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Any ideas on how to brush 4 year olds teeth?
I have been making valid attempts to brush his teeth, but I never do a great job and I don't like that. I tried showing him how I do it, but as we know immatation is not the best idea with these children! :) So I tried just holding his chin down, but the minute he struggles I let go so as not to hurt him. I am currently skimming through my provider directory to find a dentist for him within my insurance, so hopefully that will go smoothly then maybe the dentist will have ideas. Untill then I would love to hear from anyone who has been through this, or even just witnessed it! lol I just dont want his teeth to hurt or anything. Thank you!!!
Oh yeah, just wanted to apologize for the odd posting on the 23rd! I must have left the room just long enough for SOMEONE :) to press buttons, either that or the cat didi it! At any rate sorry!
Thank you for all of your help, it has been wonderful. I was suprised at how many things I had not thought of! I did indeed have one of his therapist recommend a couple of dentists too. We are actually doing a tiny bit better, but it seems like now when I take the suggestion of trying not to remove the toothbrush no matter what. he bites down on the tooth brush and wont let go, I am afraid he will shatter it! I know that probably hard to do but if anyone can do it he can! lol We are going to keep trying everything, mean while get into a dentist so I can deal with his cleaning, and his teeth grinding, as I am afraid it will hurt his jaw in the long run. I'll let yall know how it all went, thank you again, and best wishes to you and your families!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Getting children to do things like brushing their teeth (or other of activities of daily living that aren’t particularly fun, but very important) is every parents challenge (and of course parents of children with ASD get more than their fair share of challenges!).
I saw a number of suggestions that other members made, and most of them looked pretty good to me.
I often ask parents to analyze a task like this in two ways. One is getting the child to tolerate having their teeth brushed (having a toothbrush in their mouth, the taste and texture of toothpastes, etc.). We don’t usually think of this as being a problem because we all learned how to brush our teeth a long time ago. Now, it’s just something we do. The second is trying to teach the child how to brush their teeth (and making sure that they do a good job is one part of this). Obviously, if you can’t get the first part done, you won’t get to the second part (and the second part is often a lot more straight-forward).
[Optional activity: Here’s an activity you can do if you want: if you want to know what it might be like for your child: 1. Use a new toothbrush (as different from the one that you are used to as possible – like an electric one if you have never used one of those), 2. Choose new toothpaste (again, maybe the opposite “flavor” of what you are used to), and 3. Let somebody else brush your teeth (I mean an “amateur”; not your dental hygienist – have your spouse do this at your own risk). That might give you an idea of what your child is experiencing. ]
I have worked with children with ASD who were at the extreme end of intolerance of having a toothbrush put in their mouth. Often occupational therapists can recommend the use of various implements that can be used to systematically desensitize a child to a toothbrush (a sort of a progression of items that are more and more like a toothbrush, but starting with something that the child will accept). The key to these techniques is often patience and positive reinforcement for progress. I do recall a case where we used a toothbrush dipped in Coca Cola and root beer to get a child to accept the toothbrush.
Now before anyone reports me to the American Dental Association: 1. I am not advocating the use of Coca Cola to brush teeth; and 2. within a few sessions of using this technique, the child was totally cooperative with us brushing his teeth with regular toothpaste.
Getting the child to accept the toothbrush was the key step in making fairly rapid progress and there were two important factors: 1. We made small, but constant progress in moving toward the target of getting the child to accept having his teeth brushed, and 2. We tried very hard not to let any “inappropriate” behavior (e.g., whining, hitting) result in us removing the toothbrush. With the second point I want to stress that we tried as hard as we could to avoid moving too quickly so that the child even became upset. In addition, if they did become upset, we would remove the toothbrush (we just tried to wait for any kind of a pause in the tantrum behavior, first – and we weren’t always successful). Obviously, these techniques call for some experience and skill with cases where a child is extremely resistant to having their teeth brushed. I used the example, however, to illustrate some basic approaches to getting your child to tolerate having their teeth brushed. If you do run into significant problems with very active resistance, you may need to seek the consultation of a behavior analyst familiar with young children with ASDs.
I saw a number of suggestions that other members made, and most of them looked pretty good to me.
