cleaning teeth!

[lisa35]

Has anyone any advice- have awful problems convincing my 10 yr old- he hates the taste of toothpaste and senstaion of brush, will lie, etc,etc, to get out of it, then hardly clean them for a few seconds!

We ve tried- letting him choose/ buy brush/toothpaste, tried loads of different ones (inc sensitive), give points, used timers, electric/ novelty brushes, help!!!!????

Lisa

[Paula]

 

I can sympathise with this one i realy can.

 

My son is 12 and hates brushing his teeth also.He refuses to do it and like youres if he does its literally over in seconds.I end up haveing to brush his teeth and i have to admit sometimes i forget with everything else that goes on.

 

I was going to suggest an electric toothbrush.Or how about one of them sonic ones ive never used one but no doubt someone on here has.Im wondering do sonic brushes make as much of a noise as electric ones?

 

 

My son will use one of those mouth washes that remove plaque.But not the strong minty types weve been useing one of the new ones i think its called dentotyne or something you shake the bottle to mix it and in the adverts the lady goes "wow you can actually see the removed stuff in the sink"

 

Luckily so far hes only had to have one filling.Which im surprised at.I also let him chew gum.The whirtening cleaning stuff.It might help his teeth a little and can do no harm.Sugar free of course.

 

Ive just thought of something else.How about using those cloth things to brush his teeth cant remeber what there called or just putting the toothpaste on youre finger and rubbing his teeth.

 

My sister was a dental surgery assistant for years and she assures me that even if all you can do is rubb gently the teeth and gums with tooth paste without a brush its better than nothing and will help neutralize the plaque.

Edited April 21, 2006 by Paula

[Flora]

My boys hate brushing their teeth. William does it automatically like a robot, Luke on the other hand waves the brush around for a few seconds and that's it. Every now and then I pin him down and give them a good scrub but today I found a solution. There's a picture of a young lad in the Daily Mail today, he has hardly any teeth and the ones he does have are rotten. I showed it to Luke and told him that's what he'd be like in a few years time if he didn't start cleaning them. He ran straight upstairs and spent 5 minutes scrubbing and then vowed he'd never eat sweets again

 

Another thing I do from time to time is give them a disclosing tablet which turns the plaque areas blue. They hate that and so spend a good while making sure they clean it all off. The first time I did that I discovered that Luke's yellowish teeth are in fact quite white and William could have been in a tooth paste addy!

[justamom]

K is terrible with brushing his teeth, i have bought some of those brush way things that you put over your finger and rub on your teeth... Not a permanent solution but it does help on the way to school when he smiles over at you and you get a yellow smile...

 

justamom

[Viper]

my NT 11 year old hates brushing her teeth and we get the 2 second routine too. On the other hand my AS DD has to brush her teeth every time we leave the house and it is just as we leave too, we have to wait in the car while she does her last minute clean up.

 

Have you tried the fruit flavoured tooth pastes, they have cartoon chataters on, aimed at young children but my youngest two use them, not as often as they should mind you.

[KarenT]

We're starting to make headway on this one at long last. J has always tended to stick the toothbrush in his mouth and hold it there, not actually doing anything. He has an electric toothbrush now and that's helped a lot, because even if he just holds it it's still cleaning.

 

A few weeks ago, during his latest round of Robot Wars obsession, we had pretend battles between him and his favourite robots. We went through 'strenghts and weaknesses' like they do on the programme, except in relation to toothbrushing abilities eg 'Razer is fast and has a powerful claw, but he always forgets to brush the molars at the back' so of course J wanted to beat Razer so he did the molars at the back... I do still have to hover over him but he's much better since then.

 

I also have a timer in the bathroom so he can see how long he has to brush for.

 

Karen

x

[Paula]

Glad youre making headway on this.

[Guest hallyscomet]

I say start pulling out some photos of what their teeth will look like if they don't brush properly that will certainly make them brush.

 

scare tactics

 

H.