Getting kids to brush their teeth properly is, for lack of a better phrase, like pulling teeth. Cartoon character toothbrushes, brushes that play music, and specially-flavored toothpaste really don’t help. But soon there will be a way to make brushing more like fun, which every kid and their parents will appreciate.

Grush is a toothbrush combined with a video game – mashing up kids’ least favorite activity with one of their favorites. The setup consists of a toothbrush that works as a motion-sensing game controller, the Grush cloud server which stores brushing activity and shows it to parents, and interactive mobile games that run on Android or iOS devices.

The games guide kids through proper tooth brushing, giving them points based on their performance. There are several games specially tailored for specific ages and genders. Kids can take care of virtual pets, fight tooth monsters, conduct an orchestra, and even fly planes as they brush.

The parents’ app displays when children brush and how well they’ve brushed. Parents can use this information to provide rewards or give encouragement, or even to show to the child’s dentist at their next visit.

Any parent who has ever struggled to get their kids to brush properly knows that this is a long-overdue advance in the field of tooth cleaning. Designed by engineer Dr. Yong-Jin Wang and gaming futurist Ethan Daniel Schur, the Grush is raising money on IndieGoGo for an initial production run.