This page is for you
Hello. This bit is yours.
Grown-ups can read it too, but it was written for you. There is a chart to tick, a timer to beat and a quiz that is quite hard.
Two minutes
Beat the timer
Your mouth has four corners. Spend thirty seconds in each one. The timer will tell you when to move along.
Brush here now: Top right
No timer? Two songs you like is about right. Spit at the end, and do not rinse — the toothpaste left behind carries on working.
2:00
Brushing chart
Tick a box every time you brush
Fourteen boxes: morning and bedtime, seven days. It remembers on this device, so you can come back tomorrow. Fill them all and something happens.
0of 14
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Fourteen out of fourteen. That is a whole week. Show somebody.
True or not true
Five questions. Some of them are tricks.
0 right
Baby teeth do not matter because they fall out anyway.
That one is not true. Baby teeth hold the space for the grown-up teeth underneath, and a poorly baby tooth can really hurt. They matter a lot.
You should brush for two whole minutes.
That one is true. Two minutes, twice a day. That is about the length of two songs you like.
After brushing you should rinse your mouth out with lots of water.
That one is not true. Spit, do not rinse. The toothpaste left on your teeth keeps working. Rinsing washes the good stuff away.
If a grown-up tooth gets knocked out, you should put it in water.
That one is not true. Never water. Milk is best. And find a grown-up straight away — a knocked-out grown-up tooth is a hurry-up.
A dentist can tell if you had sweets by looking at your teeth.
That one is not true. We cannot tell what you ate. We can see how your teeth are doing, and we are not going to tell you off either way.
The words we say, and what they really are
We use silly names for things because the real names are long. Here are both, so nothing is ever a surprise.
The counting mirror
Really called: A small dental mirror
It is cold and it is a mirror. That is all it does.
The tickly toothbrush
Really called: A prophy cup and polishing paste
A little rubber cup that spins and tickles. You pick the flavour.
Mr Thirsty
Really called: The saliva suction
A tiny straw that slurps up the water. It is noisy and it is nosy.
The shiny paint
Really called: Fluoride varnish
Sticky vitamins painted on with a tiny brush. It sets straight away.
A tooth raincoat
Really called: A sealant
A thin coat painted into the bumpy bits on top of a back tooth so food cannot hide there.
Sleepy air
Really called: Nitrous oxide
Air with a bit of extra something in it that makes you feel floaty. You stay awake and you can still talk.
Wobbly bed
Really called: A loose tooth
The grown-up tooth pushing up underneath makes the baby tooth wobbly. It is meant to happen.
Tooth camera
Really called: A radiograph, or X-ray
A photo of the inside of a tooth. You wear a heavy apron and it takes one second.
Want to know what happens when you come?
There is a whole picture story about it, one picture at a time, with nothing left out and nothing made scarier or nicer than it is.
See the picture storyGrown-ups: the practical version
Everything on this page has a boring adult equivalent — the two-minute rule, spit-do-not-rinse, and supervising brushing until around seven or eight. It is all in the reading room.