As a parent, you want to make sure your kids are taking good care of their teeth. Part of a good dental hygiene program is brushing and flossing. The more time your child spends brushing, the less likely they will develop cavities. Finding silly songs to brush your teeth by may just be the answer.

According to KidsHealth.org, “To prevent cavities, you need to remove plaque, the transparent layer of bacteria that coats the teeth. The best way to do this is by brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing at least once a day. Brushing also stimulates the gums, which helps to keep them healthy and prevent gum disease. Brushing and flossing are the most important things that you can do to keep your teeth and gums healthy.”

Brushing and flossing are essential to maintain oral health. The question is how do you get your children interested and engaged in caring for their own teeth?

Music Makes Work Light

Throughout history, songs and chants have been used to make performing work easier, or at least, more pleasant. Wikipedia states that a work song “is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song.”

Different types of work inspired the development of a variety of work songs, including hunting songs, pastoral songs (keeping livestock), agricultural and fieldwork songs, sea shanties, cowboy songs, and industrial folk songs.

For kids, brushing their teeth is not a favorite activity. It seems more like work to them. Beyond that, it can be tough to get them to slow down long enough to get good brushing time in. Luckily, there are ways to get around that, and the best way is to make caring for their teeth fun, with music.

How To Make Teeth Brushing Fun

To get your child started in the right direction with brushing and flossing, you can brush your teeth along with your child, have contests to see who can brush the full recommended two minutes, or better yet employ some help in the form of silly songs and cartoon characters.

One silly song favorite of our patients at Hurst Pediatric Dentistry is This Is The Way We Brush Our Teeth. On YouTube, you’ll see many videos of this song. Here are the lyrics to the song by Little Baby Bum:

This is the way we brush our teeth
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth
This is the way we brush our teeth
We do it in the morning!

Brushing up and brush down
Left and right and round and round
A nice white smile will then be found!
We’ve brushed really well!

This is the way we brush our teeth
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth
This is the way we brush our teeth
We do it in the evening!

Brushing left and brushing right
Brushing ‘til our teeth are bright!
Then we say (yawn) “good night!”
We’ve brushed really well!

This is the way we brush our teeth
Brush our teeth, brush our teeth
This is the way we brush our teeth
We do it twice a day!

The South Dakota Department of Health put together tooth-brushing lyrics to several well-known kids tunes, including Row, Row, Row Your Boat; London Bridge; Jingle Bells: Old MacDonald Had a Farm; If You’re Happy and You Know It; Are You Sleeping; Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; and I’ve Been Working On The Railroad.

Other silly songs to brush your teeth by include:

• Brush Your Teeth by Pinkfong

• Toothbrushing Song by Blippi

• Brush Your Teeth by Super Simple Monsters

• Brush To The Beat by Disney Junior Mickey Mornings (includes 2-minute timer)

• Elmo’s Brushing Teeth Song

• Brush Your Teeth by KidsTV123 (relaxing song if your child is anxious about brushing)

• Toothbrushing Song by EZTales.com

• Brushy Brush by Sesame Street

• And many others!

Chompers, a twice-daily tooth-brushing show for kids released a whole album of songs devoted to two-minute teeth brushing songs called Songs to Brush Your Teeth To. This is an excellent play choice for an entire body-care routine, including bathing, combing hair, and teeth brushing and flossing.

It’s All About Brush Time

Many of the video-based songs on YouTube have built-in timers that last two minutes long.  Either the video itself is two minutes long or there is a timer on the video. Just be careful of the ones that go over two minutes as your kids may end up brushing for an extended period of time. This can lead to dental damage.

A song by Peter Combe called Wash Your Face In Orange Juice (Mr. Clicketty Cane) is a great tune to help extend brush time. The song itself is long enough if you’re playing it on your computer or smartphone. But, if your children are singing it a cappella while brushing their teeth they may tend to run through the song quickly. Due to the nature of the song, as an add-on verse, cumulative song, it is really easy to make up lyrics to keep your kids brushing. As long as you’re making up lyrics (keep an eye on the clock), then they continue brushing.

While brushing is important, overbrushing should be avoided. The American Dental Association recommends brushing for two minutes twice a day with fluoride-based toothpaste to remove plaque significantly. Anything over this amount of time can lead to the wearing away of tooth enamel. 

Flossing plays just as important a role in a good oral hygiene program as brushing. While we’re not aware of any flossing songs, you can always have a member of your family do the floss dance to entertain the child who is brushing and flossing at the time.

Extra Benefits of Silly Songs

Silly songs help to set the mood and the routine for tooth brushing.  Once your oral hygiene routine is established, when it’s time to brush, you need only to put on a favorite tooth-brushing silly song and watch your child run to the bathroom to take up brush and paste. 

As an added bonus to extending tooth-brushing time and making the whole experience fun, a lot of these teeth-brushing songs also help to teach kids music basics like rhythm and rhyme, along with their colors, shapes, directions, numbers, and ABCs.

Hurst Pediatric Dentistry highly recommends that you try a song or two to encourage your little ones, and who knows, you might just hear one of these around our office. Let the fun begin!

Contact Dr. Joby Hurst for your pediatric dental needs. To make an appointment, fill out this request form.