Brushing teeth / forcing teeth to be brushed

[mummylifeofsmilesandtears]

At what age did you force brush your childs teeth?

My baby is 14 months and now has 12 teeth. My baby will chew the end of a toothbrush with toothpaste on by themselves for around 10-20 seconds. However will not let me go near to attempt to do a propa brush and clean of the teeth.

I have been reluctant to force brush as when I tried this a few times it resulted in when my baby saw the toothbrush would start to cry and refuse to even hand the toothbrush.

My baby will now again brush his teeth but is more of a chew of the brush as obviously can't brush/clean them properly.

I don't want to force brush and it becomes a negative experience again resulting in refusing to even hold the brush.

But of course I know I need to clean my baby's teeth properly and will eventually have to force brush if my baby doesn't let me do it.

Just wondering what were your experiences with brushing teeth and what age did you force brush if you had too.

Thanks xxx

Both my kids have been force brushed, tooth brushing is non-negotiable as far as I’m concerned. Probably started properly around 9 months, when they both got their first teeth. My daughter was nearly 3 when she let us brush her teeth, and now she’s 5 and we have no problems with brushing them at all. My son is 2 now and will let us brush them.

I never felt guilty about it! If the alternative is potential cavities and dental treatment then I’ll happily pin them down and make sure teeth are clean!

Ds is 20 months and we force brush but we let him brush first and then give him one of our toothbrushes to hold and stand him in the sink so he can look in the mirror and see his reflection while we do it, he still struggles, but let's us do it

Dh also sings the hey duggee toothbrush song which helps

From about 6 months. DD always hated it, wouldn't voluntarily have them brushed. We had to physically hold her down as a toddler. Has always tried to avoid it. Is now 8, has consistently tried to avoid brushing, lied about doing it, needed supervision. We didn't realise how badly she was doing until recently. A change of dentist highlighted that she has 2 cavities. We've gone back to supervised brushing & we do them ourselves at least twice weekly. She has ASD so there are other self care issues.

It's non negotiable here. DS got his first teeth at 5 months and they've been cleaned twice a day since then (he's now 3yo). It's not always been pleasant but I genuinely can't remember the last time I had to hold him to brush them - it's a part of our routine and he's been great at brushing them himself for probably the last 6-8 months, I just give them a last once over now before he practices his toothpaste spitting! I never though of it as "force brushing", it's something that needed to happen that he might not be happy about like having a nappy change or taking medicine.

Loads of toothbrushing videos & songs on YouTube you could try but I found brushing mine at the same time worked a treat.

Forced brush all the way here, at one point I even had to hold him down on the bed. A couple of things I have found help are to make sure he likes the toothpaste flavour and it’s not too minty and those weird brushes on the bickiepegs/Doidy cup website that do all three sides of the teeth in one go.

I force brushed after one year. It's the only way to do it, unfortunately. Thankfully now he's two it's less of a struggle.

I guess you have to decide what's more important- your child not having dental issues, or letting them have a choice about it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thanks everybody just reassuring that I am not alone here.
Most defiantly agree it's more important that my baby doesn't end up with bad teeth.
Appreciate your replies x

I wouldn’t physically force but I did have a song, and we had to get to the end, otherwise I’d stop, wait (occasionally with a book, blocking the bathroom door) until they were prepared to open their mouth for as long as it took me to finish the tooth brushing song. I didn’t want to risk hurting them, but I did want to make it boring and pointless to refuse, and relatively fun to do.

It's just another skill they need to master. I've had to wrestle with mine a lot and she used to hate it, but needs must. We would sing songs and brush her baby dolls teeth too and she finally got the hang of doing it herself (but we still get stuck in there for her too). I also pop mine in front of the mirror so she can see what she's doing. End of the day, some forced brushing isn't the end of the world, even if they do act like it is! As long as you aren't hurting them, it's honestly fine.

My 1 year old does more of a chomp and chew toothbrushing too. I try and get some 'brushing' motion in there but he just chomps his mouth down on the toothbrush. He's not at the point of understanding to keep his mouth open.

Has anyone resolved similar? Obviously I'm not going to hold him down and prise his mouth open...

I pin my little one down to do it. His half brother has prescription toothpaste and has had to have several teeth removed as they are so decayed, so I’m very alive to the risks of not brushing.

I will add I don’t always have to force him. Often now he’ll let me do it by choice.

One had to be force brushed a few times. Then he'd let me do it without much drama.

The other had to be force brushed for years.

