Student Spotlight: Rebecca Kimn DMD 25 Writes Children’s Book Promoting the Fun of Oral Hygiene
Scrub, squeak, swoosh! Oh no, the Tooth Sleuths have invaded Crown Town! Can heroine Ann T. Caries protect Crown Town before their “fillings” get hurt?
That’s the premise of a new children’s book–“Ann T. Caries Defends Crown Town”–by Rebecca Kimn DMD 25, who said she hopes the book encourages oral health and hygiene education in an entertaining and non-intimidating way.
Kimn was inspired by her experiences of visiting the dentist as a child, where she didn’t have interesting reading material in the waiting room. She notes that a dental office is a key location to teach children about their dental health–and hopes children will be eager to read her book while waiting.
“I think it’s important to have kids not view dentistry as something scary, but something that could actually be kind of cool,” Kimn said.
In the book, the protagonist, Ann T. Caries, is the gatekeeper of Crown Town, a magical place best known for “its majestic gate and beautiful lake,” and strives to keep the town as neat and tidy as possible. After she starts to question the purpose of her work, evil creatures known as the Tooth Sleuths attack, leaving Ann to battle them with her stealthy cleaning skills.
Kimn said she purposely made the title character a superhero-like figure to appeal to younger audiences. It took some time to figure out how to best make the main character a superhero, but she said she is happy with the final version.
“She fights off the bad guys using her toothbrush, and her floss, and her fluoride, showing kids that oral hygiene can be fun,” Kimn said.
While her main audience is educating children, she wanted to make sure adults would be in on the fun–and be able to easily explain the concepts the book introduces. From the front cover to the last line of the summary, Kimn said she sprinkled in dental puns, ranging from the character Ann. T Caries’ name (playing off anticaries) and Caries’ cleaning agent FLOORide (a spoof on fluoride).
“I think [the dental puns] could be appreciated by the adults who are reading it to them, and even any dental professionals who go pick up a copy for themselves,” Kimn said.
Kimn said she had a specific vision for the book’s illustrations, which fill the book’s pages with tooth gates and a loyal dog sidekick named Bruxer (drawn to look like Kimn’s dog). She sketched the original images and sent them out to a professional illustrator.
“I wanted to make the pictures really fun, just because it is about dentistry, which is intimidating to kids,” Kimn said. “I wanted them to have beautiful visual images to look at.”
It was surreal seeing her story come to life, she said. It seemed like make-believe until she saw the text and images come together.
“The most memorable [moment was] when I uploaded it to the publishing website, and I was able to see the whole print version on my computer,” Kimn said. “Just seeing it all together with all the text, all the colors and images, that’s when it felt like it was actually coming together.”
This isn’t the end of the Crown Town “universe,” as Kimn is developing a memory-card game based on the adventures of Ann T. Caries. Kimn said she wants the game to be another way to make dentistry approachable to children.
“It will be a simple game that can be played in dental office waiting rooms to quell any fears of visiting the dentist while also introducing some dental instruments that may be seen later during the appointment,” Kimn said. “I hope to change perspectives of dentistry in general, and my vision in writing this book and creating this card game is that young children will view oral health and dentistry as exciting, rather than intimidating.”
Note: Ann T. Caries Defends Crown Town is available for purchase on Amazon.