I have spent 14 years ingraining good dental habits into the lives of our two lovely daughters, brushing twice daily. But, I will have to say that I have not encouraged flossing and rinsing with mouthwash like I should perhaps. Apparently, brushing alone misses 75% of your mouth. Hmm. . .

And, then there’s my own colorful trips to the dentist where every hygienist lectures me over my bleeding gums after they gouge out every evidence of plaque with their iron arm flossing. My gums have always been sensitive. It got worse when I had babies and I was never good at flossing myself.

And, so, in honor of National Children’s Dental Health Month, I’ve agreed to a three week challenge to join my children in a more regimented routine of brushing, flossing and rinsing twice daily. This blogging promotion actually comes at the perfect time because my 13 year old is about to start braces soooo . . .  developing the habit of rinsing after brushing to get in and around all the metalwork is going to be really important.

You can see in the pictures that we received a whole host of supplies from Listerine® & REACH® for our experience: Listerine® SMART RINSE®  Anticavity Flouride Rinse,  Listerine® TOTAL CARE Zero {Alcohol} Anticavity mouthwash, Listerine® CoolMint Antiseptic mouthwash and REACH® TOTAL CARE toothbrushes and dental floss. (And, a calendar for keeping track.) The mouthwash comes in a variety of flavors and so I see a mouthwash taste testing coming on! And, then there’s the cool toothbrushes for Mom with whitening action and tongue cleaners. I will give more detail on these items in my follow-up post once I have used them for awhile.

Follow our bloggy fun using the #healthyhabits hash tag on Twitter. Learn about better oral health care habits by visiting www.walmart.com/AHA/Listerine/Reach where dental experts like Dr. Lott offer super duper tips for your family!

{Disclosure: I received products and compensation from Johnson & Johnson and The Motherhood as part of my participation in the Oral Care Challenge. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.}