Disclosure: “I received a Target gift card to purchase LISTERINE® Brand products from Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Products Division of McNEIL-PPC, Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in the LISTERINE® 21-Day Challenge. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.”

#LISTERINE 21-Day Oral Health Challenge: Three Weeks to a Healthier Mouth!

I am gearing up to take the LISTERINE® 21-Day Oral Health Challenge with my son. Why? Because, quite frankly, our oral health practices need a whole lot of work.  Let me tell you a little story. It starts with a new mom assuming that she’s doing everything right, because really, she’s gotten pretty confident in this whole mothering thing. This mom started brushing her son’s teeth when he was about a year old. Right there, she’s already messed up because you’re supposed to do it like the minute they pop those little suckers through. In fact, some say you should do it as soon as they have gums, which of course is at birth.

So this mom-oh, nevermind, you all know it’s me! So I thought I was doing pretty good. Sure, I waited a bit to take my son to the dentist, like when he was five, but I didn’t think he would handle it very well. He’s like me, totally freaked out by the idea of anyone putting their hands in his mouth. Seriously, I bite! They sedate me just to make an appointment for the dentist! I’m that scared of them. I didn’t want my son to be the same way, though, so I started taking him regularly at five.

Guess what? Turns out I was pretty much doing everything wrong!

I didn’t floss his teeth or give him mouthwash because I thought he was too young. I also let him brush on his own starting at around four. He was missing a ton of stuff. So much that, at 7, he had to get a crown on his baby teeth. That meant a 1.5 hour trip to a pediatric dentist that could knock him out. The first one we took him too gave him three different “sleepy time” medications and my chip off the old block STILL refused to open his mouth. I had to take him to another dentist- also over an hour away- that was even better with kids. Basically, he had an arcade and lets kids watch cartoons as he knocked them out.

After all that, I was much more diligent about his teeth. Still, during his last visit they found a small cavity between his teeth. Luckily, after bribing him with a $60 video game, I was able to get that filled right there in town. So now the goal is to make sure that we both floss, brush and use mouth wash twice a day. Because even though I didn’t talk about me here, I’m definitely need to create better habits. Namely, floss more. I love mouthwash, but tend to think “well, hey, that’s getting in between the teeth, right? That counts!” It doesn’t.

Getting Help with the LISTERINE® 21-Day Oral Health Challenge

#LISTERINE 21-Day Oral Health Challenge: Three Weeks to a Healthier Mouth!

The LISTERINE® 21-Day Oral Health Challenge is just that, a challenge to take better care of your teeth for 21 days. Well, forever, really, but basically, those 21 days give you a great foundation for getting in the habit of better oral health practices. The challenge includes using the following items, which I purchased at Target.

  • LISTERINE® Antiseptic
  • LISTERINE® SMART RINSE®
  • LISTERINE® WHITENING® Original Gel Fluoride Anticavity Toothpaste
  • REACH® Floss
#LISTERINE 21-Day Oral Health Challenge: Three Weeks to a Healthier Mouth!

Check it out, they have Avengers now! That’s the one we went with.

Help Yourself, Help the Kids!

The LISTERINE® 21-Day Oral Health Challenge will hopefully help me and Jake reach new levels of awesomeness in oral health. Did you know, though, that you can also help kids in need while you’re helping yourself? LISTERINE® will donate $5.00 (up to $85,000) to the Oral Health America’s Smiles Across America program for every person who posts a “Swish Selfie” to the LISTERINE® Brand’s Facebook page. The program is hoping to raise enough to connect 210,000 kids with much-needed oral health services this year.

So go ahead and join me in the LISTERINE® 21-Day Oral Health Challenge! Head to Target and pick up your supplies! Come back in March to see how I did!

What are your biggest challenges when it comes to taking care of your mouth or your kids’ oral health?