This February, students and faculty from the Dental Assistant program at Ross Medical Education Center in Davison, Michigan wanted to do something educational and fun for National Children’s Dental Health Month. The students were excited to have the opportunity to visit three kindergarten classes at local Central Elementary. During their time at the school, the Dental Assistant students were able to teach around 50 kindergarten students how to brush their teeth properly, read a short story about Doug the sugar bug, and talk to the children about good and bad foods to dental health.
The Dental Assistant students first talked to the children about the care and importance of their teeth. Next was nutrition, which was a fun subject with the children. They asked the kids what their favorite foods were and if they could eat those things without teeth. They also asked the children to say the word “tooth” without letting their tongue touch their teeth as a fun way to reinforce how important teeth are, even to speech. After Doug the Sugar Bug was read, the Dental Assistant students then showed the children how to brush and talked about how long to brush their teeth.
At the end of their presentation, the Dental Assistant students set up stations divided the children into groups to rotate through so they could practice what the Ross students had talked about with them. The first station set up for the kindergarten students was a group of pictures of good/bad foods that the children would place on either a happy or sad tooth. The second station had the bottom of a plastic two liter bottle that was painted white to represent a tooth. The children brushed off sugar bugs, made of play dough, from the teeth. Also on a laminated paper tooth the children brushed off sugar bugs, made of dry erase marker marks. The last station was a mouth made of cardstock and marshmallows. Yarn was used to let the children learn how to floss. A tooth fairy circulated to give each child a toothbrush, a coloring booklet, and a certificate! The Ross students enjoyed the day as much as the children did!