kids electric toothbrushes - any tips?

[jamsandwich]

Just had the dreaded dentist experience, dd nearly 4, has a cavity. Oh God, the guilt.

Sooo, have upped the toothpaste fluoride level and now snooping about for a whizzy toothbrush.

I think it needs to be very Disney/ princess to convince her. I've looked at a few Braun Oral B ones - Stages Power has Cinderella or Ariel shaped handle but brush head looks a bit big.

Also looked at rechargeable one with princess brush heads but it's really expensive and not very princessy so not sure if she'll be convinced.

I also want to avoid loud vibratey ones as I think she'll freak out, so don't like to put a princess brush head on my own Oral B handle as that is a bit too zizzy for me sometimes!

Can anyone advise?

Boots do an oral b childs brush (instore not online) with a very small round head. Comes in various designs and a good battery life. Was about £12 but had it ages and can replace the heads so worth the money.

DS has one, not too noisy but it can splash a little so best not to do with school uniform on DS has always had a battery one since his first toothbrush and this is definately the best one. The one from the Disney Store was ok but not quite as powerful.

Our dentist said that young kids often get very freaked out by electric toothbrushes and so he doesn't recommend them until the child is about 7 or so. I didn't believe him, and bought my four year old dd one. She loved it the first day and subsequently refused to use it. Said it was scary. It has been a great toy though, and is often used for scrubbing the car / sandpit / walls etc.

DS has a noraml adult Oral-B one. The head is a good size and it vibrates when the 2 mins is up. I use it too, with a different head on it. He did have a Shrek one but the batteries wore quite quick (could be replaced by unscrewing!)

May be good to really cut back on the sugary stuff too, but you probably already know that Sorry!

Don't beat yourself up. It happens, and we learn from it. It will make DD more orally aware!

Oh yeah, still have the old Shrek on to clean behind the taps! Good point, neolara!

jamsandwich - when ds1 had four cavities and a filling in one dentists visit it was gloves off for me. He shared elec toothbrush with me at first - he had a diff col band on his tooth brush head! But I would not negotiate on use of a good elec toothbrush.

Be very careful using a toothbrush that you've never used on yourself. My first electric tooth (before ds's cavities) was the shape of a regular toothbrush, it vibrated rather than rotated, and was rubbish.

Then I got a Braun toothbrush with the round heads and never looked back.

At our last visit to dentist (btw, ds's teeth not got worse in three years with proper brushing) our dentist said all children should be using top fluoride content toothpaste according to BDA - I think 1450ppm.

thanks for the warning neolara - I suppose this is the reaction I'm expecting as she is wary of anything noisy like the vacuum cleaner, even the kettle!

But dentist suggested it so I want to give it a go. And anyway, it sounds like they can bring more fun than just promoting oral hygiene!

And don't be LastOrders, it's always worth saying. I thought I got the whole sugar thing, but after spending hours last night trawling through old MN threads on the subject, I am a whole lot wiser now. She used to eat trough loads of raisins between meals and I just thought she'd be fine as I couldn't see any dodgy bits on her teeth.

Duh! what about the bits you can't see Einstein?!

oral B seem to be the runaway winners then, thanks everyone.

Bosch - thanks for your post, it's really reassuring to hear we can have an impact. How old is your ds btw?

Now I've started reading about tooth decay (I know how to party!) it has really changed how I feel about food myself. I got some Frosties as a treat (for me! I kept them hidden from dd!) last week and had to bin them this evening as the thought of all that maxi-sugar crap in my pearly whites was too much.

Poor dd must be wondering what has got into me - today she was distracted away from the bakers where we buy an iced biscuit every week but got an ice cream followed by lots of cheese to neutralise it as I reckoned the ice cream would be better than a biccie that sticks in her teeth.

Next goal is to get her off the Tuesday sweet snack altogether...

Hiya, my dd's top eye teeth came through with dimples in them where the enamel hadn't formed properly on the tooth. Fortunatley the dentist spotted them straight away and told be that at some point she would need fillings not because of anything we had done / her diet, but simply because the enamel was missing and the teeth would not be protected properly. We have used an electric tooth brush with her and her younger sister from as early an age as possible, we call them buzzy brushes and they both love them. We have tried quite a few of the battery operated ones but the oral b one is the best in my opinion. We also use the toothpaste for Little Teeth if you know the one I mean because it has more flouride.

Ironically I was also told that from a teeth point of view you are better off giving a child a biscuit than sticky dried fruit and most importantly to not clean teeth within 20mins of eating / drinking anything acidic as it can increase enamel erosion.

DD has had the dimples in her teeth filled twice now and we are due at the dentists again this week, I'm pretty sure we are in for a repeat as they don't want to drill her teeth and because the dimples are so tiny the fillings just dont stay put

sorry forgot to say dd1 is 5 and dd2 is 3.

Jam - ds1 is 7 now.