Interactive Activities

Our outreach events are the foundation of CDHA!!! We provide 30-minute learning sessions packed with fun activities to teach elementary students about oral hygiene! We start off the session with a 5-minute introduction about the basics of brushing and flossing. The next 25 minutes are dedicated to our 5 hands-on stations/activities, where the children learn about brushing, flossing, and healthy nutrition/cavity foods! After each session, each student receives a goodie bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and a dinosaur sticker!!!

Our Six Interactive Activities!

Brushing Dudley

The activity that started it all! "Brushing Dudley" was the first activity we introduced to help teach children how to brush their teeth properly. By brushing Dudley, students gain hands-on experience brushing and learn the importance of cleaning every surface of their teeth to maintain a healthy smile!

Food Board

Our "Food Board" activity is a favorite among the kids! Students sort and place different kinds of foods on the "healthy foods" side or the "Cavity bug foods" side. The goal is to help students distinguish between foods that can contribute to cavities and those that support good oral health. We emphasize that no food is completely off-limits, as healthy eating is all about balance and moderation!

Play-Doh Floss

Flossing is an important part of oral healthcare that is often overlooked! During this activity, students use floss to remove Play-Doh from the interproximal spaces of typodonts, simulating how food can become stuck between teeth. We teach students how to properly hold floss and emphasize gentle up-and-down motions to effectively clean between teeth.

Laminated Brushing Sheet

Combining creativity and learning, our "Laminated Brushing Sheet" activity is a fun way for students to develop healthy brushing habits while expressing their artistic side! Students draw their favorite foods or "cavity bugs" on laminated sheets and then brush them away with toothbrushes. We like to emphasize brushing in gentle circular motions and using light pressure to help maintain healthy teeth and gums!

Toy Dental Kit

Our "Toy Dental Kit" activity is a fun, playful way for students to further become familiar with oral health! Students get to role-play being dentists with toy dental instruments and gain a better understanding of how dentists keep teeth healthy. We also use this activity to help reduce fear of dental visits, emphasizing that the dentist is here to help!

Brush/Floss Presentation

Before we start our activity session, we give a short five-minute presentation introducing the fundamentals of oral health, including brushing twice a day for two minutes and the importance of flossing. To make the presentation more interactive, we ask three student volunteers to stand side by side and represent teeth. Using a big toothbrush, we clean the top, front, and back surfaces of each "tooth." Then we use a long piece of string to represent dental floss, and show how to clean between each space! This allows for a fun visualization of brushing and flossing before we have the students jump into our activities.