Archive for October, 2009

5 Tips for a Cavity-Free Halloween

Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Fun Flossers are perfect for teaching kids the importance of keeping teeth healthy.

Fun Flossers are perfect for teaching kids the importance of keeping teeth healthy.

Halloween is a much-anticipated night for just about every candy-loving youth. But as children dream of Skittles, Snickers and Starbursts, parents worry about the negative effects of all that candy on their children’s health – especially their teeth.

This year, teach your kids what sugar does to their teeth and show them easy ways to stay healthy. Use colorful, made-for-kids tools like DenTek Fun Flossers to make oral care fun as well as educational. With their wild fruit flavors and wacky colors, they fit right into the Halloween theme. After Halloween is over they’re still a great incentive to keep the flossing habit going.

Here are five more tips to prevent a scary post-Halloween smile:

  1. Educate yourself on which candies are most harmful to your children’s teeth, and limit after-dinner stash looting to just 2 pieces of candy.
  2. Give the extra-sticky candies to charities like the Halloween Candy Buyback program. They pay a dollar a pound for candy and send it to our troops overseas.
  3. Encourage kids to drink water throughout the day, especially after eating candy, to help rinse away sugars between brushings.
  4. Make sure your children brush and floss after every meal and every candy stash raid.
  5. Teach children to floss daily with Fun Flossers! Follow the flossing instructions below.

Flossing Instructions: Hold flosser firmly between thumb and index finger. Using a gentle back-and-forth motion, slide floss between teeth. Move up & down against tooth to clean above & below the gum line. Repeat steps for each tooth. Discard after use.

Halloween is a fun holiday. Parents and children shouldn’t have to worry about scary tooth decay. By practicing good oral hygiene, kids can have fun and still enjoy the candy! Click here for more information on Fun Flossers or to show your children an instructional flossing video.

Happy Halloween from DenTek!

5 Ways to Teach Kids to Brush (and Floss!)

Monday, October 26th, 2009

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Getting kids to care for their teeth is evidently a big challenge. We get notes and reviews from Fun Flosser customers all the time telling us how hard it is, and the candy-coated Halloween season is about to make it worse. What better time to take a fresh look at how to make oral care fun and educational? Take a look at these five tips for making good oral care interesting.

  1. Lead by example! I don’t mean to repeat your dentist’s broken record, but good habits are contagious. Let your kids see how much you care about your smile and chances are they’ll want to be just like you.
  2. Let them pick out their tools. There are dozens of tooth-care tools for kids out there, from brushes to mouthwash. Get your child involved in the process by letting them choose what they use. We think kid-friendly handles and awesome flavor make Fun Flossers the best choice for flossing, but if your little one wants princesses or superheroes, go for it.
  3. Find a way to make it fun. Make up a song or game to go along with brushing and flossing. Silly? Absolutely. But the laughter and goofiness is something your kids will remember for years, along with good habits, of course.
  4. Teach your kids why oral care is so important. Tell them what plaque, cavities, and gingivitis are and how to prevent them. Ask your dentist for some disclosure tablets, chewable tabs that turn plaque different colors, or pick up some plaque-revealing mouthwash. Even the youngest kids can see the post-brushing difference if plaque is bright blue!
  5. Let them be the teacher. This might seem a little backwards, but education experts say that teaching a subject is sometimes the best way to learn it. While you’re practicing good oral care, set a date when your little student will become the teacher. Set aside a morning for them to teach you how to take care of your teeth.

So how did you teach your kids to take care of their teeth? Do you remember what made good brushing and flossing habits stick in your own mind? Share your tips and tricks in the comments!

Our Contract With You: Social Media Policy

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Most corporate social media policies are all about keeping employees intelligent about what and how they post on a company blog. Here at DenTek all the social media is handled by one person… me, so all the internal regulation is pretty simple.

When I got the assignment to write this policy I knew it couldn’t be about what I was promising the company, it had to be about what I’m promising you, the reader. These are the rules I tweet, post, and blog by, and I hope they’ll dispel any doubts about what DenTek’s goals are on the Internet.

1) We define social media as any form of media that enables public interaction with and between consumers. This includes but is not limited to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and personal blogs.

2) We will NEVER pay bloggers or other consumers to give us a good review. Period.

We do, however, frequently send out samples of new products to learn what consumers think. We encourage honesty in all of those reviews and require disclosure in the form of the following disclaimer.

*This review is a result of a feedback campaign by DenTek Oral Care, Inc. The recipients were asked to give their honest opinion about the product they received. Good reviews were not incentivized and poor reviews will not be censored for their opinion of the product.

If you don’t see this, it’s likely we weren’t involved.

3) DenTek enjoys a relaxed, casual work environment, and that attitude is what we try to convey online. DenTek posts are meant to be informative and entertaining, not offensive. If anything objectionable appears on a DenTek site or profile, please inform us and the issue will be addressed promptly.

4) We will respond to all questions and comments as quickly and accurately as possible. You can contact us through the following avenues:

Twitter – @DenTek

Facebook – DenTek Oral Care or DenTek Professional

Email – Consumer affairs: info@dentek.com

Phone – Consumer and professional affairs: 1-800-433-6835

5) If you choose to share your personal information with us, please read our Privacy Policy to understand more about how we keep your information safe.

DenTek has two main reasons for using social media: informing consumers and engaging them in conversation. The internet offers unprecedented scope and speed of communication, and we want to use that to tell you about ways you can save money and improve your health. But, more importantly, we want YOU to use it to tell us how we can better serve you.

A lot of companies have violated consumer trust in social media, so we know we have to prove ourselves before we can expect honest interaction. The policy outlined above is designed to make you more comfortable with talking to us directly through social media. If you feel we’ve left something out or made something unclear feel free to let us know.

Welcome to DenTek.com!

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

Welcome to the DenTek blog! Whenever you visit DenTek.com you’ll find deals, contests, new product news, and great articles that will help you get the most out of your dental care. Profiles and interviews will let you get to know some of the tooth nuts who love DenTek, employees and customers alike, and I’ll give you a sneak preview of some of the most interesting products and deals coming down the line.

But, most importantly, I’m here to listen to you. Leave your remarks or questions in the comments or reach me through our Twitter (@DenTek) or Facebook accounts. No matter how you choose to talk, we’re listening.

Stay tuned for the DenTek version of a social media policy – our contract with you.