The Singing Nurse

Tooth Brushing: Power vs. Manual

I was curious as to the effectiveness of power toothbrushes so I decided to inquire and try one. I purchased an Oral B battery powered one for 6.99 which has the Cross Action. I’ve decided as a newbie this was a good place to start. I’ve used it for a week or so and still adjusting to the extra drool that is running down on to my hand. Maybe the positive experience is making me brush longer so more is accumulating.

I remember working with a quadriplegic patient who was quite satisfied with his power toothbrush. He had great teeth and flossed regularly as well. We were reminded often to turn the brush off before removing it from his mouth, as you have guessed, to prevent the shower that was sure to occur.

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During my inquiry, two power brushes seem to stand above all others, the Sonicare and the Braun. The Sonicare is made by Philips while the Braun is made by Oral B.

One of the reasons I have learned that the electric brushes are effective is because most people will brush longer with an electric toothbrush. It is recommended that we brush for 2 minutes.  Studies have shown manual brushers tend to brush less than 2 minutes.

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Dr. Neda who is a periodontist, prefers the sonicare power toothbrush because it makes her teeth feel clean. She feels that the battery operated toothbrush I purchased would be equal to a manual toothbrush.

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Lee, office manager for Dr. Lomangino and Dr. Soltis’ office preferred the Sonicare over the Braun, but felt the Braun was a better choice because of the ease of cleaning and the cost of toothbrush replacements.

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Tina, my Dental Hygienist who cleans my teeth, felt the battery powered toothbrush would do a better job than a manual toothbrush. She stated the Sonicare power brush was a great product but uses a manual toothbrush herself. Tina also says to let the power toothbrushes do the work and not press too hard.

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Dr. Soltis believes you should use “whatever makes you happy”. Brushing your teeth should be a positive experience and if you enjoy it you will do a better job. He stated that a power brush would be helpful for someone who has limited hand movement. Dr. Soltis prefers the good old fashion manual toothbrush.

All my dental health professional friends agree flossing should be equally important to our daily dental care routines.

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♥ Points to remember:

♥ Brush your teeth for 2 minutes    ♥ Floss your teeth    ♥ Visit your dentist regularly

Please leave a comment: We’d love for you to join the conversation and let us know what method of brushing you use and why you like it. There are many great sites in cyberspace that provide a wealth of information for families and children. If you are a teacher of preschoolers or young children we’d like to learn about the resource you may have that teach good dental habits.

Below is a quote from Sonicare’s website, visit their site for more information and products.

Below are excerpts from the Oral B website, check their site for complete information and products.

• Numerous brushing modes specialized for sensitive teeth, whitening benefits or gum-massaging action
• Pressure sensors to signal when you’re brushing too hard
• Timers to help you keep track of how long you’re brushing each quadrant of your mouth
• Digital reminders to replace your brush head
• Oscillating-rotating or sonic technology
• Multiple brush head compatibility so you can choose which kind of bristle design you prefer

• Crisscrossed, extra-long or multi-level bristles
• Polished or rounded bristle tips
• Textured bristles
• Cupped-bristle design for whitening benefits
• Ergonomically designed handles with special grips
• Tapered or angled brush head
• Gum stimulators
• Tongue cleaner pads

• Built-in AA battery that can be replaced in some models
• “On/Off” or “+/-“ button located on the handle
• Bristles or split brush heads specially designed to pulsate along with the vibrations

Remember to leave a comment: We’d love for you to join the conversation a let us know what method of brushing you use and why you like it.

Happy Dental Health Month!

For Healthy Teeth and Gums

Dawn Ginese, R.N.

The Singing Nurse

Listen or Download:  “I’m Gonna Brush My Teeth” “The Dentist is a Good Guy”

Hand washing for good health, how many interesting and enticing ways can we share, show and encourage each other to “just do it”, and teach our highly observant and ever emerging preschoolers to follow in our footsteps.

Doing what is takes to teach the point!

