How to get your kids to brush their teeth

Question: How can you get the kids to start brushing their teeth?

Your child may say he brushed his teeth tonight and the toothbrush does feel wet when you check, but as a lot of parents have found out the hard way, the age old “wet toothbrush” trick has just arrived to your house! Why would he go through the effort of making it look like he brushed his teeth and not just actually brush them?

There is just some things that only kids themselves can understand, and brushing their teeth is most certainly something they want to avoid. If you find that you’re struggling with this chore, here are some tips for integrating daily brushing into your household.

Start early

The earlier you start brushing your child’s teeth the better. They do not even have to have teeth to start going through the motions. (With or without teeth, you should use toothpaste). Daily brushing normalizes oral health as part of the daily routine so when your child has a full set of teeth you won’t have to introduce a new expectation. The norm will already be set.

For some small children a long plastic toothbrush can be intimidating or even invasive. If that happens to be the case in your household, consider asking your pharmacist for a finger cap and using your finger to brush your child’s teeth and gums.

Modelling, Consistency, Fun

The most successful approaches will combine the strategies of modelling, consistency and making the desired behaviour fun. These strategies can be combined by creating the following daily routine. First, open wide and ask your young child to brush your teeth. This is a good warm-up to holding the toothbrush without actually putting it in the child’s mouth. Then, you brush your child’s teeth. This is a good way to make sure all the teeth actually get brushed as his/her dexterity may still not be fully developed. Finally, as a reward, the child has a turn to brush a teddy bear’s teeth. This way everyone is involved in the process.

“I Make you Brush your Teeth because I Love You”

A little bit of psychology and empathy can work wonders if you are really struggling. The trick is to frame what you say in terms that your child can understand and try to see things from their perspective. You might tell your child, “You love your teddy bear, so you would want him to have clean teeth, right? I love you so I want you to have clean teeth the same way.” Drawing the association between love and oral hygiene as well as the repetition will likely help your child understand that this is not scary or a punishment, but something important to be done out of love.

Imagery and Singing

For young children, sometimes a song can go a long way. Help them to imagine the toothbrush as the wheel on a bus. You can sing to them:

The wheels on the brush go ’round and ‘round

’Round and ‘round, round’ and ‘round

The wheels on the brush go ’round and ‘round

All through our mouths!

This is a lot of fun with a mouth full toothpaste!

For Older Children

For older children, you might let them pick out their own toothbrush and toothpaste, or try an electric toothbrush. You can also ask your pharmacist for a pink dissolving agent, that when swished around in the mouth will reveal spots where plaque has built-up. Children usually think this “magic trick” is interesting and are eager to scrub the pink away. Finally, try teaching your child to use a timer and to keep brushing until the timer goes off – two minutes total. If they find the activity boring then you might read to them while they brush, or offer to play some music.

If you are having a hard time getting your child to adapt this healthy behaviour, take a moment to congratulate yourself for trying and acknowledge that this can be tricky. Then, try some of these new techniques and hopefully your luck will change.



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John Keane is a full time pharmacist and owner of Keanes Pharmacy. Why not discuss this topic confidentially with John anytime in person at Keanes Pharmacy, Austin Friars or 0449342884 ©Keanes Pharmacy