To brush my five year olds teeth for her?

I think 6.5-7 is about right to introduce closely supervised independent brushing, dentists usually advise that you brush them until age 7 and by the time they start sleepovers, brownie camps, school residentials (7-8 for us) I’d want them to be able to do a decent job themselves. So I wouldn’t personally continue always doing it for them any older than that. But totally normal and in their best interests to brush a 5YOs teeth! They just don’t have the coordination to do it themselves.

YANBU. The rule taught in German dentist school is that the child must be able to write a full sentence in joined-up writing before they should be allowed to brush their teeth alone. The reasoning is that the skills behind both are the same - they need manual dexterity to manage it and also the patience/attention span to get every part of the teeth without just vaguely swishing the brush at the harder to reach parts.

They say yes definitely encourage them to do it but have a second go over yourself afterwards.

I have a sibling who is 4 years younger than me. My dad re brushed our teeth at night (only) until we finished primary school. I am 42 with no fillings and no dental work.

I do my 5yo DCs and dentist advised to do this up to 7 generally as so many children are not brushing properly or being overseen

As a rule of thumb ( dentist here) I advise to keep brushing your kids teeth until they’ve mastered tying their shoelaces, so usually @8or 9. Even then, I’d say let them brush then you check it afterwards and finish off the job. I occasionally still brush my 12 year olds teeth

YANBU - my daughter’s dentist advised I should still be brushing her teeth at 6. I’m still doing it at 7 but let her do the morning brush on her own and I do the evening brush

The advice from the school dentist where we are is that you should brush your childrens' teeth for them until age 7 because they are unlikely to have the manual dexterity to manage before then. So I did.

Youngest is 7 now, I still brush his teeth in the evening, but he has started doing it himself in the morning. When I think he's got the hang of it, I 'll let him do the evening one... But he has to learn first, so a gradual handover makes sense!

we did my son’s up until 10 and with my daughter 8 we do evenings and she does the morning. The dentist certainly expected we would be doing my son’s until this most recent appointment where she said that he was no doubt doing his own by now so I’m happy we’ve done the right thing.
it’s a bit like car seats though - mine have been in proper high back boosters way longer than their friends have. But they know that I don’t care what their friends are doing- we do what the guidelines/ professions say!

Well as you've seen from this thread. It's all your friends who are the odd ones in this situation. Hopefully they are not sitting complaining in a few years time that their children need dental work because they trusted them to brush their own teeth since they were not much more than toddlers.

My dentist said that I should brush my kids' teeth until I'd be happy for them to brush mine so I did it for quite a while, although they've done it themselves from as soon as they were old enough with me checking.

TBF though, if I was discussing it, I'd say call it 'brushing their teeth' even if I was checking it, so maybe they are just imprecise rather than guilty of dental neglect.

I don't think it's weird to talk about these things with your friends - I have a group of mum friends I talk to every day and we know so much about how each other raises their children and often ask if others are doing the same thing still (kids all the same age)

I brush my nearly10yo daughters. She just doesn’t do them properly otherwise (even with oral B)

Me and my friends know all about each others children's teeth brushing habits 😅

DD6 brushes her in morning, whilst I "supervise". .I do the night one.

She has always had an electric brush.

My dentist said to keep brushing their teeth 'as long as they will let you'. So I did and it was quite a bit past age 5.

They have no fillings as teenagers unlike me.

Then I guess your friends are just too lazy to look after their children's teeth. Ask your dentist if you're not sure but I promise you that still brushing your child's teeth is a really good thing to do and its not babying them.

I was genuinely curious. I wouldn't have a clue if any of my friends kids brushed theirs first and their parents did it after. If their parents did it or if they did it by themselves with no parental input.

She may well brush the teeth of the three year old after. I have videos of my children brushing their teeth at a young age but I always brushed them after they had a go.

Children aren't generally capable of brushing their own teeth until 7 years of age.

I took my 8 year old to the dentist recently. She asked if I brushed his teeth for him. I said yes, she said it shows. He does them himself (with supervision) in the morning, then I do the evening. There's no way my DC would do a thorough enough job by himself, especially with a manual brush (he won't tolerate an electric one). Doesnt matter if he ends up going to school with a bit of shampoo still in his hair, or not as clean as he could be after a shower, but dental health is one thing we won't chance.

How would you know that they brush their own teeth? I can't say this has ever come up as a topic of conversation?

A few evenings a week I do DD(8) a second time after she's finished and then chewed a plaque disclosing tablet as per the dentist advice.

We stopped cleaning her teeth for her at about 5 and it was too soon.