| February is National Children's
Dental Health Month. Are you looking for ways to get
students excited about oral health? Some of these
resources may help. Delta
Dental's Kid's Club and Captain Supertooth game
Delta Dental's Web site, at
www.deltadentalnj.com, features a special section called
Kid's Club, located at the bottom of the home page. The
Plaque Attack/Captain Supertooth game is an entertaining
way for younger students to learn the basic concepts of
effective oral hygiene.
Using a toothbrush, dental floss,
toothpaste, and a healthy diet, the player must defend
the teeth and gums from bacterial attack and decay.
In the game, as in life, the
toothbrush removes surface plaque from teeth. Players
must brush away plaque deposits from teeth quickly. The
longer the plaque remains on the tooth, the longer it
takes to brush away.
Players use floss to remove plaque
from the gums between teeth. A reddening of the gums
indicates that plaque is building up between teeth. The
longer the plaque remains between teeth, the longer it
takes to floss away.
The diet button allows players to
experiment with the effect of a healthy diet on the
health of the mouth. Players drag food items onto the
correct category of the Food Guide Pyramid, based on the
USDA Guide to Daily Food Choices. Selecting a healthy
diet slows down the appearance of the plaque bacteria in
the game. Selecting a poor diet, or leaving the puzzle
without placing any foods in the categories, accelerates
the appearance of plaque.
The key to winning in Captain
Supertooth is to keep your teeth healthy by staying
ahead of the game, using a toothbrush, floss and healthy
diet.
American Dental Association Web
site
The American Dental Association
offers games, coloring pages and other resources
developed to teach children about oral health at its Web
site.
Younger children can go to the ADA
Kids' Corner, at
www.ada.org/public/topics/kids/index.html. This area
includes interactive games, movies, puzzles, coloring
sheets, word games, and animations that demonstrate the
proper way to brush and floss teeth.
Older students can go to
www.ada.org/public/topics/students/index.html, for
information about dental careers, background for school
reports and health-related science fair projects, and
health-related Web links.
Teachers can go to
www.ada.org/public/topics/teachers/index.html for video
presentations, classroom ideas and other resources.
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