Healthy dental and oral hygiene is very important for both children and adults. Brushing your teeth in the morning and night can help prevent tooth decay, plaque, bad breath, and gum disease. But what do you do if you have a limitation affecting your ability to properly brush your teeth?
There are a number of factors that can impact an individuals ability to carry out the task of toothbrushing independently. With adults, these interferences can range from physical limitations from pain, muscle weakness, or progressive diseases. An adult may experience challenges when brushing their teeth due to joint pain or stiffness in the jaw. This is commonly known as Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMD/TMJ). If you have been diagnosed with TMJ and would like more information about how physical therapy can help, we highly recommend you read out post, How to Reduce TMJ Pain: Advice from a PT. In addition, weakness of the shoulders and arms may prevent an individual from reaching their mouth with efficient strength and endurance. Tremors, arthritis, or carpal tunnel syndrome may also affect the individuals coordination to properly hold a toothbrush with ease.
With children, there are also a number of factors that could impact proper tooth brushing. A child may have coordination delays with using utensils that also affects their ability to properly use their toothbrush. (If your child has challenges holding a variety of utensils we encourage you to visit our post, Improving Coordination with Utensils.) A child with sensory processing challenges may have increased sensitivity to the mouth which causes distress when brushing teeth. A child that struggles to sequence steps could in result develop frequently have cavities from poor oral hygiene . In addition, a child with weak muscles around their mouth could prevents them from being able to conduct movements needed to open and close their mouth when brushing their teeth.
If you and your child is experiencing any of the previously listed symptoms, we highly recommend first visiting your pediatric dentist and then schedule an evaluation with a physical, speech, or occupational therapist.
What is the role of Physical, Speech, and Occupational Therapy?
Speech therapist help with communication, oral motor skills, feeding, etc. Some of the areas in which a speech therapist can help may be first recognized by your dentist.
Occupational therapist specialize in gaining independence with daily tasks. An OT may help you to explore alternatives to make the task of brushing teeth easier and more functional. OTs also can help improve are unable to brush teeth effectively because of any of the listed factors, you or your child may benefit from speech, physical or occupational therapy.
Your dentist and pediatrician may identify any structural barriers of the mouth that could impair speech, identify chewing imbalances or joint dysfunction, and perhaps any oral sensitivity or aversion that could interfere with toothbrushing.
A variety of factors can affect speech development, oral aversions, and even posture
We highly recommend for patients to seek out a pediatric dentist just as we would recommend a pediatrician.