This handwashing post is dedicated to those feisty energetic preschool teachers, who I happen to believe are some of the most creative bunch of gals on the planet. Most of us are women who work in early childhood because, who else has the patience, and delights in hanging out with a gang of wiggly equally energetic three and four year olds.

My experience working with preschoolers developed while being a mother of three, teaching Sunday school, being a teacher assistant for emotionally disturbed children, and then later, as a nurse, the singing nurse.

The task of hand washing became necessary not only as a mother washing off mud pie and finger paints, but also as a Head Start Nurse. You might be familiar with this program that helps low income families learn all they can about parenting, raising healthy children, leadership and setting goals for themselves. The staff’s job was to discover anything that may hinder the child’s growth in all aspects, be it emotional or health issues, hearing or vision difficulties or the spotting of a potential learning disability.

We worked as a team and were privileged to be part of their developing lives, to give them a “Head Start” before Kindergarten. We worked not only with the children, but with the whole family unit. We take for granted the skills we’ve learned from our parents like, being encouraging, sitting and reading a book with our child, cooking a meal together and gathering as a family to eat it. It was part of the Head Start program to teach and model these family values.

The Rubba Dub Dub Baby

Oh yes, hand washing, just a slight sidetrack and bit of knowledge about the path I’ve been on. So, how does this all tie together? I am a musician as well as a nurse, so I decided to write some health songs while I was working in early childhood development. Who can vouch for the fact that we all write and sing little songs for every purpose while working with preschool children? The common adventures and sometimes scary situations preschoolers encounter in school and with medical professionals gave me the spark to write songs like; I’m Gonna Brush My Teeth, The Dentist is a Good Guy, Don’t Spread Your Germs Around, The Audiologist, The Tick Song, and Babies Are Beautiful.

One health song in particular is a hand washing song for preschoolers called “Rubba Dub Dub”. The tune is an echo song, it is easy to sing, the hand motions are simple, it’s tested and true and the kids love the lively beat. I was blessed by my daughter Hannah who created an animation of my song as a Christmas gift.

I just completed a lesson plan with activities and discussion points that integrates my hand washing song. The basic health lesson is complete with a germ game and several project options, lyrics with hand motions and more.

“Rubba Dub, Dub”, as well as other health tunes can be downloaded at my website. Check it all out, sign up via my contact page to receive news when my animated dental song and completed lesson plan book is finished.

Thanks to a new friend Deborah Stewart who encouraged me to reach out to her circle of early childhood educators with my educational health songs. I found her and her website, Teach Preschool via twitter.

Cheers to competent, innovative preschool teachers. Lead by example and they will follow!

For Healthy Kids, Dawn Ginese, The Singing Nurse

www.TheSingingNurse.com

The Singing Nurse, Dawn Ginese, RN © 2010

The winter is upon us, so we need to teach our children to protect themselves from the lurking germs about us. We need to enthusiastically model to them; washing our hands often, educate our children to not touch their eyes, mouth and nose and remind them to cough and sneeze in their shoulder. The Singing Nurse has a special song available to download that makes your job fun and easy.

Your kids will think you are amazing as you dance and incorporate hand motions and a conga line while waving your tissue. Read on to learn more, to read the lyrics, and to learn the history and inspiration behind the health song, “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around”.

PreschoolRadio.com has included the song, “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around” on their most recent Radio Show. PreschoolRadio is a fun podcast formatted show who plays music for children 6 and under and those who love them. You will meet new artist and have access to their websites to purchase their music. My hat is off to Lyn Michaels-Carden, the producer.

Drawing by April Matula, special ed. preschool teacher, artist and illustrator.

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#4 on the TSN CD, To purchase click on Music. Can be used with the hand washing health lesson.

Don’t Spread Your Germs Around

Dawn Ginese, RN  2004

If you think you need to cough

You think you need to cough

If you think you need to cough

(Cough sound into your shoulder) in your shoulder

If you think you need to cough

You think you need to cough

Show me what you’re going to do.

