In the Know for You to Know

Children’s oral health (aka dental health) is essential for their overall health and well-being. As a parent, you understand that preventing dental issues are important.

You also know that this is not so simple to do when your child has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), since establishing and following a daily brushing and flossing routine can be quite challenging.

For some children this may be due to sensory sensitivities, for some it’s due to taste and texture sensitivities, and for some it’s tactile sensitivities which leads to everyone’s frustration.

These last 2 weeks we’ve discussed the challenges and strategies to help you help your child achieve successful dental care in the office , as well as strategies for your at home toothbrushing routine.

Today we’re continuing to break down the basics on challenges and strategies for your at home flossing routine.

Strategies For Your At Home Flossing Routine

Almost everyone thinks you need to brush teeth first and then floss. Brush and floss, right?

It’s actually a good idea to floss first and then brush, so this way you brush away everything that was caught in-between the teeth.

Dental Floss Choices To Help Get You Started

• Hand held flossers in fun colors and fun shaped handles
• String floss (aka regular floss) waxed or unwaxed
• String floss in plain (no flavor) or fun flavors (like grape or bubblegum)

Flossing Steps

Start by showing your child the floss and have them touch the floss. You can touch the floss to the back of their hand and then slide it gently up and down along the side of one of their fingers.

You can then gently touch the floss to their lips. Ask them to open their mouth (as big as they can) and touch the floss up to one or two of their front teeth. Count together how long they can keep their mouth open.

Next Comes Flossing

Whether you’re using a hand held flosser or string floss always remember to gently slide the floss between your child’s tooth and their gums.

The gums between the teeth are triangle shaped and you want to gently slide the floss to the side of the gums next to the tooth, never straight up onto the gums.

If you decide to use a hand held flosser keep a tissue or two close by so you can clean off the floss as you go from tooth to tooth. You don’t want to transfer the stuff in-between teeth from one tooth to the next.

If you’re using string floss, here are 5 steps to help stream line your flossing technique—

1. Wrap about18 inches of floss around one of your middle fingers. Wind the remaining floss around the same finger of your opposite hand. This finger will take up the floss as you move along.
2. Hold the floss tightly between your thumbs and forefingers.
3. Guide the floss between your child’s tooth and gums using a gentle, rubbing motion.
4. When the floss reaches the gum line, curve it around the tooth into a C shape against the tooth. Always gently slide floss into the space between the gums and each tooth.
5. Hold the floss against the tooth away from the gums. Gently rub the side of the tooth with an up-and-down motion, following the shape of each tooth. Don’t forget the back of their last teeth.

What’s The Order To Floss Teeth?

Most of the time the order you’ll floss is the same as toothbrushing. Since you’re going slowly and introducing flossing, it may be helpful to try this tooth flossing order—

1. Top front teeth
2. Bottom front teeth
3. Top right back teeth
4. Top left back teeth
5. Bottom left back teeth
6. Bottom right back teeth

4 Important Tips To Remember

• Always support your child’s head,
• Always have good lighting so you can see inside their mouth as well as what you are doing,
• Always be able to easily move the floss around their mouth, and
• Always find the safest and most comfortable position for you and your child to floss and brush their teeth.

A Parent’s Experience Establishing A Daily Oral Hygiene Routine For Their Child With ASD

Remember the child we’ve been discussing the last couple of weeks? The child who took 4+ years to be able to become the ideal child and accept dental care.

This family’s schedule and calendar for their AM and PM routine included separate check boxes for AM brushing as well as for PM flossing and PM brushing.

Then after each part was completed they helped their child check off that box. If it was partially completed, that box got a partial check mark, and if it wasn’t going to happen they left that box blank.

At the end of the week they counted up the number of checked boxes, the number of partially check boxes, and the number of no checked boxes. Then they determined a prize for the checked boxes, and kept moving forward in a positive way.

What To Remember

Flossing is hard and can be a struggle, but it is important because it is the only real way to clean in-between teeth.

Introducing flossing and incorporating it into your child’s daily oral routine takes time and may take multiple revisions and repeats.

1 of the most important things to remember, praise and reward your child and yourself for a job well done!

Stay Tuned — We’re looking forward to seeing you next week when we discuss tips for creating your own story.

Does your child have ASD? Have you attempted flossing? What are your at home care challenges? How is your routine going? What are your successes? What have you learned works for your child? Tell us, We’d really like to know! Send us an email at kidstoothhotline@proton.me Like Us or Chat with us on Facebook at facebook.com/kidstoothhotline

More tips? We have lots. We’re here just for kids!