Are You Truly Brushing Your Teeth?

Can you honestly say that you know how to brush your teeth? As adults, we have neglected to keep in mind how to truly brush your teeth as we grew older. I recently took a minor dental assisting class and I was surprised to find out that the first lesson we covered was how to brush your teeth. At first thought, I thought the lesson was silly to be teaching us adults, but in the end, I was astonished to find out how after many years, I have been brushing my teeth wrongly.

Toothbrush (Photo credit: James Bowe)

Our lesson started off with the instructor having all the students brush their teeth. All of us finished within a minute or so. Afterwards, we were all given disclosing tablets to reveal how well we all brushed our teeth. Disclosing tablets are chewable tablets which make dental plaque visible. In this case, if you saw pink on your teeth, then that pink subtance was visible plaque. Now came the shocking part of the lesson. Despite all us students brushing our teeth beforehand, we were amazed to see that we all had pink covering various areas of our teeth. How was this possible when we had brushed our teeth though? All the student adults in our class have brushed their teeth wrongly.

Our instructor now lectured us on how to brush our teeth, and by this time, we were all very interested compared to how uninterested we were in the beginning of the lesson:

1) Your toothbrush should be labeled as soft bristled. Soft bristled tooth brushes work the best and they ensure that you don't erode your gums away when brushing.

2) When you brush, brush in circular motions and pretend your wiping your teeth clean. There is no need to vigorously brush your teeth, just lightly brush in smooth circular motions.

3) Apply your small pea sized tooth paste amount and begin brushing in the upper left back portion of your teeth.

4) Turn your toothbrush parallel and brush two teeth at a time. The areas you want to work most on are the chewing surfaces (occlusal surfaces), between teeth, and "underneath" the gums. Turn your toothbrush in 45 degree angles in order to brush underneath the gums.

5) From the upper left portion, you will brush to the upper right portion; then from the upper right portion of your mouth, you will brush the lower right portion of your mouth, then finally end in the lower left portion of your mouth.

6) The time it takes to brush your teeth is between 2-3 minutes long. Most people spend less than a minute brushing their teeth. Take time brushing each of your individual teeth the next time you brush.

7) It does not matter which toothpaste you use just as long the toothpaste contains fluoride. It does not matter whether you floss before or after you brush your teeth as well.

The next time you brush your teeth, keep in mind the steps I have learned on how to truly brush your teeth!