(Cough sound into your shoulder) in your shoulder

Chorus:

Don’t spread, don’t spread, don’t spread your germs around x3

Oh no, don’t spread your germs around

If you think you need to sneeze

You think you need to sneeze

If you think you need to sneeze

(Sneeze sound into your shoulder) in your shoulder

If you think you need to sneeze

You think you need to sneeze

Show me what you’re going to do.

(Sneeze sound into your shoulder) in your shoulder

Chorus:

Inspiration

“Don’t Spread Your Germs Around” has a Latin beat so I had my Puerto Rican friend, Jackie Rosado  sing it. The song helps children learn to cough or sneeze in their shoulder rather than in their hands or in the air. If they happen to forget and do it in their hands Jackie asks the children “what are you going to do?”, and they jubilantly reply “wash your hands”. It’s amazing how kids pick up concepts when you use music and motions. We’ve dressed up in Latin attire for this song and towards the end of the song formed a conga line while someone handed a tissue to each child as they passed by. If you have a smaller group, have them pass by a second time for another tissue so they will have one in each hand. One time we had a child dress up in my Nurses dress and cap and had her hand out the tissues.

To purchase click on Music.

3 Free Christmas songs are available until the end of 2009, add them to your library today ready for next Christmas!(update: The Christmas songs will be back again@ the end of 2010)

I found Preschool Radio via twitter, a great music listening site for the family, who caters to children six years old and under.  Lyn, the host, was searching for a radio program for her young daughter and felt what was offered on the radio waves was not appropriate for her. Lyn’s background in radio broadcasting gave her the nudge to create Preschool Radio. The show plays many undiscovered children’s artist and is quite delightful and refreshing. I contacted Lyn at Preschool Radio and asked if she would give my songs a listen, and she quickly replied back that we were a perfect match. Preschool Radio is in the midst of the Christmas season and played “The First Time” a Christmas song I wrote, recorded and gave to friends and family as a gift one Christmas. You can download 3 FREE Christmas songs I have written by going to the music page. I look forward to the future shows where Preschool Radio will be playing my sing along health songs.

Check them out @  www.PreschoolRadio.com

Have a Wonderful Merry Christmas !

Ms. Dawn, The Singing Nurse

The Singing Nurse was part of this event and brought her songs for healthy living to the ESL (English as a Second Language) Family Night. The evening was hosted by the Pawling Central School District, and held at the Dover Elementary Cafeteria. The night was set aside to celebrate learning and family friendships. The principal of the Dover Elementary school as well as the ESL teachers organized the event. To kick off the evening, the grateful parents prepared and brought in delicious food to share with one another, yummy ethnic foods like, homemade tamales, salad, desserts and other Latin American dishes.

My take on the evening: Eating together and getting acquainted was a highlight for me as I observed firsthand the hard work and success of the P.C.S.D. ESL classes and its participants. The parents and children were friendly and enjoyed a little chit chat while using their English skills.

A family health workshop was my contribution to the event, and of course I used songs with hand motions as my arsenal of tools to share the information. We started out with a couple of familiar songs like The Hokey Pokey, to help break the ice. As we entered into the interactive lesson and asked questions, I was very impressed, especially by the knowledge the children possessed of the H1N1 influenza, and the schools preparation for the prevention of spreading germs.

We sang Rubba Dub Dub, a song from TSN CD, as we reviewed proper hand washing techniques and the best way to get rid of germs. We sang another TSN song, I’m Gonna Brush My Teeth, while reviewing tooth decay prevention. Pictures were also shown as we talked about Lice and how to prevent from getting them.

One of the young boys won the grand prize which wrapped up the evening, consisted of a basket filled with family health items, a nurse’s kit and one of The Singing Nurse CDs. He proudly posed for a picture to display the basket of gifts.

08/19/2009

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kate and Beth on a missions trip to El Transito, Nicaragua to teach english, donate sports equipment and share The Singing Nurse Global Health Songs.

While there, they worked with and made friends with the local families and children. To see and read their blog go to http://katebethnicaragua.blogspot.com

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02/17/2008

A new tab has been added today, we thought you would like to hear what others are saying about The Singing Nurse website at www.TheSingingNurse.com and how they are using the health songs from “The Singng Nurse, Nurturing Body, Mind and Spirit” in their everyday lives. We have some appreciative comments from Mothers, Grandmothers and Teachers.

