Effective teaching of tooth-brushing to preschool children.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to compare artificial tooth-brushing models (TBM) and individual modeling regarding their efficacy in teaching the correct brushing movements to younger preschool children.

Methods: A total of 141 30- to 50-month-old preschool children who had not been previously instructed on tooth-brushing were enrolled in the present trial. Four different model types/groups were compared: (1) giant TBM; (2) animal TBM puppet; (3) child him/herself in front of the mirror; (4) another person with the child in the mirror. Parameters of imitational learning were investigated by means of single-person monitoring on the basis of a standardized observational method. The subjects were randomly assigned to 4 experimental groups, which were comparable regarding gender and age. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test.

Results: This study demonstrated that behavioral modeling types 3 and 4 were more suitable as a methodological basis than TBM. Correct tooth-brushing position and movement were correlated with the attractiveness of the model and its similarity to the child. It was shown that human models achieved greatest learning success.

Conclusion: It is important to find a "helper" and an attractive model person assisting in guiding the brush with a feedback in a mirror.