This paid post is brought to you by the new free Oral-B Disney Timer App as part of a Type-A Parent Community Sponsored Post.
I, myself, am a self-proclaimed tooth brushing fanatic. I am obsessed with clean, straight and perfectly kept teeth. I picked up this habit as a teenager while I wore braces. Sure, my mom always warned us of cavities and horror stories of teeth falling out but not even the four cavities that I had filled at age 10 made me a believer. Fast-forward 3 years, imagine a young me sitting at the orthodontist office getting braces put on. I was terrified, it was 1985 and I just knew my brothers and sisters were not going to be wanting for torturous nicknames like Trap Jaw and Tin Grin but what I didn’t expect was the speech from my orthodontist.
“Debi, if you do not brush your teeth three times a day and floss and you continue to drink pop or any dark colored liquids, when I take these things off in a year or two, your teeth could be discolored or worse…rotten!”
Now, maybe that was the standard scare a kid straight speech given in the 80’s and maybe he was full of caca but what I heard was, “Girl, when I take these things off, if you haven’t been brushing like your life depended on it…the only thing holding those not so pearly whites in your mouth will be the wires and brackets I am torturing you with right now!”
You know, sort of like that time when I was seven and had to get tubes put in my ears. I heard, “We will need to chop your ears off!” Crazy imagination gets the better of me a lot of the time. Anyways, the speech about the teeth stuck and I have been a brushaholic ever since and I have the recession to prove it.
**Tip for parents, if you’re going to scare the kiddies straight with tales of rotten teeth, buy them an electric toothbrush unless you want them to brush away all of their gums.
Anyways, I have “tried” to pass the urgency of teeth brushing down to my daughters. Apparently, it is not genetic because they are not one bit afraid of losing teeth. It may have something to do with the fact that my 6 –year-old is currently losing all of her baby teeth at an alarming rate. So, I have tried using an egg timer, a sand timer, sang happy birthday the required amount of times and we’ve even tried swishing our mouths with red dye to show them the residue that was left behind (that used to scare me to death in elementary school). Nope, none of it has worked. I even pulled out the magnifying glass to show them up close what they had missed in their brushing efforts. They laughed and went on about their business. Basically, short of their teeth actually falling out and rotting, they have no interest in brushing for two minutes. If you’re having the same problem with your kids, you may ask your family dentist to explain to them the importance of regular brushing of teeth.
I even have a 9-year-old with invisalign braces who I have shared the horrific tale of teeth held in place only by braces and still she poopooed me. So, when I learned of the Disney Magic Timer app I was ready to try anything and let’s be honest, my kids are crazy for the Mouse and all the princesses. I still can’t get them to stop singing Let it Go and I won’t even embarrass myself and tell you how many times we’ve had to watch all the Princess movies.
I opened the free Disney Magic Timer app on my phone (next time we will be using my old ipod because they covered my phone in tooth paste) and created accounts for both girls. They get to choose from a few different characters; Bella chose Belle, of course, and Gabs chose Ariel. Next, you have the option of scanning in your Oral-B products to unlock character. I had a little trouble scanning on my phone but I am very impatient. My husband did it and said it was a breeze. We happen to have a lot of Oral-B products because every time the girls go to the dentist, he gives them a new one. They also earn stickers to unlock character by brushing regularly. Think of it as the way we potty trained with stickers. It still works.
Then you choose your unlocked character and start your timer. Then this happens; a tiny toothbrush appears on the screen and starts brushing (yep, the kids can copy and do a great job at brushing the teeth) and as the 2 minutes passes, with music playing in the background, a cute Disney scene appears. I won’t lie; it totally kept the girls brushing because they wanted to reveal the photo. I told them if they stopped brushing, I was stopping the timer and no photo for them. And that, is how I got my girls to brush their teeth twice a day for 2 complete minutes each time. Now, our only problem is they want to brush their teeth constantly but we are working on it.
How do you get your kids to brush their teeth the recommended 2 minutes?
This is a paid post is brought to you by the new free Oral-B Disney Timer App as part of a Type-A Parent Community Sponsored Post. Featuring sixteen of your favorite Disney and Marvel characters, use this app to seamlessly encourage your kids to brush longer. Collect a new digital sticker after each successful two minutes of brushing; track progress with stars and milestone badges on the Brushing Calendar. Longer, happier brushing for your little one is just a download away!
