Becoming Pro-Active with Your Dental Care - Now

If you have developed poor dental care habits, remember that was a choice you made in the past.  Today you can choose to begin improving your dental wellness by building yourself better dental habits, step by step. 

Simply printing a monthly calendar page from the internet, and posting it beside your bathroom mirror to keep track of your planned improvement makes a wonderful first step.  Add check marks morning and evening for each time you give yourself the good dental care you have always deserved.

Imagine being young (at an age when you should have begun building great dental care habits) and imagine each time you brush and floss your teeth, that someone you looked up to, your parents, or grandparents, an aunt/uncle, or a teacher you respected, are praising you and encouraging you in continuing the good work and great results you are achieving with building a strong new habit that will improve your dental health and wellness.

Make up your own record keeping routine – perhaps with one check mark for brushing, and a second for flossing.  You could make the check marks, or stars, or dots, different colours to easily visually chart your progress.  Make a family competition of it… or a joint reward… posting gold stars for you and your children, on each day your dental care was excellent, both morning and evening. Be sure to praise and encourage your children as their dental care improves!

Title your calendar page: The ‘Great Dental Care’ Home Project  or choose a title that inspires YOU!  Or have each family member title their own page.  Then write the on the bottom of the page exactly what YOU will gain from building yourself a new and better dental health habit.  Example:

Rewarding you with ‘Fresh Breath & Shiny Clean Teeth’!

Great dental care provides great benefits to you, and your family.  If you allow your poor dental care habits to continue, your children also suffer.  Children learn their habits, good and bad, from you.  You can begin now:  showing your children how to set goals and achieve improvements, step by step.  This pro-active choice improves the dental health of you and your family, while reducing pain, anxiety and financial costs.  Becoming pro-active about dental health really gives you something to smile about!

Be creative, and forgiving!  If you miss a day, remind yourself of all the days you HAVE done better!  Smile, and continue brushing and sharing the rewards of improving your personal - and your family's - dental health!

©2009 Dr. J Smylie, CCHt., CBT. 

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