How To Clean Your Teeth

Hi. I'm Brian Halvorsen and I'm a dentist. I've been in practice for over 35 years and I have written a book about my principles on holistic dentistry.

The book is called Great Teeth for Life. In this video, I am going to be talking about tooth brushing, something that I think most of us do virtually everyday of our lives, or I would like to feel we do. Now, tooth brushing has been in existence for the best part of 3000 years, and we used to use, actually, sticks, but now, basically, toothbrushes made of nylon.

The reason they are of nylon now, rather than of bristle, was that the very fine points, often because we now like to actually put it on the teeth and then massage into the gums, we don't want any sharp points to dig into the gums, and bristle brushes actually do that. So, they can actually be slightly harmful. So, the conventional brush, it doesn't matter who makes it, usually do pretty well.

The differences are: do you want soft or do you want hard or do you want medium? That is again individual taste and something you can discuss with your dentist and hygienist. Now, the main thing is to actually get the tooth brushing so that you go into the gaps and you go all around. Now, these days, although there are various techniques of being able to brush your teeth, small circular movements tend to be that which I and most dentists and hygienists favor.

Now, if you look at the use of electric tooth brushes, again, it is something that actually goes around in a small gyratory movement and does the same thing as what you do by hand. Now, some people find that it is easier to sort of get, for example, the back of the mouth, by brushing with a toothbrush rather than with an electric toothbrush. One little hint which is important, is that a lot of times, is if you brush your back teeth with your mouth open, then you often find that your cheek is tight.

Therefore, you can't actually get the brush into the gum line on the side at the very back. So, a tip is to put the toothbrush in, close your mouth and then, the tissue is slack, and you can get right down on the gum line in these areas. Again, it's something that by visiting the hygienist regularly, they will check on your technique and give you some help on modifying a technique that is specific for your teeth.

Now, I recommend brushing twice a day because I think that that way, you don't allow plaque to build up sufficiently to actually start causing primary gum disease. Because we all have different teeth, some are crooked, some are dead straight, there would be various levels of difficulty. Now, the interesting thing is that there are lots of people who have not got, what I would call, very good manual dexterity.

They could have neurological problems or they just may not be very good at it. In those situations, normally, I would favor and advise using an electric toothbrush because this actually gives an easier method of this rotary action and trying to get into nooks and crannies. I hope this actually gives you a few hints on how to brush your teeth well.

Thank you.