I often ask parents to analyze a task like this in two ways. One is getting the child to tolerate having their teeth brushed (having a toothbrush in their mouth, the taste and texture of toothpastes, etc.). We don’t usually think of this as being a problem because we all learned how to brush our teeth a long time ago. Now, it’s just something we do. The second is trying to teach the child how to brush their teeth (and making sure that they do a good job is one part of this). Obviously, if you can’t get the first part done, you won’t get to the second part (and the second part is often a lot more straight-forward).
[Optional activity: Here’s an activity you can do if you want: if you want to know what it might be like for your child: 1. Use a new toothbrush (as different from the one that you are used to as possible – like an electric one if you have never used one of those), 2. Choose new toothpaste (again, maybe the opposite “flavor” of what you are used to), and 3. Let somebody else brush your teeth (I mean an “amateur”; not your dental hygienist – have your spouse do this at your own risk). That might give you an idea of what your child is experiencing. ]
I have worked with children with ASD who were at the extreme end of intolerance of having a toothbrush put in their mouth. Often occupational therapists can recommend the use of various implements that can be used to systematically desensitize a child to a toothbrush (a sort of a progression of items that are more and more like a toothbrush, but starting with something that the child will accept). The key to these techniques is often patience and positive reinforcement for progress. I do recall a case where we used a toothbrush dipped in Coca Cola and root beer to get a child to accept the toothbrush.
Now before anyone reports me to the American Dental Association: 1. I am not advocating the use of Coca Cola to brush teeth; and 2. within a few sessions of using this technique, the child was totally cooperative with us brushing his teeth with regular toothpaste.
Getting the child to accept the toothbrush was the key step in making fairly rapid progress and there were two important factors: 1. We made small, but constant progress in moving toward the target of getting the child to accept having his teeth brushed, and 2. We tried very hard not to let any “inappropriate” behavior (e.g., whining, hitting) result in us removing the toothbrush. With the second point I want to stress that we tried as hard as we could to avoid moving too quickly so that the child even became upset. In addition, if they did become upset, we would remove the toothbrush (we just tried to wait for any kind of a pause in the tantrum behavior, first – and we weren’t always successful). Obviously, these techniques call for some experience and skill with cases where a child is extremely resistant to having their teeth brushed. I used the example, however, to illustrate some basic approaches to getting your child to tolerate having their teeth brushed. If you do run into significant problems with very active resistance, you may need to seek the consultation of a behavior analyst familiar with young children with ASDs.
I asked the occupational therapist about this the other day and she said to try sitting in front of a mirror and letting him hold a toothbrush as well as you. She said if he sees that he is brushing his teeth, the sensation would be less scary for him. I don't know if you have tried this but I am gonna give it a shot today as my son hates having his brushed too. Hope you find a solution.
Our dentist is the same way in that they are very understanding that not all kids are the same. He's the kid that takes about an hour to get one x ray picture but they are always calm and patient with him. He can sit through a cleaning but I hold his hand and sing to him the whole time. Why that calms him I have no idea----------- you should hear my singing! But you do whatever works and the people at the dentist office don't act like we are nuts at all. My son at 6 gets very excited about "things" and picking out a toothbrush was a fun shopping trip. He's more likely to let me use it with him if he picked it out. We have gotten through a ritual of hair brushing too. I use this brush in (really over priced!) adult leave in conditioner that I get at the salon. He acts like I'm killing him with his body language but does not stop me from doing it. He doesn't yell out or anything-------- So I spray and brush . . . really fast.
I remember those days. My daughter would pitch a holy fit at teeth and hair brushing. A few times I just did it and let her scream but eventually I settled for cutting her hair short and washing her teeth with a wet washcloth (like they do for babies). When she got a bit older (6 or 7) she did start to like those rotating toothbrushes. Now, at 13 she brushes on her own but still uses kid toothpaste. We were fortunate to find a dentist who deals with special needs people but for anything besides a teeth cleaning, she has to be knocked out.
My dentist recommended one of those rotating tooth brushes. They come in cool things like diego or scooby doo and spin while you hold it in place. My son likes the tooth brush and it is less of a struggle because I get it in and let it do the work. Our dentist loves them. They are about 6 dollars at the grocery store. good luck
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