My wife and I both have had issues with oral care. In fact, we just dropped about $1,000 on oral surgery for my wife days ago because of multiple cavities and a molar’s root wrapped around her wisdom tooth; despite this, she is a fan of the dentist. On the other hand, I loathe the dentist’s office; the memory of the sound of the drill in your mouth still sends shivers down my spine. But knowing our struggles, we wanted to ensure our son had a healthy tooth care routine, so we have worked hard to help him establish a healthy habit, and at times it felt like we were toiling in vain, sometimes having to chase down our son and having to play an unfortunately timed game of hide and seek.

Then our dentist told us to get the video game toothbrush, and our lives changed. I have asked my son what is his favorite thing about brushing his teeth now; his response was the game of beating the bad guys. Philips has taken a two-minute animated video, narrated it, illustrating when, where, and how to brush your teeth in their pattern, and sold my kid that he is fighting bad guys in his mouth every time he brushes, and it’s brilliant.

Then, not only does he find affirmation in the job well done and the congratulations of the narrator he has a little sparkle avatar that greets him before and after he brushes. When my son does such a great job of brushing his teeth for two minutes, his sparkle buddy gets a present that my son is ecstatic about. A fake digital present for his fake, fluffy digital tooth-brushing coach that gets a sprig of broccoli. But, he will have to present this digital treat to said furball tooth trainer later in the day because as everyone knows, you shouldn’t eat after brushing.

But Philips did not stop there in the great success of their app; we discovered that you can play with your fuzzball tooth-brushing life coach and even record what you want it to say! Then my son can play this shrill sound on repeat again, and again, and again.

The experience of the game and coach has been shifting into a more established habit. We have watched as this good addiction to a video game has shifted into a great habit, it is recommended that people brush two times a day for two minutes. We have transitioned from chasing down our son trying to convince him to brush his teeth to surrendering our phone for four minutes a day. This is a pleasant shift in our family habits.

When there is a five-year-old reminding you that he needs to brush his teeth, battle the bad guys, and keep his teeth clean you can start to see the habit pleasantly take shape and you may be winning a little as a parent. My son just crossed 60 days of using this toothbrush, and he naturally shifted to use without the app being a mainstay, trusting when we have the chance we can link the brush to the app and register his usage and get the rewards he is earning. There is a future outside our dependency on his Sonicare Kids Toothbrush but it feels like it may be in the distance at this point.

The lightweight design of the toothbrush makes it fairly easy for my son to hold, there may be children younger that may not be able to hold the battery side of the toothbrush which is the unbalanced end opposite of the brushing end. The grip is designed to be used with ease by the parent or the child which makes the practice manageable no matter the age of your child.

The toothbrush comes with two brushing speeds. This helps the coaching process, where the traditional pattern of brushing one’s teeth is done by moving in rapped movements up and down or forwards and backward.  Philips teaches children to allow the brush to do the work while placing a small amount of pressure against the teeth.  All this is simply illustrated in the presentation of the animation shown while the kids are brushing their teeth.

After awkwardly staring at my son while he brushed his teeth for days, there are a few realizations I have come to. Can a parent use any other toothbrush to establish good oral health habits with their child? Of course, but for us, the last three years have been a struggle in establishing his habit. But 60 days we are seeing him take on responsibility for his own health. Is the app a necessary constant for the toothbrushing habit to form? I don’t believe so. I even would argue over the past 10 to 15 days we have seen our son ween off dependency on the app. Is this toothbrush worth the price? Absolutely, my son has progressed more in the past 60 days towards toothbrushing independence than in the past three years of us working towards establishing a two-time-a-day habit.