Each Tuesday I will
be blogging about a tip for taking care of your teeth. I see many patients come
in with tooth decay that could have been prevented by taking better care of
their teeth. With these tips, I hope that you can maintain better oral health
for both you and your family.
For my first post I
want to talk about proper brushing technique. My guess is that all of you are
brushing too hard. I know you want to scrub all of the plaque off a quickly as
possible and get on with your day, but you’re doing a lot more harm than good.
Brushing too hard
causes gum recession. This can cause your roots to become exposed which can
lead to sensitivity to hot and cold. Once your gums begin to recede, you will
put yourself at an increased risk for tooth decay.
So, let’s talk about brushing.
Start with a soft bristled toothbrush…always. You don’t need anything harder
than that. You will want to angle your brush at a 45⁰ angle and take short,
soft strokes back and forth, slowly working your way forward. It should take
you about 30 seconds to brush each quadrant of your mouth. If you have a fancy
electric toothbrush, like the Oral-B Triumph, it will tell you when 30 second
is up and actually shut off when you’re brush too hard.
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| Photo Credit: identalhub.com |
Let’s do your mouth a
favor and take an extra minute to brush. Knowing how to properly brush your
teeth will help slow this recession process down and keep your gum tissue at
the appropriate level.
Great tip for those who do not properly brush their teeth. Like I said in my previous comment below, I dislike the dentist, so I do everything I can to brush, floss, and mouthwash frequently in order to prevent gum disease or cavities.
ReplyDeleteMy dentist is forever telling me this (not that I listen or anything). Well, maybe not the part about having a soft toothbrush, but about how to brush properly. I try, but usually after about two weeks or so i revert to my old ways. Perhaps you could make a blog post about how to get into good hygiene habits for teeth? My dentist tells me what good habits I should have without telling how to get into them. Wonderful post!
ReplyDeleteYes, I feel like what I say this to a patient, or my husband, it goes in one ear and out the other. It wasn't until I bought an electric toothbrush that we really started to realize how hard we were brushing. Charity, I will keep that in mind for my next Tooth Tip Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteI am with everyone who has commented. The dentist always tell me this but of course I just brush it off. Finally after so many things going wrong with my teeth I decided to listen. So I went and got a spinbrush and basically let it do all of the work so I wouldn't do things like push to hard! I am trying to do better with simple things like this beacuse now that I have my own child who is getting teeth I want to be able to teach her the right way!
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