Tooth-Brushing Practices of Parents and Toddlers: A Study of Home-Based Videotaped Sessions

Abstract

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the tooth-brushing behaviour of parents and toddlers, by analysis of tooth-brushing sessions videotaped in families’ homes. Eighteen families (self-selected from an ongoing preventive-intervention study) videotaped all home tooth-brushing sessions involving their toddler (average age 2.5 years) over a 24-hour period. The vast majority of families (89%) engaged in at least two sessions per day, usually supervised by mothers. The average length of the sessions was 142 s, although the brush tended to be in the child’s mouth for less than half of that time. On average, only 10 s were spent brushing the front teeth, 13 s the back teeth, and 29 s spent on non-brushing activities (e.g., biting brush, sucking water). Three styles of brushing were identified, and families tended to be consistent in their use of these styles: exclusively parent-led (least common), exclusively child-led, and shared between parent and child (most common). In contrast with these poor behavioural outcomes, feedback from parents indicated that they were generally confident that the sessions had been effective in achieving clean teeth. These findings suggest that home-based tooth-brushing activity falls far short of professional expectations. Tooth-brushing, even with fluoride toothpaste, may be seriously compromised as a method of reducing caries in toddlers because teeth are being brushed too briefly.

Toothpaste Utilization Profiles among Preschool Children

“…Similar findings were observed in other studies also [18,31,32]. But in some of studies [16,17] more than half of the children brushed their own teeth without any supervision.…”

How pre‐school children learn to brush their teeth in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

“…In reference to brushing supervision, other studies have also reported similar findings 10 . Although analyzing the reasons given by parents for not supervising tooth brushing, were the child knew how to brush, large family size and in few cases child wanted to brush their teeth by themselves.…”

Avaliação da utilização de dentifrício fluoretado em crianças

“…Dos 3 aos 6 anos, as crianças começam a ter mais habilidade, entretanto, a maior responsabilidade ainda é dos pais. A partir dos 6 anos, a higiene bucal pode ser realizada pela criança, porém com a supervisão dos pais [12][13][14] . Pelo fato de a maioria das crianças da pesquisa ter o costume de realizar sua própria higiene bucal, um grande número delas também coloca o dentifrí-cio na escova.…”

“…Segundo o relato dos responsáveis, dez crianças ainda não tinham desenvolvido essa habilidade. A recomendação de um responsável dispensar o dentifrício na escova é uma medida preventiva que visa evitar o risco de fluorose dental [12][13][14] . A observação dos dados demonstrou que mais de 70% dos responsáveis relataram que a higiene bucal é realizada três vezes ao dia ou mais, fato que poderia demonstrar que os pais estão empenhados na saúde bucal de seus filhos.…”