Guide to Brushing Transcript

First thing you need to remember about brushing is always use a soft toothbrush. A lot of my patients come in and they’re using a medium to hard tooth brush and they’re brushing like they’re scrubbing the kitchen floor.

All that does is damage the tissue and make it recede from the teeth. So, you want a soft brush. I recommend replacing it every 4-6 weeks; when it starts to fray out get rid of it. It’s like an old broom, It’s not doing a lot of good.

With the soft toothbrush, I’d like you to start at about a about a 45 degree angle, going right toward the gum line. Instead of scrubbing your teeth you’re going to want to start with little circles; a lot of friction with no pressure. As you’re coming around you’re going all the way to the back. And when you do the back of the teeth, you want to make sure, again, that you’re at a 45 degree angle and you’re using, again, a lot of movement, no pressure.

As you come to the front of mouth, where your teeth curve, I’d like you to use the toe of brush and brush out all the way. You don’t want to be in a hurry, you want to make sure that you’re keeping it parallel to the teeth at 45 degree angle and that you’re doing small circles coming around. You do the outsides and the insides of your upper teeth and you’re going to do the same on your lower teeth. Angle it at 45 degree angle toward the gum surface. So, basically, you’re trying to get the brush bristles under that little collar of gum tissue on each tooth as you come around.

So, basically, you’re not scrubbing you’re getting a lot of friction, a lot of movement with the brush against the tooth. And after you’ve done the insides and the outsides of both arches, you’re gonna just brush the tops of the teeth on the lower arch and the same on the upper arch. And you come around.

Then, it’s really important, I like you to stick your tongue out and just stroke your tongue down to get the bacteria off of your tongue. Basically, that’s how you brush your teeth.