Hi, I have my husband back on a schedule of brushing 2x a day. The problem is he doesn’t distinguish between eating and brushing. The whole time the toothbrush is in, he’s sucking on it and trying to bite it. Out of fear of poisoning him, I only put a tiny sliver of paste on the brush. In the last week, he has only successfully spit out once, and it was because he started coughing. Otherwise, he swallows it. He does have swallowing issues, and I’ve been thickening his drinks... but not the water to swish in his mouth, if only he’d swish and spit! Any tips?
I’m brushing his teeth for him at this point. I try to model the spitting and give him vocal clues what he should be doing, but he’s only spit out twice in the last two weeks. I’ll look into other toothpastes or ask the pharmacist for ideas!
It may even be time to consider moving from supervising to hand-over-hand helping him to do it?
I am going to quote the warning from a tube of toothpaste I am currently using.
"If more than is used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or call a poison control center right away."
This is not on all brands. Other than that I agree with everything else said here.
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/24/us/toothpaste-a-hazard-just-ask-the-fda.html
BTW, Canadian toothpaste doesn't have any warnings, at least none that I've ever seem.
Would suggest looking for an organic toothpaste as it doesn't mess with one's taste buds like regular toothpaste does. I was quite surprised the first week I use organic, such as Burt's Bees, and found food started to taste sooo much better. I tried the old toothpaste one time after that and the taste was so sweet I couldn't get that taste out of my mouth.
Unfortunately I haven't any tips on how to make it easier.