How to Brush Your Teeth

Why do we need to brush our teeth? The reason we need to brush them is to keep our bodies healthy. The mouth is the gateway to your body, so if your mouth isn’t healthy then your body isn’t going to be healthy. If you don’t brush your teeth, it can cause bad breath, and let’s be honest no one wants to smell that. By not brushing your teeth your mouth can harbor bacteria in such areas as the tongue, in between your teeth, and around your gums. Another way to protect your teeth is by flossing once a day which will help get the food out between your teeth, so it doesn’t set there and cause cavities. Some people may also develop a disease called periodontal disease, which is caused by not brushing twice a day. Periodontal disease is the bone loss that supports the teeth. It is irreversible, so once you have it it’s hard to control. Today I am going to be talking about the proper way to brush your teeth to avoid all of these.

First, let’s cover what we are going to need. We are going to need a soft or extra-soft toothbrush. The reason we want a soft toothbrush is to make sure we don’t irritate our gums too much and cause them to hurt. Most people tend to believe that the harder the brush bristles, the better it cleans their teeth, but this is not the case. Using a round, soft nylon bristle brush will give you a more powerful clean, unlike the hard bristle toothbrush. Second, we will want fluoride toothpaste. It’s good to have fluoride in your toothpaste because fluoride helps add minerals back into your teeth that may have been lost. Fluoride also puts a protective layer around your tooth to help prevent minerals from being lost. Lastly, we will want some sort of floss. Either floss picks or regular floss will work. We use floss is to make sure we remove the food from in between our teeth, that our toothbrush can’t reach to break up the food. Flossing once a day can help protect your gums.

First, you want to put a pea-size amount of toothpaste on your soft bristle toothbrush. You can get your toothbrush wet if you like after you have your toothpaste on the toothbrush. 

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After you have your toothbrush ready, brush your teeth with the toothbrush pointed at a 45-degree angle towards your gums. The reason we do that is to make sure that your gums get brushed to stay healthy. Doing this also helps get underneath your gums and removes food that may be stuck. Don’t brush your teeth hard, use gentle short back and forth strokes. You want to make sure you are getting all surfaces of your teeth, the front side, biting surface, and tongue side. Don’t forget to brush your tongue also, as this is a good place for bacteria to hide. Brushing for 2 minutes helps to make sure all food or bacteria is removed.

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After you are done brushing your teeth, floss. If you are using regular floss, get about an 18-inch piece of it and wrap it around your middle fingers. Gently glide the floss in between your teeth and use up and down motions, this helps to make sure the food is off the side of your tooth. 

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After you have completed the steps of brushing your teeth, you may rinse with water or with a mouth rinse. When using a mouth rinse, make sure it has fluoride in it, as this makes sure that you have a protective layer on your tooth to prevent any cavities.

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There you have it. Brushing your teeth is a very important skill we use in our everyday lives. It can help prevent any diseases, not just in our mouth, but in our bodies. It’s crazy what can happen to our bodies, just by not brushing our teeth. You are now ready to take on the day with a fresh, clean mouth.