WINNER of TOP children's product of the year!
I was recently offered to try a new product by one of my favorite brands, Pikster. Before agreeing to try the product, I was given a brief description that had me BOUNCING on the walls....and this was BEFORE I had even tried it!
Growing up, my mom was always strict with us brushing our teeth. Skipping to brush was a felon like no other, it just didn't happen! Which is kind of crazy when you think about six children running around at bedtime (ultimately the hardest time of the night according to some). My mom would always make it fun for us! I remember that each of us had these beautiful wooden toothbrush holders with little sand timers and we would have to watch the sand until it completely left the top of the vial before going for what was known as the 'breath' check. After brushing our teeth for 2 minutes, we would have to pass the 'breath test' meaning we would all walk up to my mom and breath in her face. If it smelled clean then we were cleared and ready for bed and a reading of a chapter of Harry Potter!
If you know anything about me or my family, I am ALL about making something fun, no matter what it is! SO, when Piksters gave me the PLAQUE GLO, I was beyond shocked! Because all I could think about was that if this had been around when I was a child, you would have to hide my toothbrush to prevent me from brushing, because trust me, I'd be brushing ALL DAY!
The basics of Plaque GLO are simple. Your child (or you...NO JUDGEMENT) brushes their teeth with this awesome toothpaste! I tried the Mild Mint flavor. They also have a 'Yummy tropical flavour' (I mean how could you NOT want to try a flavor that has this name, am I right?!) The toothpaste itself is real toothpaste, meaning it contains fluoride (the tooth strengthener) and all the other ingredients you would find in your regular toothpaste. What makes this different is that after you brush the usual way you would and rinse, you then grab the super cool MAGIC flashlight! You shine the blue light in your mouth and then any place that the toothbrush missed lights up in a NEON color (in my case green) and you know where your child needs to focus brushing for the future!
My Experience Giving it a Try:
Step 1: I ate a cracker, just to make sure I had plaque readily available in my mouth.
Step 2: I grabbed my toothbrush and brushed my teeth the way I usually would, but deliberately missed my bottom front teeth.
Step 3: The toothpaste, as you squeeze it out, begins in a dark green paste and then it completely surprised me to see my teeth turn NEON green! I brushed and then rinsed fully! After rinsing, I looked in the mirror and couldn't visibly see anything left on my teeth. I'm noting this because if you didn't want to use the light and see where you missed, then you could leave just like that!
Step 4: I grabbed the light and flashed it in my mouth and sure enough all the plaque leftover, where I didn't brush GLOWED when I shon the blue light on it! How cool is that?!
My Thoughts:
Like the title of this post implies, this product has literally BLOWN my mind! I present it with the PINK HYGIENIST TOP CHILD PRODUCT OF THE YEAR award! I think this is a huge motivation for children to brush their teeth! You could create competitions like telling your children to brush and whomever has less glowing plaque gets a prize, or turning off the light in the bathroom to add even more fun! It also allows children from a young age to recognize the importance of brushing all their teeth and get into that habit.
Getting your child to brush their teeth is just the beginning step in tooth health! After that, the next goal is making sure that the toothbrush reaches each and every tooth, because when it doesn't it leads to tooth decay and when a child has decay on their baby teeth it can affect how their grown up teeth look!
I think that this Plaque GLO gets children on board with brushing each and every tooth and also gets parents on board with knowing where the brushing weaknesses may be! It also is ridiculously fun! Additionally, even if you decide not to use the GLO light, the toothpaste color and taste is so much fun and better than any other children's toothpaste I have stumbled upon! I had SO much fun giving it a try, there's nothing more fun then seeing your teeth GLOW!
XOXO, The Pink Hygienist