My son totally dislikes brushing his teeth. I've done everything I can to help him with this task. He avoids it at all costs, he becomes a karate master, using his strong and nimble arms to escape from my grip. It is a nightmare. Sometimes, I just to skip it to avoid injury.
Other times, I get extra resourceful. I put toothpaste on a cotton bud because he is hyper sensitive with the bristles. Or I use a clean towel, or my finger. Yes, it is gross but I'm at my wit's end.
It is a good thing that we put him away from sweets, otherwise he might have tooth decay with his poor oral hygiene.
What can be another substitute for a toothbrush?
I don't like washing my teeth because of toothpaste's taste. I find it disgusting and extremely violent in my mouth. I can do it with traditional toothpastes if I have to because I'm an adult, but I hate it. I used kid's toothpastes until I was 14 I think, then I forced myself to use the "normal ones" for many years, and at around 23 I started to look for toothpastes that wouldn't be such a struggle to use for me, I had a complete burn out about using it, it's extremely aggressive. I have no idea how people don't see that.
I found some biological toothpastes have a taste that's less horrible. I don't know where you live, but I found some of Weleda and Lavera to not have this awful taste, especially the ones for the gums. I guess because they're supposed to "repair" something they give them a more comfortable taste and not that super aggressive one (but in the mainstream toothpastes, even the ones for the gums won't work for me, they don't understand that the basic taste they're giving to the paste is aggressive anyway). I also found some ayurvedic toothpastes that were okay, they had a lot of plant taste that I don't find violent even if it's strong. I also dislike all that's menthol or "fresh" or whatever even in biological, we're not friends. Mostly, the nearer the taste is to something that I could eat or just a neutral paste taste, the more I feel okay with it. The further it is from something you'd want to eat and the more you need to spit and get rid of it, the less I'm okay to put it in my mouth, but it just seems increased compared to other people. For me it's a struggle. That's a good scale to evaluate whether a toothpaste will be aggressive for me or not.
Unless the taste really doesn't bother me, I also put a very reduced amount of toothpaste on the toothbush, and I just add more if it's necessary.
But those mainstream toothpastes with this horrible taste that's supposed to show that it's REALLY cleaning are awful, violent and aggressive. Cleaning my mouth isn't like cleaning toilets, thanks. Lol.
To this day I really have no idea how people buy that and feel it's perfectly okay (?).
I hope this helps.
Also, a very soft and SMALL toothbrush might help. The smallest the "head" of the tooth and the finest the "body" I think would be the less invasive. I still choose the toothbrushes with the smallest "heads" rather than bigger models.
To be honest I had a poor dental hygiene in my childhood (neglect or me being a nightmare, I'm not sure), and my teeth are okay, only one isn't and it's not uncommon either.
Most likely if he defends himself it means that something's really aggressive for him, it might also get better just with growing up. Now I don't know if it's the toothpaste, the hard feeling of the toothbrush, the toothbrush just being too big and invasive, I share my personal experience with that so you can maybe try other stuffs and see what's the aggressive thing and what's causing aversion. Maybe it's all of them.
