Am I brushing my teeth wrong?

Brushing correctly

The most important part about brushing our teeth is brushing them in the correct way. Some people brush their teeth twice a day but only do it for ten seconds at a time, briefly pulling their toothbrush across the front of the their teeth and not accounting for the rest.

It’s important that firstly, you are brushing your teeth for at least 2 minutes at a time! They should be brushed once in the morning and once at night. That ten second rush won’t count!

Secondly, the way that you brush your teeth is quite important. You must clean the front of your teeth and the back of your teeth in a circular, upward motion. Don’t just scrub your teeth endlessly!

The harder you brush doesn’t mean you brush them the right way. Sometimes less is more! You shouldn’t just scrub your teeth as it could affect your gums. Rather than thinking of scrubbing your teeth – think of massaging them and that will change the way you brush without even realising. Plaque may feel like its indestructible but it’s actually quite loose and doesn’t need to be brushed off really hard.

Our Cardiff dental practice advises that you shouldn’t forget the gum line when you brush. It’s easy to just brush the ‘white parts’ of our teeth and forget about our gums. When you try your new massaging brushing technique – massage the toothbrush up from the gum line first and then onto the tooth. This will ensure you are brushing the plaque from the gums as well as the teeth.

Remember to brush the back of your teeth e.g. the teeth on your tongue side. Angling your brush to brush right down from the gum line will ensure your mouth is clean all around. Reach up to your molars and get right around the jaw to clean every tooth.

As a dental practice we recommend that you don’t hold onto your toothbrush for too long. The average change time is every 3 months – you don’t want to be brushing your teeth with dead bristles because it won’t help you! Heads for electric toothbrushes can be purchased quite easily and for cheaper manual brushes its important they are replaced.

Visit a dentist regularly. We are a Cardiff based dental practice and it’s important for us to see our clients on a regular basis. Waiting two years before you have a check-up is a no-no.