Brushing your teeth seems like a very small detail in our busy lives, but make no mistake, it is one of the most important. It seems like a mindless chore; we walk in, put a little bit of toothpaste on a brush, and go at it, but are you really going at it the right way? You need to know how to brush your teeth correctly to prevent cavities, gum disease, and bad breath.
The first thing you are going to want to do is go buy a new toothbrush. The one you have could be good, but you want one soft bristles, and a large head. The softness of the bristles allows more flexibility and will reach more areas of your mouth and between your teeth. These bristles are also gentler on your sensitive gums.
Before you start brushing, wet your toothbrush a bit. The will soften up the bristles on your brush making them less likely to cut your gums.
After you have moistened your toothbrush it’s time to put some toothpaste on it. Make sure the toothpaste has fluoride in it. If you don’t know which toothpaste to pick you can go to your dentist and ask. This advice may be the only free thing you can get from the dentist. When applying the toothpaste to the wet toothbrush don’t put any more than a pea-sized on.
Now for the fun part of learning how to brush your teeth: the actual brushing. The best place to start would be on the inside lower front teeth because the toothpaste will fight the most tartar here. You want to hold the handle parallel to your teeth here, just like you would if you were brushing your front teeth.
The next part takes a little bit of time. Here you are going to tilt your toothbrush at about a 45 degree angle and move the brush in between the teeth. Only do two teeth at a time or you could be missing out on some cleaning. Do both the inside and outside teeth during this step.
The most important step of learning how to brush your teeth is to wiggle the bristles along the gum line. Make sure you do this gently; otherwise you may cut yourself, increasing the chance of an infection. Get every spot you can reach in your mouth especially behind your molars. Not only will you have nice clean gums, you will have helped prevent yourself from getting gum disease.
You are almost done! The last brushing step is to brush your tongue. Most toothbrushes have a tongue-brusher on the back of them. If yours doesn’t have one you can just use the front. Both will work perfectly fine. Brushing your tongue gets rid of bacteria that cause bad breath and will leave your mouth with that clean feeling.
Now, just rinse your mouth out with water and floss. You may not have enough time every time you brush to floss, but try to at least do it once per day. It help reach the stuff your brush cannot.
Now that you know how to brush your teeth correctly, you should have no more cavities. This will save you tons of money from the dentist, and all it took was spending a couple minutes brushing the proper way.
