Screen Soft Light / Timekeeping / TOOTHBRUSHING TIMER
topbottom

Start with upper left

Four quarters, 30 seconds each. The picture is the view in a mirror.

02:00

Space starts or pauses, R resets, F goes fullscreen.

No. 001 · TOOTHBRUSHING TIMER

Toothbrushing timer: two minutes, four quarters

  • 01 Four 30-second quarters
  • 02 A picture, a colour and a sound for each
  • 03 A cheerful end screen

Two minutes feels long to a child. This timer splits it into four 30-second quarters (upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right) and shows which part of the mouth to brush now. The colour and the picture change, a short sound marks each move, and a star celebrates the finish.

Kitchen and bathroom timers —
Egg timerTea timer
§ 01

Why two minutes

The American Dental Association's home oral care page reports that brushing for two minutes was associated with a greater reduction in plaque than brushing for one minute, and that brushing twice a day was best at lowering cavity risk. A timer makes the full two minutes easy to hit, because most people, and nearly all small children, stop sooner than they think.

§ 02

Counting 120 seconds is hard for a child, but 30 seconds is a short job.

A new quarter every 30 seconds

Counting 120 seconds is hard for a child, but 30 seconds is a short job. The timer walks the mouth in a fixed order: upper left, upper right, lower left, lower right. Each quarter has its own colour (teal, blue, lilac, pink) and its own two-note sound, so a child who is not looking at the screen can still hear that it is time to move.

§ 03

Reading the mouth picture

The ring in the middle is the mouth as you would see it in a mirror: the top half is the upper teeth, the bottom half is the lower teeth, and left is the left of the picture. The quarter to brush now has a bold outline and a solid colour. Finished quarters stay softly coloured and the ones still to come are pale.

§ 04

Where the timing comes from

Source: American Dental Association, Home oral care, https://www.ada.org/resources/ada-library/oral-health-topics/home-oral-care (two-minute brushing and twice-daily brushing findings). The split into four 30-second quarters is a pacing choice made for this page, not an ADA requirement. This page is a timer, not dental advice. Ask your dentist how and how often your child should brush.

Procedure

Three moves to peak output

  1. 01

    Prop up the phone

    Stand a phone or tablet by the sink where the screen is easy to see. Fullscreen (or F) makes the picture bigger.

  2. 02

    Press Start brushing

    A two-note sound starts the first quarter, upper left. Every 30 seconds the colour changes and a higher sound says it is time to move on.

  3. 03

    Follow the highlighted quarter

    The mouth picture lights up the quarter to brush and fills in the ones already done. At two minutes a star appears with a happy jingle.

Inquiries

Questions worth asking

Q.01 How long should kids brush their teeth?
The ADA's home oral care guidance links two minutes of brushing with less plaque than one minute. This timer runs exactly two minutes. Very young children need an adult to help or watch, and your dentist can tell you what suits your child's age.
Q.02 Why four quarters?
Splitting the mouth into upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right gives each part 30 seconds, so no area gets skipped and a child has a short goal instead of a long wait. The fixed order also builds a habit.
Q.03 Can I turn the sounds off?
Yes. Untick Sounds and the colour, the picture and the countdown still change on every quarter. With sounds on, the first tap on Start brushing unlocks audio so the cues can play on iPhones and iPads.
Q.04 What if my child needs a break?
Press Pause and the timer holds its place, quarter and all. Resume continues from the same second. Reset puts it back at the start of upper left.
Q.05 Will the screen stay on while it runs?
On browsers that support the Screen Wake Lock API (Chrome, Edge and recent Safari) the page asks the screen to stay on while the timer runs. On other devices, turn off auto-lock for a few minutes. The countdown reads the clock, so it still finishes on time if the tab is in the background, but the alarm sound needs the page to stay open.
Cross-reference

Try adjacent plates