Vibrating Toothbrush
Vibrating toothbrushes provide input that can encourage good accuracy and thoroughness. It can also provide input for those who seek oral sensory input or can be used as a desensitizing tool to decrease over-active sensory input.
Smart Toothbrush
If your child struggles with interpreting oral, proprioceptive, and/or interoceptive input, using a smart toothbrush is a great way to provide instant feedback not only to the user, but the caregiver. This can increase overall accuracy and reaching those typically hard to reach or missed areas. The smart toothbrush can also be used in tandem as a reward system as it can provide a visual log of frequency and duration of this routine. Furthermore, the smart toothbrush typically has features such as 30 second intervals for each quadrant of your mouth. This provides a set time fame and known end to toothbrushing.
Reward System
If your child has difficulty with intrinsic motivation (self-motivation) using extrinsic motivators (reward charts, praise, prizes, etc.) can help the child during initial integration. If the reward system is made up of a forward chaining system (rewarding for each progress towards the ultimate goal), then the child should begin to demonstrate progress towards intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, the dopamine releases that occur with extrinsic motivators can translate into intrinsic motivators due to the recognition/reminder of previous success.
Visual Steps
Using a visual schedule can help your child understand what is next. Especially, if teeth brushing has not been previously established as a required part of the routine. Then knowing the expected steps can help provide motivation as they can see the end in sight.
Child’s Input
Especially if your child struggles with intrinsic motivation, using their input can be very motivating for their overall participation. Make shopping for the tools (toothpaste, toothbrush, mouthwash, etc.) an exciting event can encourage them to want to participate.
