Taking The Time To Treat Your Teeth Properly
At Community Dental Group, we work with clients of all ages from Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, and Newbury Park, CA. What is interesting to us is that in going over the take-home practices for oral health with our patients, we often find that even regular brushing routines fall a little short of best practices. To that end, we would like to share some tips that can help you to maintain your dental health in between check-ups, and also allow you to have greater responsibility in your overall health.
Simple Brushing?
The practice of brushing and flossing at least twice a day is highly recommended, and also fits into schedules and lifestyles for our variety of clients. Ideally, people should be brushing after every meal, but should also consider that sugary beverages will also leave debris in the mouth that can impact oral health. In these cases, either avoiding the sugars or taking the time to gently clean the mouth can reduce the impacts.
During the morning and night cleanings that most people engage in, there are also several pointers that we would like to offer.
- Brush your teeth for a full two minutes – This not only ensures a good cleaning, but also helps to invigorate the gums and reduce the chance of gum disease.
- Brush evenly – People will naturally favor the side of the mouth that is opposite the dominant hand. As a result, a right handed person will spend more time brushing the left side of the mouth. One easy way to correct this is to simply divide the mouth into quadrants, and spend equal time addressing all parts of the mouth and all sides of the teeth.
- Massage the gums for at least 20 seconds per brushing – This can be incorporated into the brushing evenly routine, but can also be a separate practice for gum health.
- Use a softer bristle brush – More rigid brushes may seem as though they will do a better job cleaning, but these can wear down enamel and irritate the gums. Softer bristles are more conducive to health, and clean just as well.