. But good oral hygiene starts at home with the parents. Help your kids avoid unnecessary tooth pain by taking them to their dentist every six months. You can use these tools to help encourage your kids to brush here .

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Open Wide! BE nice to those Kids!

Anonymous said...

When i was your patient you never counted my teeth. And why the heck did I not get any stickers? I'm looking for a new dental hygenist and for that matter a new assistant to the hygenist. Your last one almost killed me!LOL

Saipan Kat said...

The dental hygenist who came to my class scared my kids with chewing and #2. Half of the time they were also looking at me with the "huh? what's he saying?" look.

Eric AppleJar said...

Hey Bev! I'm sure all your patients love you because it's hard not to like such a wonderful person!

I'm doing peds in LA right now! We don't get much patient contact so I'm not really enjoying it. I do outpatient peds next month, so I think that will totally change because I love kids!

The other week a couple of my RDH friends cleaned my teeth and taught me how to "fulcrum" =) Before you know it I'll clean your teeth! Ha ha ha!

Bev said...

Rosana: I AM nice to those kids! Their the ones biting me!

Mng J: lol Thanks for letting me use your teeth to pass my boards! Joy could not even do one job right! lol All she had to do was suction. hehe

Kat: Hmm, I need to come teach your class!

Eric: You should of went to DH! Fulcruming can be tricky. They should teach you external fulcums=) Happy that you will be graduating soon! Hang in there.