To still clean an 8 year old's teeth?

[ItsTricky]

8 year old dd is a lazy tooth cleaner. She has a 2 minute tooth timer but often is out of the bathroom in 30 seconds.

I've told her all about fillings and even shown her some pics of decayed teeth. She'll start cleaning properly for a while after that but soon revert back to the 30 second cleans and some of that time is spent gurning at herself in the mirror!

It's got to the point where I have to grab the brush to give her teeth a decent clean.

I'm really fed up with it. Tonight dh was going mad at her about it and she's gone to bed crying.

All this hassle over 2 minutes, twice a day to clean her teeth!

Any tips?

Bribery.

I would also not allow her to go on any sleepovers or Brownie camps if she can't show me that she can look after herself properly.

I still clean my 8 year olds teeth once a day for her and even occasionally do my 11 year olds...

The dentist always praises their gleaming teeth and Id be devastated if they needed fillings, so I do (overly) monitor their brushing!

Why devastated Scarlett? As I child I had supervised tooth cleaning twice a day and only ate sweets once a week. I still had fillings every time I went to the dentist. My teeth were just not strong - fluoride treatment at about -0 sorted it out. Some people just have feeble tooth enamel. It isn't a judgement on your character or parenting!

At about 10.

I do it - 1 minute for them, 1 minute for me. DC is 8 and I will be doing it for the foreseeable.

We clean the 8yos teeth for him about half the time

You're right Cardibach. My DS (7 years) spends about 10 seconds each time he brushes. Has probably an average amount of sweets etc (though only water to drink) and his teeth are perfect - the dentist always congratulates me for how clean they are. I think some people genetically have good teeth and some don't. Even when I brush his teeth myself, i prob only spend max. 20 seconds doing it (he makes such a fuss). I think he takes after me - no fillings aged 37.

When I took dd (4) to the dentist she told me she recommends that parents help until 8/9 anyway as they don't always do it properly.

If my son let me I would still be cleaning my 14 year olds teeth. He doesn't give a shit about them. Half sensory issues, half laziness. I thought the time he needed a filling and cried the way through it would make him look after them better. It did... for a week! He also moans like heck when he needs to shower and I wish I could pick him up and put him in the bath.

I don't clean my 9 year olds or my 6 year olds teeth because they are really good at doing it themselves and I often watch them. I would though if I didn't think they were doing a good enough job.

I clean my ds teeth and he's 9. Rather that than cavities .

I'm still brushing my 13 year olds. Autism, oral hyper sensitivity and lacking in fine motor control means needs must.

I'm happy to do them but.. the moaning! Oh my god, you'd think I was trying to pull them out. We've all got good teeth so I think she has the good genetic thing. Dentist hasn't said anything so I don't think she's in danger of fillings. It's just a bloody battle everyday. Maybe I'll just take over cleaning until she gets the message. Thanks all.

it's not necessarily about he cleaning teeth fun disease is hereditary as are shit teeth.

Oral hyper sensitivity sounds awful :(

Yes flab. My old cm had two dds close in age. Same diet, same oral hygiene. One had perfect teeth, the other had poor teeth. Poor enamel..

We do random checks on the 9yo with the plaque staining tablet things so we can see how well she is brushing.

YNBU, and you should continue to step in until she does it properly herself.

Star chart to encourage her?

Go with it. Whatever works. She will be glad of your persistence when she is older.

I don't know if dentists / chemists still do these as it's a good few years since I was little and used them!! Disclosing tablets... the strongly coloured red tablets that you chew up, which stick to the plaque on your teeth and so show you with their red colour where to brush.

For some reason kids just love these, don't know why. I used to beg my mum for them.

They work great for bad teeth-brushers, plus if they don't brush properly after using them they have to walk around with red teeth! :D

cardibach id be devastated if my dc needed fillings if it was avoidable and down to lazy brushing. That's why I monitor their brushing closely.

If they had weak enamel and were prone to fillings because of this, then obviously that's unavoidable and a totally different matter.

Disclosing tablets are £2 a pack (of 10?) in Tesco. Great fun.

I still brush my 8yr old's teeth about 75% of the time.

Our dentist, who gave my three kids a clean bill of health at their check up yesterday told me that I should keep cleaning their teeth for them as long as possible, and that dentists love to hear that parents do this.

We cleaned ds1's teeth until he was about 9 or 10, and still do ds2 (7) and dd (6).

Basically we do it until we are certain they are doing a thorough job themselves and that they understand and agree that it is a job worth doing well.

So keep on imo.

I brush all my DC's teeth (eldest is nearly 8). It's a hassle but I plan to do this until they are as old I can get away with. When I was little I was never reminded/ encouraged/ told to brush my teeth, and as a consequence, my teeth are riddled with fillings. It's not quite the same but as a parent, surely it makes sense to do as much as you can for DC's health. DC just don't understand the importance of brushing properly. I have many friends who are proud their DC brush their own teeth at a young age, but when you actually look at their teeth, even a non-dentist can see they're not doing a good job.