Tooth Brushing Instructions
We strongly recommend using a Braun Oral-B rechargable electric toothbrush to our patients. Patients using a manual brush have more of a tendency to miss some part of the mouth, which can lead to a localized gingivitis.
Since the Braun electirc brush is easier to use than a manual brush and we find most patients ,with minimal effort, can do an excellent job of cleaning their teeth. The Braun electric tooth brush requires a slightly different technique than a conventional tooth brush. Instead of a side to side motion, we recommend a slight up and down motion, so that the brush head cleans the entire tooths’surface and “gently bumps” the gum. No side to side motion is required. Generally, three seconds per tooth surface is all that is required. Patients should start in one corner of the mouth and slowly move the brush across all of their teeth(three seconds per tooth!). Do both the outside and inside tooth surfaces. Oral B suggests that the entire process should take about two minutes.
In addition to brushing your teeth every day, it is important to remove the plaque that forms in between your teeth on surfaces that a tooth brush can’t reach. This can be accomplished by flossing, proxabrushingor by proper use of a stimudent( a periodontal toothpick).
Some patients with periodontal pockets are encouraged to use a water pik in addition to brushing and flossing. The water pik is never to be used in place of tooth brushing. Although it can help clean out debris in between teeth,and it is good for removal of bacteria that is dissolved in crevicular fluid( fluid caught in a small crevice between the gums and teeth) it is not terribly effective in the removal of plaque from tooth surfaces.
