Teeth Brushing - Blog Posts
If you don't want advise, please ignore this. But this is the something that I do to make it better for me. My sensory issues are not your sensory issues, think about weather this would actually be helpful or unhelpful for you.
Some tricks I have developed to help me brush my teeth (but they might not work for anyone else) are
non mint flavored toothpaste. This is typically "kids" toothpaste, but it works just as well, just with diffrent packaging. This is most helpful for taste, and there are alot of non mint flavors, see if you can find one that works for you (just make sure they contain floride)
just flossing. Find some non flavored floss (I prefer the little plastic picks so I don't have to hold the wire), and just floss your teeth (this is a diffrent sensory experience from brushing, and might still be bad, but it is better for me)
Use your finger to scrub your teeth with toothpaste instead of the brush (means your finger is involved with the sensory nightmare, but is sometimes significantly better for me, might make it worse for you tho)
they make lollipops and other things that are supposed to help clean your teeth. The brand I found is called ZOLLIPOPS the clean teeth pops and they are supposed to be helpful in clean teeth. They have their own taste and are not as good as brushing, but they are soooo much better then not brushing (or brushing and making yourself miserable)
If you can't tell from this list, I mostly have a problem with the taste, but there is other (better) advice out there somewhere.
(I also have a whole other list for remember to brush your teeth, so if you want that one, let me know.
I have trouble taking care of my teeth because everything that involves doing that is a sensory nightmare. I decide to do some research to see if there's anything I can do about this. The results?
"How to make your autistic child brush their teeth"
"Autistic Children and Sensory issues relating to tooth brushing"
"How to get your little shit to brush his fucking teeth"
Like, yeah Google, thanks, that really helps. And like, even if I was a child, some of the advice seemed... unhelpful. Like, doing a dance and singing a song while brushing your teeth? Even for a kid, I don't think that would help distract from a sensory experience as intense as brushing your teeth. Like, the extremely intense and unpleasant flavor, the intense feeling of the brush against your teeth scraping across it, even mouthwash has such an intense and disgusting flavor that I have difficulty keeping it in my mouth for more than a few seconds. I wish there was SOMETHING that could be done.
Brushing my teeth is my arch nemesis, the bane of my existence, the bringer of evil and hardship, my enemy and my unreachable goal, the wall that stands strongly between me and being a somewhat functional 26 year old, a true symbol of incompetence and failure and...
Okay, I'm exedurating. But also I'm not. I have struggled with brushing my teeth all my life, but what I have struggled with even more is the shame I feel because of it.
"This shouldn't be hard, this shouldn't be an issue, I shouldn't be struggling with this."
Well, because of a multitude of things, I AM strugling with this. And saying that it should be easy isn't exactly helping.