How do I brush my teeth?
When you're brushing your teeth, you need to brush your teeth for five minutes. Five minutes is a very, very long time. When you think about it, if you were at a sports event and you spent five minutes watching runners run, they would run more than a mile in that five minutes. So, five minutes is a long time, but you need to brush for five minutes to do an adequate job. The tooth brush you use should have soft bristles. They need to be soft bristles for a couple of reasons. One, if it's a soft bristle, it won't harm your teeth. Two, if it's a soft bristle it'll be flexible enough to get into all the nooks and crannies and clean things well. In addition to that, we have to focus upon where the tooth meets the gum. This is where everything happens. This is where the plaque deposits, this is where the tartar's going to form if you don't clean the plaque. This is where you have to do the job. So, you need to get in there with a soft toothbrush, and then after you're finished with the toothbrush, you need to floss so you can get down below the gum. Many people use electric toothbrushes because they find it easier. The problem with an electric toothbrush, and it can be overcome, is to make sure that you have the electric toothbrush go to all those areas you would do with a hand brush. Sometimes it's going so fast that you lose track of where it is. You have to make sure you cover all of these bases. Of course if you're using an electric toothbrush, the five minutes may not be necessary; you could probably go down to two minutes if you are careful to get to every area of the mouth.
