Electric toothbrushes often come with built-in timers to ensure that you brush your teeth for the minimum amount of time as recommended by dentists (2 minutes). Obtaining a timer is a simple way to ensure that you brush with a manual or battery operated brush for the same amount of time.

A simple sand-glass can be bought from Amazon for a couple of pounds. These take two minutes for all the sand to fall. Some models can be wall mounted with rotating glasses or have a sucker to stick to bathroom tiles.

Digital timers are a little more sophisticated and may display a quadrant indicator to ensure you spend the same amount of time on each quarter of your mouth. For travel, or for fun, there is also a good range of timer apps and games available for both Android and iPhone.

For children, timers are essential to ensure that your child’s teeth-cleaning is effective and can help avoid tooth-related tears and tantrums.  If they’ve got an electric toothbrush like the Oral B stages toothbrush, this is built in (with a specific buzzing which shows when to change to clean different parts of the mouth, or when the cleaning time is finished).  Boots do some fun Thomas the Tank Engine timers too. If your child is using a manual toothbrush, then you can use an egg-timer which does the same job – Amazon or John Lewis have a great selection of timers, including a cute Frog or Panda timer from Amazon – or simply use a traditional hourglass timer which does the same job for kids’ teeth.