Brushing
Use a toothbrush with soft bristles and a small strip of fluoride toothpaste. When you brush your teeth, move the brush in small circular motions to reach food particles that may be under your gum line. Hold the toothbrush at an angle and brush slowly and carefully, covering all areas between teeth and the surface of each tooth. It will take you several minutes to thoroughly brush your teeth. Brush up on the lower teeth, down on the upper teeth and the outside, inside and chewing surface of all of your front and back teeth. Brush your tongue and the roof of your mouth before you rinse.
Brush your teeth four times daily to avoid the accumulation of food particles and plaque:
- In the morning after breakfast
- After lunch or right after school
- After dinner
- At bedtime
As soon as the bristles start to wear down or fray, replace your toothbrush with a new one. Do not swallow any toothpaste; rinse your mouth thoroughly with water after you finish brushing. It is important to carefully floss and brush daily for optimal oral hygiene.
Sonicare
Sonicare is the power toothbrush most recommended by dental professionals. Sonicare is clinically proven to remove more plaque than a manual toothbrush while remaining safe & gentle on teeth and gums. Sonicare gives you naturally whiter teeth and healthier gums.
Flossing
For areas between the teeth that a toothbrush can't reach, dental floss is used to remove food particles and plaque. Dental floss is a thin thread of waxed nylon that is used to reach below the gum line and clean between teeth. It is very important to floss between your teeth every day.
Pull a small length of floss from the dispenser. Wrap the ends of the floss tightly around your middle fingers. Guide the floss between all teeth to the gum line, pulling out any food particles or plaque. Unwrap clean floss from around your fingers as you go, so that you have used the floss from beginning to end when you finish. Floss behind all of your back teeth.
Floss at night to make sure your teeth are squeaky clean before you go to bed. When you first begin flossing, your gums may bleed a little. If the bleeding does not go away after the first few times, let a staff member know at your next appointment.
Waterpik® Water Flosser
Using dental floss is important to your daily oral health routine. But you might hate flossing not because you don't know how to floss, but because it is awkward, difficult, or messy. If you are looking for an effective alternative to manual or string floss, you can floss with water instead of string!
Using a Waterpik® Water Flosser is the easier, more effective way to floss:
- Use a Water Flosser once per day for about 1 minute. It's a pleasant experience, giving you the cleanest, freshest sensation possible.
- A recent clinical study found that adding a Water Flosser to tooth brushing was 50% more effective than string floss at improving gum health.
- Another clinical study showed that for adolescents with fixed orthodontic appliances, the Waterpik® Water Flosser with the Orthodontic Tip was 3.8 times as effective as string flossing and 5.8 times as effective as brushing alone in removing plaque.
