March is National Reading Month and here at Dr. Dental, we are thrilled to celebrate by talking about reading and how it ties to oral health.

For starters, did you know that the East Coast – home to our Dr. Dental locations – is home to MANY popular authors? Children’s author Eric Carle, historic writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, poet Walt Whitman, novelist Jodi Picoult and crime writer Patricia Cornwell have made their homes in this region and we couldn’t be more proud!

Since we treat children of all ages, we want to also focus on some great books made especially for little ones to help with dental anxiety. Not every child sits eagerly in that big chair surrounded by noisy tools and masked doctors and hygienists. It is our hope that reading up prior to an appointment will help put your child’s fears at ease.

A few we suggest checking out at your local library include:

~ Curious George visits the Dentist by H.A. Rey

~ Doctor De Soto by William Steig

~ Elmo visits the Dentist by Tom Brannon

~ Just Going To The Dentist (Little Critter) by Mercer Mayer

~ The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss

~ The Berenstain Bears visit the Dentist by Stan Berenstain

Additionally, if your child is older and you just want to gently remind them of the importance of oral health, try these books:

~ Dear Tooth Fairy by Jane O’Connor

~ Junie B., First Grader: The Toothless Wonder by Barbara Park

~ The Missing Tooth by Joanna Cole

~ The Tooth that’s on the Loose! by Chris Robertson

To supplement reading the books and further highlight the good oral hygiene message, a hands-on experiment may be great to do as well.

A few ideas:

~ Place an egg in vinegar overnight to show how acid breaks down calcium. This experiment is a great example of the damage soda can do to our teeth; soda being acidic and our teeth having calcium. We would hope having your children feel the firm shell before bed and then the softer shell in the morning just might encourage them to brush more often.

~ Another idea is to put play dough between the spaces of blocks and use string or thread to “floss” out the stuff in between, which can represent food caught between your teeth.

We hope you all have fun reading this month and we can’t wait to see your SMILES in our offices soon!

What are your favorite tooth-friendly books? Drop us a comment with ideas and let’s get #ReadingMonth trending around the East Coast during the rest of March!

Our family-owned dental offices are proud to bring affordable smiles to all ages at convenient locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

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