Give your child a toothbrush for them to brush your teeth at the same time that you are brushing theirs. It has worked a treat for all three of my children to avoid having to force-brush. They feel powerful (brushing your teeth) and will usually be concentrating so much that you can brush theirs much more easily!

You’re supposed to brush before they even get teeth. I didn’t know that with my first and was chastised by an dental nurse. I let baby do a bit of brushing then I take over.

@Crimblecrumble1990

My 1 year old does more of a chomp and chew toothbrushing too. I try and get some 'brushing' motion in there but he just chomps his mouth down on the toothbrush. He's not at the point of understanding to keep his mouth open.

Has anyone resolved similar? Obviously I'm not going to hold him down and prise his mouth open...

When my kids did this we held them down and prised their mouths open I’m afraid! Gently of course. And they were always given the choice of opening their mouths and letting us do it, or we’d do it for them. There was no way I was going to let them end up with tooth decay so young...

This is interesting because my dentist told me not to force brush... We've always gone with various persuasion methods, including letting him brush my teeth first - which helps you realise just how horrible it is to have someone else roughly shove a toothbrush in your mouth! People seem convinced that forced brushing is vital for dental health, but I'd question how good a job they're actually doing of thoroughly brushing all the teeth of a screaming, writhing toddler who is having their mouth forced open?

@Hardbackwriter

This is interesting because my dentist told me not to force brush... We've always gone with various persuasion methods, including letting him brush my teeth first - which helps you realise just how horrible it is to have someone else roughly shove a toothbrush in your mouth! People seem convinced that forced brushing is vital for dental health, but I'd question how good a job they're actually doing of thoroughly brushing all the teeth of a screaming, writhing toddler who is having their mouth forced open?

I’d say for us it was a means to an end, in that both kids realised that resistance was futile, they’d be getting their teeth brushed the easy way or the hard way, and fairly quickly chose the easy way!

Another force brusher here, I'd say get through the holding down stage early, while the wrigley fight back isn't too strong, so their use to it by the time their toddlers and could do themselves more damage thrashing about.

Strawberry flavoured toothpaste also seemed to help, and lying them down on your knee gives a good angle for the back teeth.

I pinned. If they screamed then all the better.

Teeth brushing is non negotiable, they eventually give in and get used to it. People watch their kids get teeth removed because they don't want to upset them. Makes sense.

My 2 year old has always been very resistant and my dentist also said not to force. He is a strong big boy and even my dentist said he couldn’t hold him to do it snd he has children the same age. My son has a great routine of willingly going to sink and chewing the brush etc...recently we had a breakthrough at story time as we tickle him to make him laugh and make the brushing fun...this has worked a lot better and I can’t say I’m totally happy with the amount I get done and it doesn’t work every day but it’s much better than it was x

If my little one screams his mouth is wide open so it’s actually easier to do a good brush. Obviously that’s not preferable but to PP saying you won’t get a good brush it doesn’t work that way for me.

Posting here hoping for advice too! My nearly three year old has disgusting teeth. We can pin him down to make sure he doesn't run away and we can get into his mouth, and brushing the chewing surface is fine, but he just won't let us peel his lips back to do the front. Sometimes there is orange gunge around the gums on the front teeth AFTER we have brushed.

I can't believe I'm typing this as I feel so ashamed and sure I am going to get flamed for being an irresponsible mother but all I can say is thank goodness these aren't his forever teeth. I truly do not know how to peel his lips back without hurting him. His sister had a lip tie and I'm starting to wonder if he has a secret one too because he fights it SO SO hard.

My mother held me down forcefully to brush my teeth and it really hurt and it honestly gave me a real horror about teeth brushing for years and years. I'm thirty and only recently started brushing my teeth regularly at bedtime. I can't use an electric toothbrush at all because that's what she used to use. So I've been wondering whether it's better to force brush those teeth and at least they're getting brushed, or whether to take a gentler approach with a long term view and try not to worry too much about his baby teeth.

He's been to the dentist once with me when he was about eighteen months, but obviously the dentist didn't get a proper look and we haven't been since the pandemic started. We have a lovely sympathetic dentist but I'm sure he's going to give me a right telling off at the state of things.

Just wanted to add that we have no problem with him opening his mouth to do the chewing surfaces and doing the insides is OK, it's the outside surface next to the cheek/lips that I think is basically never brushed. And he likes to "finish brushing his teeth" after we've done it. But we have a choice between lovely brushing time with one surface not being touched or the actual apocalypse and possibly really hurting him.