Nurturing strong habits of dental hygiene with your children can be difficult—especially when it comes to brushing teeth for the recommended amount of time. Many adults even neglect the two-minute rule when it comes to their twice-daily teeth brushings. Here are some tips to helping your children develop good habits of brushing their teeth for a full two minutes.

Invest in an Electric Toothbrush

Many children find teeth brushing—let alone teeth brushing for two full minutes—dull and boring, and an electric toothbrush can be just the thing to help get them excited about brushing their teeth again. Many electric toothbrushes made for children feature a built-in timer to help children gauge when they’ve been brushing for long enough—a definite plus if your children tend to quit early when it comes to teeth brushing.

For more on the benefits of electric toothbrushes for children, check out our post about them here.

Let Your Child Pick Out Dental Care Items

Many dental care products geared toward children are on the market today, which means your children will enjoy picking out their own dental care items. Letting your children pick out their toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss will help them to look forward to using their dental care products.

Try Brushing with Them

If you don’t already, try brushing your teeth with your children to help ensure that they are brushing for long enough. In fact, many children will need at least some supervision when brushing their teeth until they reach age 7 or 8. When you brush your teeth with your children, they’ll look up to and follow your example, and you’ll have the added bonus of getting to spend quality time with your children. Making teeth brushing more of an activity than a chore can greatly help your children to look forward to spending time brushing their teeth.

Make Lots of Noise

In addition to brushing with your child, making lots of noise while you brush can make teeth brushing much fun for both of you.

Incorporate Music

Music is great for enriching just about any activity, and it can really help to pass the time during characteristically mundane activities. This makes teeth brushing the perfect candidate for music accompaniment. Many artists have actually recorded songs for children written exclusively about teeth brushing, even timed to end when the proper teeth brushing time has elapsed. There also exist apps dedicated to playing two-minute versions of your music already on your mobile device. You could even let your child select from a list of songs you enjoy together, helping him or her to have some say in something he or she still dreads and feels obligated to do. In addition to brushing teeth with your child, music is a great way to make brushing teeth more of an enjoyable activity.