How to choose a children's electric toothbrush? At what age can children use it? An article will solve your confusion

How to choose a children's electric toothbrush? When will the children's electric toothbrush review be released? Can a 2- or 3-year-old child use an electric toothbrush...

Some parents say: I buy electric toothbrushes for myself as long as they work, but I don’t know how to choose one for my children. (The implication: hurry up and finish the article!)

This time, let’s talk about “Children’s Electric Toothbrushes” (Save money! Must read!)——

There are mainly two types of children's electric toothbrushes on the market: one is an ordinary children's electric toothbrush with cartoon elements added, and the other is a U-shaped silicone electric toothbrush.

Regarding the question "At what age can children use electric toothbrushes?" there is currently no unified and accurate answer, and each brand recommends a different age for use.

It’s no wonder that parents are confused. Our technical researcher also had a lot of trouble and spent a lot of time doing homework. In the end, he summarized a set of suggestions for the use of "Children's Electric Toothbrushes" -

Children at different ages have different characteristics, cognitions, interests and behavioral habits.

Preschool children, that is, children under 6 years old, have not yet fully developed fingers and wrists, and are not flexible enough to make fine movements. Manual brushing can improve and promote children's intermittent motor skills.

Some parents left messages saying that their children brushed their teeth every morning and evening; other parents gave their children electric toothbrushes early on, but in the end, none of them escaped tooth decay and cavities.

At the stage when parents should "take care of brushing teeth", don't expect children to brush their teeth independently. You should take advantage of this golden period to cultivate good brushing habits and correct brushing methods for children.

If your child is particularly resistant to brushing his teeth, then after his baby teeth come out (over 3 years old), you can choose his favorite cartoon character and use an electric toothbrush to increase his interest in brushing his teeth.

When the children successfully transition to the stage where parents "assist with brushing teeth", they will have strong autonomy and imitativeness, prefer to be praised and encouraged, and desire attention and recognition from their parents.

The family environment is an important factor that affects their daily behavioral habits. The active participation of parents will not let the cultivation of brushing teeth habits be abandoned halfway, such as: setting a fixed time for the whole family to brush teeth together.

Summary: During the preschool stage, in order to cultivate children's independent brushing habits and correct brushing methods, it is not recommended to use electric toothbrushes unless necessary.

Children begin to change their teeth at the age of 6. Some parents are worried: Will the vibration frequency of electric toothbrushes be too high and affect the normal shedding of deciduous teeth?

Although there is no scientific conclusion on this point, we can compare two sets of data:

First of all, let’s take ordinary children’s electric toothbrushes. The brands of these toothbrushes are generally the same as those of adult electric toothbrushes. We referred to the vibration frequencies declared on the detail pages of the two models and found that they are not much different from those of adult electric toothbrushes.

Then there are the U-shaped silicone electric toothbrushes. This type of product is usually from maternal and child brands, and the vibration frequency is not marked on the details page.

We purchased 3 popular products on the shopping platform and sent them to the laboratory to test the vibration frequency. The results are as follows:

Combining the previous test results of the vibration frequency of adult electric toothbrushes, we can know that the vibration frequency of children's and adult electric toothbrushes is roughly the same.

For children in the tooth replacement period, if the deciduous teeth that are about to be replaced are in the loose period, if the vibration frequency is too high when using an electric toothbrush, there is a risk of breaking the roots of the deciduous teeth during the replacement period.

However, since we have bought samples of 3 U-shaped toothbrushes, we cannot just measure the vibration frequency. The technical guy couldn't resist his curiosity and studied it carefully.

The silicone electric toothbrush has a cute shape, and children come into contact with it every morning and evening when brushing their teeth, but I am still worried that there may be some bad substances in it.

Therefore, we sent the three samples to the laboratory for testing of phthalates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and the results were all qualified.

But the problem with U-shaped electric toothbrushes is that when using them, you just need to hold the toothbrush in your hand. For children, this is extremely unfavorable for cultivating the correct way to brush their teeth.

More importantly, the shape of the brush head of each brand is fixed, which is difficult to adapt to the oral conditions of all children. Therefore, it is also very difficult to clean every tooth, which leads to various oral problems.

When the child is 12 to 13 years old, the permanent teeth are basically out. At this age, for children who don’t like cute shapes, they can directly choose adult electric toothbrushes.

For details, please refer to the review article of "15 Electric Toothbrushes for Adults". It is recommended to choose a product with many gears and sensitive or gentle modes and start using it slowly; children with sensitive teeth can choose a sharpened soft-bristle brush head, which is easier to accept.

In general, an electric toothbrush is just a tool to improve cleaning efficiency. For children, the most important thing to master is the correct brushing method.

To suggest that parents use electric toothbrushes for their children too early is, to some extent, an act of selling anxiety.

We also know how difficult it is for parents to teach their children to brush their teeth. At the end of the article, we have prepared an illustrated version of the "Bass Teeth Brushing Method" for you to watch and learn with your children!

Editor | Yuanyuan

Design | Sour

Illustration | Doudou

Technical Support | KengKeng

References

[1] Zhou Qian. Research on dental care product design based on children's behavior[D]. Southwest Jiaotong University, 2017.

[2] Zhao Sihui. Research and design of interactive children's oral care product system[D]. Guangdong University of Technology.

[3] American Dental Association: https://www.ada.org/en

Source: Dad Review