Brushing your teeth is the most essential way to keep your mouth clean. Duration of brushing has been emphasized, and a time recommended by many dentists is between two to three minutes. An adequate time spent on brushing, say two minutes, coupled with the best strokes results in a clean mouth free from cavities and gum disease.
The wrong strokes commonly used and the results
Many people use different strokes which are not recommended. These strokes may cause a concentration of cleaning only on some teeth, leaving some areas like the back teeth and the lower teeth unattended. The most cleaned teeth are the left upper canine and premolars in a right handed person and the right upper canines and premolars for the left handed person.
The recommended right strokes and the results
For someone with healthy gums, orient the head of the toothbrush at an angle of about 45 degrees to the tooth. The bristles should be facing the roots of the tooth. This angulation allows the bristles to clean a space between the tooth and the gums which stores bacteria when left dirty.
With gentle pressure, create small circles with your wrist which should be translated to the head of the toothbrush and bristles. These movements have been proven by research to remove up to 99% of bacteria on the visible part of the tooth, and the invisible parts too.
As you do the rotatory movements, move the toothbrush back and forth until you reach the incisor areas. Start again on the other surface of the tooth for the upper and the lower back teeth. Then concentrate on the biting surfaces of the back teeth. For the biting surfaces, you do not need to keep the head angulated. Put the bristles on the biting surfaces and with both rotatory and back and forth motions, clean from behind forward.
Finally, we are left with the front upper and lower teeth. To clean the front teeth surfaces facing the lips, angulate the head of the toothbrush as before, move in rotatory and left to right movements for about twenty seconds for the upper and another twenty seconds for the lower teeth. The surface toward the tongue is cleaned by using up and down movements for both upper and lower front teeth.
Remember that applying too much pressure while brushing does not improve the quality of your brushing, and in fact can cause unnecessary damage to the teeth and the gums.
Contact a dentist or dental hygienist at Water Brook Dental in Washington DC for a dental check-up and other dental needs. Water Brook Dental has two locations in Washington DC. The Columbia Heights location is very conveniently located to Downtown DC, Northeast DC, Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, Logan Circle, U-Street Corridor, Mount Pleasant and many other parts of Washington. The Eastern Ave NW location is conveniently located to Downtown Silver Spring, Takoma Park MD, Silver Spring MD, Colesville, and other parts of Maryland as well as Northern Virginia and other parts of Virginia.
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