Day 20: Brush Time

My 5 year old niece once shared with me her displeasure of having to brush her teeth for two WHOLE minutes. Her toothbrush had a timer.

"Yeah, that's a bummer."

It was much too easy to slide to the thought of, 'man, this kid doesn't like brushing her teeth.' But then I started to really think about it . . . 

I don't brush my teeth for two minutes, which I was quickly called out for after sending the little people the video below.

But, I also brush much more vigorously than the average bear (note: this is real-time speed - with charcoal toothpaste).

Not long ago I switched to a new toothbrush and I noticed something. I now needed to brush for noticeably longer than I used to.

Huh? What's going on??

Were my teeth just dirtier these days? 

Had my brushing speed slowed significantly? 

Was I just doing a more thorough job, now?

As someone who's clocked in nearly 400 hours of brushing time in my lifetime, it didn't seem likely these possibilities were the culprit.

The brush itself, on the other hand, was a different story. I quickly compared the size of my new brush to that of the old brush type - BINGO!

 

My new brush head was significantly smaller! No wonder it was taking me longer to brush - there was less surface area to work with! Alas, the mystery was solved.

I now had more compassion for my niece. She's working with a pretty small brush . . . and for the purposes of this commiseration, we'll forget about the fact that her mouth and teeth are smaller, too.