oral hygiene presentation... input?

[NurseWeasel]

30 minute presentation to 28 3rd graders next week. We do not need to meet all objectives below, but must meet at least 1.

Goal: students will demonstrate good oral hygiene skills and understand how those skills can promote lifelong oral health.

Objectives: List components of good OH, such as flossing qd and brushing teeth bid. Verbalize proper brushing technique. Demonstrate proper flossing technique. Choose healthy snacks for good OH from a list of selections. Describe oral damage prevention techniques such as use of mouth guards, toothpicks, and emergency care. Define cavities, plaque, & gum disease. Identify, sketch, and label parts of a tooth such as enamel, dentin, pulp, crown, gum, & root. Explain how to select a good toothbrush & toothpaste, using such qualifiers as small head, soft bristles, and fluoride.

OK here's what we were thinking for the actual presentation. A brief talk about the subjects above (objectives), followed by a demonstration of how to floss: we will use our fingers as "teeth" and a piece of ribbon as "floss", showing how to rub the floss along the sides of each tooth. We're hoping to borrow a set of big plastic teeth and a giant toothbrush to demonstrate proper brushing techniques... haven't been able to secure those yet, though. Show a mouthguard and talk about what to do if you (for instance) crash your bike and break your teeth off or knock 'em out. Teacher requested we talk about how dangerous toothpicks can be to the gums. Then:

Have a big posterboard with some sort of gory picture (pictures?) of diseased teeth, cavities, etc. on it. This posterboard will be covered with 3x5 cards or squares, which have cool trivia facts and questions on them. Kids this age love fascinating trivia and gross pictures. The concept we're still working on, but basically we're thinking of a cross between a "memory" game and Trivial Pursuit - where each kid gets to come up and select a card to pull off and read the fact / question to the class and / or try to answer the question. As each card is pulled off, the picture behind is revealed. That's another area I'm kinda stuck in. Should we have one giant picture and they're trying to figure out what it is, or should we have several pictures in various areas which are slowly revealed? I'm thinking several would be better because one giant picture would be pretty easily guessed what it is after only a few cards are removed. Also during this "game", we could have the kids who are sitting at their desks either drawing or coloring in some tooth pictures. I was thinking of maybe having them make "drawer liners" for their bathroom drawers, with inspirational sayings about oral hygiene, stickers, smiley faces, etc on construction paper. We might or might not laminate it with contact paper.

We want to do some handouts for the kids to take home, with websites they can look at with their families, healthy snack ideas, info about mouthguards for parents, maybe some word search puzzles, and maybe even a brushing chart (http://kids-world.colgate.com/images/game/brushchart_chart.gif)

Other things we'd like to cover are smoking & smokeless tobacco, maybe do some sort of Mad-Lib type story about oral hygiene with the kids adding funny adjectives & stuff to make the story humorous (but with a moral, of course, lol). Maybe a self-contract or pledge having something to do with how many times a week they will brush or floss.

We really wanted to hand out free kid-appropriate toothbrushes, toothpaste samples, floss, and disclosing tablets - but haven't yet found any cooperative dentists in the area. Even the big toothbrush / toothpaste companies wanted to charge us for them.

So, any suggestions on how to keep this around 30 minutes and/or improve it???? Anyone actually have 3rd graders that would like to give advice on what's appropriate for that age? My kids are much older, and my teammate doesn't have kids at all.

Thanks!

[PowerPuffGirl]

If you're looking for kid-friendly toothbrushes and dental stuff, if you have no luck with local pediatric dentists, you might try calling the Dept of Health. It's worth a try, anyway.

I think your presentation sounds good... Interactive, which is great, and kids really do love the icky stuff.

Good luck!

[AmyLiz]

Have you checked out http://www.crest.com? They've got some ideas about OH ed there too.

PS. I like your the "ribbon through the fingers" idea!

[Mithrah]

Here are some ideas:

1. Teach the kids NOT to brush their teeth hard. It can cause recession, which exposes the root of the tooth.

2. Teach not to eat chewy candies such as caramels and tootsie rolls. And if they do to brush quickly afterwards.

3. Any toothpaste is acceptable if it has the ADA sign.

4. Foods such as carrots and apples can actually help remove plaque.

5. Plaque can be removed from a toothbrush, tarter (calculus) cannot.

6. Don't forget to brush the tongue.

7. Teach them that enamel is the hardest substance in the body.

8. Sealants cover the tooth to resist future cavities.

Hope this helps!

