You only have 10 seconds to clean your kid’s teeth, what do you do?

We all know it’s best to brush, floss, use mouth-rinse etc. every day. But c’mon – it’s the real world, the kids are tired, it’s past their bed time and you’ve got about ten seconds left before you lose your cool….so what do you do?

I got to thinking about this the other day – where is the biggest “bang for your buck” time-wise in cleaning your kid’s teeth? To tackle this question, I asked myself one question… “Where do I spend my day fixing kid’s cavities?” No question it’s between the two baby molars. We call these class II’s in the biz and I see them ALL THE TIME. These are the ones we catch on x-rays. Honestly, as I think about it, they have to out-number all other cavity locations 3 to 1 at least.

So how do you clean this spot and prevent them? Easy. Use floss (or a floss stick of some sort – we aren’t picky). Just use something to clean IN BETWEEN the two baby molars. It literally should take about 10 seconds. It’s just 4 clicks – one in each corner of the mouth. While you’re at it, feel free to floss the others too, but in between the molars is the major “bang for your buck” location.

If it were my kid’s teeth and I only had 10 seconds – no question I’d floss their molars. 4 clicks, done. I may even have a couple seconds left for story time.

Child flossing teeth

Dr. Peters
Brought to you by Jacob Peters, D.D.S.