Good oral health starts at a young age, the younger the better. But trying to get your kids to brush their teeth twice a day can mean having an outright battle twice a day and in some cases there can even be tears and lots of "but I don't want to" and if you are very luckily you might even get the corker that is "you're a meanie". This is made all the more difficult when you are not the child's father or mother and are quite down the ranks when it comes to a figure of authority. What's even worse is I'm the "fun uncle" so it's almost impossible to get them to do anything they don't want to do.


That's were these novelty toothbrushes come in. Using a standard soft bristle manual toothbrush isn't that exciting when it comes to tooth brushing time. In fact they can become symbols of total hate and even fear. Sounds ridiculous I know but you don't want to give your child a complex or an outright phobia of brushing their teeth. The reason I say this is because my youngest nieces' little eyes would lock on to her brush the very second she would walk in to the bathroom. Staring at it like it was about to attack her. Change that brush for a fun novelty brush, bright and cheerful with their favourite cartoon character depicted on it and the story changes completely. 


This review is of the battery powered spiderman toothbrush that my six year old nephew uses. He was terrible when it would come to bed time. Screaming, crying, and not resembling the cheerful little boy that was full of giggles and joy just five minutes earlier before the words "it's bedtime" was nervously uttered by yours truly. My nephew Jake and he is an absolute sweetheart but come bed time it becomes a case of Jekyll and Hyde or should I say Jakeyll and Hyde. But once I bought him this new "cool" spiderman toothbrush Mr Hyde has been nowhere to be seen. This is the very same toothbrush spiderman uses and it uses spidey sense batteries don't you know. Paired along with some onesie spiderman pyjamas he couldn't be happier. "it's fun to go to bed" now that's a sentence I never thought I would hear him say.
 

Obviously I don't put it all down to the power of the toothbrush, but that along with the fun jim jams and playing along with the story as he runs and jumps into his little bed like a clumsy superhero, all makes the dreaded night routine just that little bit easier. The fact that he stays over one night a week (normally the weekends, he's sound asleep upstairs as I write this review) means that the novelty never gets old. I don't think this toothbrush is going to replace those "how to raise your children" shows on TV but it definitely makes my life and little Jake's life easier.


I have two little nephews and three little nieces that stay over quite regularly and they are very young in age, the youngest is just under four years old and the eldest is seven and a half. They all have their very own special, fun toothbrush courtesy of their favourite uncle. By the time they are teenagers I will be declaring bankruptcy from the expense of purchasing novelty toothbrushes alone.


This particular one comes packaged in thin cardboard backed packaging with a clear plastic see-through cover. For its £20 price tag I was surprised to see how cheap the packaging was, it was no better than a £1 toothbrush from a supermarket. Unlike the packaging the toothbrush itself is quite well made. This one is very much aimed at boys I feel as the body of the brush is predominantly blue with the only splash of colour coming from spiderman's costume. Only his red mask and shoulders are visible but that is more than enough for the little ones to enjoy.


It comes with the batteries included which is a nice touch I thought, as most things don't nowadays. The fact that it takes batteries rather than being rechargeable nearly put me off buying it in the first place. I was worried that the already overpriced toothbrush would end up costing far more in the long run as it would require replacement batteries every two minutes. But the batteries last a long time and I have only had to replace them once, but then again it is only used twice a week, last thing at night and the first thing in the morning. However if it is used twice a day every day the batteries may end up becoming an irritating expense.
 

When the batteries are fitted the brush thankfully isn't too heavy. It is well balanced and has an easy grip surface. The brush head itself has one rotating, circular, soft bristle section and one stationary section that resembles half the head of a standard bristled brush. It has one large easy to press blue button positioned right above spiderman's head meaning it is very simple and easy for the little ones to turn on and off by themselves. It does make a light buzzing sound but this sound lessons once it's placed against the teeth. It also has a very slight, light vibration in the hand but not irritatingly so, the kids just describe it as ticklish.


Now for the bad news. The head of this £20 brush is not replaceable meaning once the bristles begin to wear and flare outwards the entire brush becomes useless. Unlike an adult rechargeable electric toothbrush you can NOT simply remove it, pop out to your local boots and buy replacement heads. This makes no sense at all, the brush is made by Colgate so you would expect them to manufacture them like the adult electric toothbrushes but no they don't. The fact that sooner rather than later I am going to have to throw this brush in the bin galls me beyond belief and then I am going to have to go and buy another one in order to not upset my little nephew and that will gall me even more. This isn't because I begrudge him the brush not at all, it is more a case that I begrudge throwing something away that works perfectly well and could easily be made far better buy a simple design tweak. So it's for that reason alone that I will be deducting two stars because after all it isn't as affordable as a regular, manual, £1 toothbrush yet they expect you to dispose of it as if it were.


I will be on the look out for one that has replaceable heads and will change to that one if and when it becomes available but until then my little buddy loves his spiderman toothbrush and £20 or not I will continue to buy these for him as it makes him happy and that's all I want.

Thanks for reading :0) 2night.


These can be purchased online at :
Amazon.co.uk for £14.99 reduced from £20 with free shipping.* BUT DO NOT BUY IT THERE LIKE I DID*

Instead you can find the very same brush For only £4.98 online at Tesco.com.
Or if like me you will be buying more than one boots.com are selling them for £5.45 each slightly more expensive but they are part of their three for two deal promotion so you get one free. If only I had know this before buying mine for £20 but you live and learn.