[howie122832]

Former Dental assistant here...

I have one suggestion for your sample idea..

Talk to a Orthodontist in your area and approach them to see if they would be willing to donate these samples. Be sure to mention that the students you will be speaking to are 3rd graders, and that this is the PRIME age for these kids to start ortho tx! What a better way to advertise their practice, after all, we all know that if the parents see this orthodontists name on pens, toothbrushes, etc ... all over the house, they are more likely to call and schedule an appointment with that dr. When you call, be sure to ask for the treatment coordinator, she's your go-to girl for this! I should know, I did this for 10 years! Good luck and let me know how it goes!

[NurseWeasel]

Thanks everyone for their input so far. Still no-go on the free samples although I went to 3 more offices yesterday. 2 offices' docs are gone for spring break, 1 said they'd call back after lunch and never did. WTF is the big deal with handing out free samples? You *know* they get the dumb things for free... at least the ones that don't have their name on them, the kind that the dentist hands out when you get your teeth cleaned. ARGH. I even offered to PAY for them, but you'd think they were hangin' onto GOLD or something. Jeez. I'll hit up my favorite dentist & orthodontist again Monday morning, and I'll go back to the office that never called back yesterday, this morning.

My teammate got ahold of a stuffed elephant whose mouth opens wide for teethbrushing, a giant toothbrush, and a "Mr. Gross Mouth" for anti-tobacco teaching. We're getting together this morning to work out the details of our presentation.

Thanks again!!!

[NICU_Nurse, BSN, RN]

Try Butler G-U-M disclosing tablets. You chew them and they turn the teeth red, showing where the plaque is. These are fun! They're 12 tabs for about 3 bucks- it's worth the money just for the visual aid. You can either let the kids chew them, or, if you're worried about embarrassing situations (ie, the kid who didn't brush his teeth that day..), you can chew one and the teacher, etc. and just show them how they work. You can get them from drugstore.com, or from the local drugstore.

[NICU_Nurse, BSN, RN]

Also, if you can't get free samples, try Wal-Mart for travel sized mouthwashes, paste, etc. Or, you could get some full sized options for kids (flavored or themed mouthwash, toothbrushes, and toothpaste) and hand them out for guessing correct answers to questions related to your topic, or if you ask for helpers or volunteers (for your ideas, or you could get, say, five volunteers for the disclosing tab idea) you could hand these out as 'prizes', or do a grab bag (every kid gets a number, you pull one number per prize), etc.

[NurseWeasel]

Kewl idea, thanks! I have a couple (2) disclosing tabs of my kid's, which he got from the dentist. I was going to show those. I had NO IDEA you could buy them at the drugstore. I'd buy 'em from drugstore.com (love that place) but I'm short on time now. I will definitely go shopping.

Turns out my teammate knows (personally) the dentist whose office didn't call me back yesterday. She's on her way over there to sweet talk them out of some samples. WOOT!

We just spent a couple hours hashing out our presentation and I'm so excited. This is going to be FUN. I'll let y'all know how it turns out.

Thanks everyone!

[Mithrah]

I recommend calling a local college or university that teaches dental hygiene. They have LOTS of toothbrushes and they buy them for only 25 cents a piece.

If you get the disclosing tablets, make sure the kids don't swallow them.

[NurseWeasel]

Thank you Mithrah, but I live in the boonies. Nearest dental hygiene school is about 8 hours away.

I think, after yesterday's meeting, that this is going to be a fabulous presentation with or without free samples to give the kids. I'll still check back with the offices on Monday if my teammate wasn't able to sweet talk her friend / dentist out of them. If we could get 3 places to donate 10 toothbrushes each that would be plenty, and not too burdensome on any of them.

[emily_mom]

I tried to do that (get free brushes), but had no luck either. My friend is an MA and stole boxes of soaps and lotions and stuff (our was general hygiene) for the kids.

We used the glo-light.

Can you get your hands on a big mouth to demonstrate? Wish you were closer, as my friend has one. Kids really liked it.