Keeping your mouth clean is very important for the following reasons:
Maintains healthy gums, and therefore you keep your natural teeth longer
Reduces tooth decay
Keeps teeth looking whiter
Reduces bad breath
To do a really good job of cleaning your teeth, gums, tongue and palate, you need to spend time, and use more than just your toothbrush and toothpaste.
Your primary objective should be to remove plaque, which is the soft stuff that builds up on teeth, and produces harmful toxins that silently destroy the gums around your teeth.
Tooth brushing
Electric toothbrushes are better than manual brushes. We always recommend Oral B electric toothbrushes, as the brush head is small, and the motion is the best to remove plaque at the gum level.
If you use a regular brush, you should aim the bristles 45 degrees toward the gum and use small round movements to sweep the gum line clean.
Always start on one side, and concentrate on brushing each and every tooth, individually, all the way to the other side.
Do the outside first, then the inside, then the top.
If your gums bleed, don’t worry, it means you have been missing areas in the past. If anything, concentrate more on the areas which bleed.
The most common areas for people to not brush effectively are:
The inside surface of the bottom teeth and the very back of the top teeth.
Remember to brush your tongue, as this is an area where bacteria grow and can give you bad breath.
Dental Floss
No matter how good your brushing technique is, you will never effectively clean in-between the teeth if you do not floss or use tepe brushes.
To use floss, roll a length of floss around your ring fingers, and use your first fingers to direct it to the right place.
Push the floss between the contact of two teeth, then move it against one of the teeth, and slide it out, against that tooth.
Then do the same, in the same contact point, but pull out against the other side tooth.
This needs to be done in every contact point, every day; otherwise harmful bacteria will build up between the teeth.
Mouthwashes
Mouthwashes do not actually remove plaque, contrary to what the adverts say.
They do, however smell nice, and quite often contain Fluoride, which helps strengthen teeth. You should try and use a mouthwash twice a day, once in the morning and once at lunchtime.
For the best advice custom to your mouth, its best to come and visit one of our dentists and they will be able to advise you.