 Hi everybody. My name is Andrea and I'm a mobile dental hygienist. So I've been a dental professional since 2005. Now, how do you get your teenager to take better care of their teeth to be better at maybe going to the dentist, be a little more receptive to it? Let me give you guys a few tricks. So as I mentioned, I'm a mobile dental hygienist and when I clean teenagers teeth, I get kind of it from both sides, whether they're adults, teenagers, kids, it doesn't matter, but they're either super excited, which I love doesn't happen often, or they're like, whatever, just clean my teeth. My mum or dad at art is making me be here. Just get it over with. Some are super quiet, super shy. Others are kind of nasty. They're like, okay, I don't want to be here. Get it over with. But what I do is I bring this book to my mobile dental appointments. So I go into patients' homes and I clean their teeth in their homes. So I have time to kind of give them some education. Okay, I do ask the parents permission first, like, can I share this book with them? It's a great tool to get them to brush better. So just to kind of show you some photos that aren't too bad or too scary, I really love this one. So look at the before, the before, and then the after, sorry, before, and then the after. So notice how there's a lot of plaque, right? And then after their teeth are nice and clean, it looks so much better, doesn't it? So I basically tell them, you know, this is how things look after I clean your teeth. All you have to do is brush twice a day, use the water pick or the string floss and or mouthwash. It's that simple. I know it sucks, but such as life, you have to do it, right? And then if they're really not very receptive to that, I'm going to show them things like this is bacteria, plaque is bacteria, and this is in your mouth when you don't brush. So it's kind of like when I was a kid, they would show us a smoker's lung that was black and scary looking. Okay, kids do not smoke. This book is kind of like that. I try to show them some scary pictures of teeth, bacteria. Here's a super scary one, well not super scary, but showing basically rotted teeth. Okay, so pause the video, fast forward if you don't want to see this. So I can show them this. This is what can happen. Literally, if you do not brush, I've seen it, it happens. And unfortunately, the more sugar they have, candies, all of that pop, it just makes it happen a lot faster. But what can you do as a parent? So teenagers are tough. I know that. I hate to say it, but you might literally have to watch them. You might have to say, okay, I'm going to be watching you now for five minutes. You're going to have to brush your teeth top and bottom. The whole works or you're grounded as simple as that. It's going to suck, but that's what I find really, really works. But what I've also noticed is once your teenager becomes interested in somebody else, they take more care of their personal hygiene and their oral hygiene is no different. So if you've tried everything, you might just have to wait until they start caring about somebody else. But these photos, okay, so I'm not going to show you a super yucky one. Well, this is kind of yucky. But when I show them these types of photos of plaque, red, puffy gums, parents tell me this has really helped them start to brush because they don't want their gums to look puffy. They don't want to have plaque bacteria everywhere. They don't want cavities. So that can really, really help. So try that. Another thing you can try is maybe they don't like their toothbrush. Maybe they want a manual toothbrush. Maybe they want an electric toothbrush. Try a couple different things. Even if they have an electric toothbrush now that might not be the best toothbrush for them, get them a manual one that they might like better. Maybe they want a certain color. Try that. Another thing to try is switch out their toothpaste. Maybe your teenager wants bubblegum toothpaste or maybe they hate bubblegum and want a mint toothpaste. Have them pick out the toothpaste they want and that truly might make all the difference. But all in all, you might have to be on them. I have step kids and I find if you're not on them, they're not going to do it. But they kind of get annoyed with you after a while or right away. If you're literally watching them brush their teeth and their teenagers. So I tell them, well, we're not going to watch you if you start brushing your teeth because we don't want you to get cavities. Plus, I'm a mobile dental hygienist. Okay. You can't have cavities in my, in my household. That's just not okay. So another thing that I tell patients is I'm a mobile dental hygienist. Maybe your teenager is, is anxious to go to the dentist. Maybe they are a little bit fearful or very fearful. Me coming into their home can really help because teenagers are in their own space, their own environment. They feel better. They're not as anxious. They might not listen to me per se. It might be in one year out the other, but they're at least better at it. They don't have to hear the dentist. They don't have to hear the sites, the sounds of the dental office. They don't have to smell the dental office. It's more comfortable when they can lay back in a chair with a pillow, anything they want, and I'm there to clean their teeth. So try those couple things. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please comment below. Thank you guys so much for watching and click like if you liked this video and I'll see you in the next one.