ORAL HYGIENE ABC

Tooth-friendly eating is the best way to prevent tooth decay, or cavities. Here you will find the basics of cleaning your teeth, which are worth reviewing from time to time, because health starts in the mouth!

Simply rinsing with mouthwash or chewing gum does not clean your teeth. So every morning and evening, brush the cheek-side, tongue-side and chewing surfaces of your teeth. Take at least 2 minutes, mentally dividing your mouth into 4 parts, and spend at least half a minute on each part.

BRUSHING BASICS

1. Brush your teeth 2 times a day for at least 2 minutes at a time.
2. A pea-sized amount of toothpaste is enough. Use a fluoride toothpaste.
3. Choose a toothbrush labelled soft or supersoft. Teeth can be cleaned well with both a manual and an electric toothbrush; the choice depends on your preferences and needs.
4. Don’t hold a manual toothbrush in your fist, but like a pencil, so that the pressure on your teeth and gums is not too strong and you can “steer” the toothbrush more precisely.
5. The most effective technique is brushing with short back-and-forth or circular movements.
6. The tips of the bristles should reach into the gum line so that the germs between the gum and the tooth are also cleaned away. 

7. If necessary, also clean your tongue to reduce the number of germs in your mouth.

8. Spit out the toothpaste but don’t rinse your mouth with water, so the toothpaste stays in your mouth and keeps working.

9. Use mouthwash only if your dentist recommends it.

CLEANING BETWEEN THE TEETH

A toothbrush only cleans 60% of the tooth surfaces. The remaining 40% are the spaces between the teeth, which are best cleaned with dental floss and small bottle-brush-like interdental brushes.

If not enough attention is paid to cleaning between the teeth, gum inflammation caused by plaque and hardened plaque (tartar) can destroy the tissues that hold the teeth, and the teeth start to move. Chronic, advanced inflammation can eventually lead to tooth loss. The most important thing in preventing and treating gum disease is the quality of oral hygiene – brushing and, in addition, cleaning with dental floss or an interdental brush.

1. Clean between your teeth once a day.
2. To help the toothpaste reach all the gaps and corners, clean between your teeth before brushing.
3. Wrap the dental floss around your fingers; if this seems difficult, use a special floss holder. Carefully guide the floss into the gum line and slide it out along the side of the tooth together with the debris, so that the plaque on the side of the tooth is lifted off and pulled out from between the teeth.

4. For cleaning larger gaps between teeth and roots, use an interdental brush. An interdental brush of the right size is passed between the teeth and the plaque stays on both sides of the brush – there is no need to scrub back and forth. If there is a lot of plaque between the teeth, rinse the brush under running water and pass it through again. The interdental brush must not be too big, as it can injure the gum, or too small, as it will not be effective enough.

5. Find the most suitable cleaning aid together with your dentist.

6. Bleeding gums are a sign of inflammation. With careful cleaning, it usually stops within a few

days. If the bleeding does not stop, see your dentist.

Source: Health Insurance Fund website (26.05.2021)