Improving Your Daily Oral Care Routine
Everyone wants a beautiful, healthy smile, and while coming to your regularly scheduled dental appointments here at the office of Dr. Christian Johnson are important, the key to maintaining a great smile lies in your oral care routine at home. At the core of this routine is giving your teeth a thorough brushing to clear away all of the food particles and bacteria that have built up on them and in between them throughout the day.
With the proper brushing technique, keeping your teeth clean and your mouth healthy is easy. Without the right technique, you could be missing key areas of bacteria and food buildup that sometimes won’t be cleared away by following up with flossing or rinsing. Those areas of buildup then transform into tooth destroying plaque before you know it, which is why making sure you brush your teeth effectively is so important.
Brushing In Stages
It’s recommend that you brush your teeth for a total of two full minutes, but many people have difficulty hitting that marker. To make things a bit easier, we’ve split up the proper technique of brushing into three stages, each of which will last about 40 seconds. Use short, gentle strokes that move your toothbrush in a small circular motion.
1.
Outside Of The Teeth - angle your brush at a 45 degree angle while brushing the outside surfaces of your teeth and gum line.
2.
Inside Of The Teeth - move the brush to the inside surface of your teeth, while keeping the brush at a 45 degree angle to clean the gum line.
3.
Chewing Surfaces - brush the chewing surfaces of your teeth while holding the toothbrush flat against them.
4.
Extra: Clean Your Tongue - Use any extra time you have to clean the bacteria off your tongue, which often appears as a white buildup. This will help keep your breath smelling fresh.
Make sure not to brush too hard to avoid damaging your gums. The back areas of your mouth can be notoriously more difficult to reach with the brush, so spending a little extra time brushing those areas will make sure that your mouth is perfectly clean.
Finding The Right Toothbrush
For a reliable manual toothbrush, we recommend you find a brush that has soft bristles and a small brush head. The soft bristles are more gentle on the gums, while being more effective at penetrating the areas between the teeth for any hard to reach food particles or bacteria. As for the small brush head, it makes it easier for you to reach the teeth in the back of your mouth for a more complete brushing. Electric toothbrushes are also great alternatives with the ability to clear away more plaque than your traditional toothbrush.
The Best Toothpaste For A Healthy Smile
While there’s nothing wrong with a general toothpaste, there are many different toothpastes that are designed for those with specific needs such as sensitive teeth, cavity control, and gingivitis. For help choosing a toothpaste, schedule an appointment with us and we can help guide you on choosing a type that best fits your dental health needs. Just be careful with using whitening toothpaste, since it can wear away the enamel of your teeth.
Contact Us For More Oral Care Tips!
At the dental office of Dr. Christian Johnson, our goal is to make sure that your smile lasts a lifetime, so if you have any questions about your daily oral care routine and how to improve it, just contact us and we’ll be happy to help. Of course, don’t forget to come in for your regularly scheduled check-ins and cleaning with us to make sure that your mouth stays as healthy as can be. We look forward to seeing you in our office for your next appointment!