Check it out………  Keep Singing…

Ms. Dawn, The Singing Nurse

08/13/2009

The Singing Nurse songs are now downloadable here at “The Singing Nurse” website.
Check it out at the “Music“ tab to listen and download.

Make sure and get your orders in time for the start of the school year. Nothing like starting the school year with your kids singing “Don’t Spread Your Germs Around” and “Rubba Dub Dub” to ward off the germs of the flu and cold season.

You can download the songs here and copy and paste the words from my “Lyrics and Inspiration“ page or if you prefer, you can order a physical CD from my online Store at the “Music“ tab. PayPal and all major credit cards accepted.

So have you been enjoying the summer, it is almost over. I’ve enjoyed mine, but I’m hoping for an Indian Summer.

Have a wonderful school year. Remember to “cough and sneeze in your shoulder”…
Sincerely for Healthy Kids…Ms. Dawn

05/19/2009

————About Global Health Songs

My last project is now complete. Three Rice students found my website while looking for health songs and contacted me about writing some songs for their Beyond Traditional Borders program, and “Global Health Songs, Songs for Life and Healthy Living” was born. They really enjoyed “Babies are Beautiful” and asked me to write some songs to go along with their reproductive health curriculum which encourages families to visit the local clinic where they can receive medical help and education. My hope is that “Global Health Songs” will be a vehicle to connect needy families with competent health care givers in their community.
The Song titles are:
1.“Won’t You Come to the Clinic”, a song with Latin beats encouraging families to come to the clinic where the doctor and nurse are there to help them.
2.“See Your Doctor Nurse and Friend”, a gentle Rap song encouraging families to visit the clinic where they can “see your doctor, nurse and friend, they can give you medicine.”
3. “Everyone is Healthy!”, is harmony filled acapella song that starts with fear of the health care providers and turns to reasons why “The Doctor helps your baby, the doctor helps your little child”. Josh enhances this tune with harmony and echos back in Spanish.
4. “Go to the Doctor”, with flutes and hand drums give this song a Native American feel which shares “go to the clinic, come to the clinic, everyone there is friendly and nice”. I think this one is my favorite.
5-8 are all the same songs sung acapella using simple rhythm instruments which provides examples to health care givers who may use the songs in remote villages with electricity unavailable.
Hope you enjoy and let your medical missionary friends hear.
God Bless, Ms Dawn, The Singing Nurse
You can hear 2 of the songs @ www.MySpace.com/MsDawnTheSingingNurse

Photo by Amelia/CAFOD 8/04

05/08/2009
Global Health Songs CD is complete.

Let me know if you are interested and I will get you the info about purchasing a copy for your health programs working in villages and small communities. Written to connect families and their health needs to competent health professionals. TheSingingNurse@gmail.com

04/18/2009
Rice student connection-Global Health Songs Underway!

I am very excited to be working on 4 songs for 3 Rice students, two of them pictured here. The songs will help to promote the health program the students are working on for Guatemala and Botswana. They are attending Rice University and involved in the program BeyondTraditionalBorders. I did some preproduction yesterday and like the way the songs are coming along. One of my music friends Josh, is going to help by adding some spanish words and vocals to the recordings.

01/21/2008

We have had some interest in The Singing Nurse  songs from an educational music website. We are looking over the contract to see if it is a fit for The Singing Nurse sing along songs.  We have also heard back from Pam Beall  WeeSing co author.

Pam Beall said the following: “The Singing Nurse is a delightful and much needed CD for parents, teachers, and young children.  The health concepts are important and presented in a way that children can easily sing along and remember through fun melodies and catchy accompaniments.  This CD would be a wonderful teaching tool for a health unit in preschool and early elementary school.  It would also be valuable to parents as they teach their children good health habits at home.”

So it looks like things are looking good.  I look forward to keeping you all up to date on everything that goes on…

Stay Healthy,

Ms. Dawn