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Proper Oral Hygiene

Washing your teeth involves proper brushing and flossing. For proper maintenance of your teeth, brush with fluoride toothpaste twice a day for at least two minutes, especially in the morning and before bedtime and floss-usually at bedtime, every day.

Brushing

Many of us are amazed to find out that we don’t do brushing right. Were you informed that it takes at least two minutes to brush properly? The bulk of adults do not approach to brushing too long. Seek to use a stopwatch to get a feel for the time involved. Use short, gentle strokes, pay particular attention to the gumline, difficult to reach back teeth and zones around fillings, crowns or other restorations to clean the teeth properly. Focus on carefully cleaning every segment as follows:

  • Clean the external surfaces of your upper teeth, then your lower teeth.
  • Clean the internal surfaces of your upper teeth, then your lower teeth.
  • Clean the surfaces of the chewing.
  • Be sure to clean your tongue, too, for a fresher breeze.
  • Place the brush against the gum at an angle of 45 degrees and move the brush off the gumline.
  • Brush each tooth with quick back and forth strokes on the outside, inside and chewing surface carefully.
  • Clean your tongue gently so bacteria are eliminated.

Flossing

Dental floss and dental tape are cleaning agents which clean surfaces between teeth where brush cannot reach. Dental floss is a thin string of monofilament or nylon twisted plastic filaments. Dental tape almost similar to Dental floss but much thicker and flatter. Often it is also called ribbon tape. The choice of whether to use dental tape or floss depends on which one is the most effective and convenient to use for cleaning between your teeth.

  • Cut off approximately 18-inch-long floss or tape from the spool.
  • Wind around one end of the tape with one finger in the centre. Do so on the other middle finger on the other end of the tape.
  • Pinch the string for power with your pointer finger and thumb on each hand.
  • Place the floss or tape between two teeth, wrap it around the edge of a tooth and create a type of C-shape.
  • Work the floss gently or band up the tooth, using a sawing back and forth step.
  • Relax a small section of floss or tape from one side and wind it up from the other so you have to work with a clean section.
  • Repeat motion on the surface of the opposite tooth, reversing the C-shape.

Place the floss or tape between the next two teeth and likewise clean the surfaces. Do this anywhere between the teeth.