Brushing Teeth: How Hard Could It Be?
Been brushing your teeth your whole life yet still get told by the dentist, that there’s “room for improvement”? This article will bust some myths and get to the bottom of why we might not be brushing, the way we should.
Back to Basics
For many of us, we have been told all our lives, brush twice a day, every day for 2 minutes. Now sometimes this falls to the wayside when life gets busy but lets go back to the beginning.
We often tell parents, it is best to stay in the room with your child while they brush into their mid-teens. Let’s start with a basic rule of thumb. If your child cannot tie their own shoelaces, the chances that their dexterity and cognitive skills are developed enough to wield the mighty toothbrush are quite slim. So until those Velcro’s are laces, its best we help tweak their technique.
How does this apply to us?
Often as adults, we have a lot on our minds, brushing our teeth can become a subconscious activity. We stare blankly in the mirror while we wait for the timer to go off or we’re in such a rush, we do a once-over and run out the door.
This is how areas like your back molars, behind your bottom front teeth and those gumlines get missed.
What should we be doing?
Set a timer, actually do the 2 minutes and try to focus. There are 3 surfaces of every tooth above the gum accessible to a toothbrush, we need to get all of those surfaces, so stick to a system.
eg. Split your mouth into 4 quadrants.
1st – Brush cheek side, biting side, tongue side
2nd – Brush cheek side, biting side, tongue side
And so on…
But what about those in-between surfaces? We’re sure you’ve heard it a million times… Floss, floss, floss.
Things you Probably Don’t Realize:
- You could be brushing too hard, causing some abrasion on your teeth. We aren’t trying to attack our teeth.
- You could also be going too soft, we aren’t trying to tickle them either.
- Your gum health is impacted for the better when you brush them, so give them some attention.
- Are your gums bleeding? They could be irritated by plaque build-up. Brushing them will strengthen them and eventually they won’t bleed. IF BLEEDING CONTINUES FOR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME SPEAK TO YOUR DENTIST
- All the active ingredients that help with: sensitivity, whitening, strengthening…They’re in the toothpaste, so don’t wash it away by rinsing, spit out the excess and let the toothpaste do it’s magic.
DBay Dental – AB 2026