Anxious about your smile? Neglected cleaning in the past? Or looking for tips to encourage your kids to brush properly? It’s all covered in today’s blog post, where we offer advice about cleaning your teeth the correct way. It’s all to help you maintain your oral health, for a sparkling smile you can be truly proud of. There are several steps involved in brushing your teeth, so we’ll go through them in a bit more detail to help you on the way to successful oral care.

Start on the outside

For the first part of your routine, brush the outer surface of the teeth – the one that’s visible when you smile. You’ll need to brush both upper and lower sets, and go slowly and gently so you don’t miss any teeth or tricky spots. It can be a good idea to clean one tooth at a time to ensure you’ve got them all covered.

Go for the gums

Hold your brush horizontally and go close to the gumline, sweeping backwards and forwards to clear away any debris and releasing bacteria, plaque and food particles that might have accumulated in the area.

Brush the insides

Now, target the inside surface of your teeth – the one ‘behind’ the front that you don’t normally see. This is just as important as brushing the front side, perhaps more so since it’s tempting to skip this step altogether. But, it’s important to brush there all the same, as the last thing you want is decay. Again, that horizontal angle is key – then simply go back and forth over the teeth.

 Target the chewing surfaces

These are the fissured teeth surfaces which allow you to chew or bite food. Take special care of the back teeth, as it’s common for food to get trapped here in the grooves and pits of these teeth.

Sweep the tongue

You might think it’s unnecessary to clean your tongue, but it’s just one more area of the mouth where bacteria can build up (not to mention a potential site for bad breath). Most toothbrushes nowadays have a tongue scraper on them to help make this easier.

Flossing and mouthwash

These other steps are great for keeping your mouth clean. Just take care not to use mouthwash immediately after toothpaste – you don’t want to wash away all that protective fluoride! For any other tips, tricks and advice, talk to our Maidstone dental team today, or click here to read more about our dental hygienists. In addition you can check out our dental plan that we have to offer.