Save thousands on dental care just by brushing your teeth correctly

Most everyone knows that regular brushing and flossing helps to prevent cavities and more expensive restorations. Ounce of prevention and all that. There are so many benefits to having a healthy set of teeth that it's difficult to argue against brushing.

But here's a different question. Do you know how to brush your teeth correctly?

Doing this routine the right way could mean the difference between easy, breezy six-month cleanings and long, tedious ones — not to mention the extra wear and tear on the teeth and gums from the elevated plaque and tartar levels. A couple of days ago at my six-month checkup — which, unfortunately for me, was of the long, tedious kind — the hygienist took the time to show me how to brush my teeth correctly. Even though I had heard bits and pieces before, I was applying that knowledge poorly, and was doing it mostly wrong. It was better than nothing, but not a whole lot better.

Defeating the purpose of an electric toothbrush

A few years ago, at the advice of my previous dentist, I bought an electric toothbrush. The vibrating head brushes the teeth many more times per minute than just going back and forth manually, which covers the surface of the tooth and gum line more effectively. But in order for an electric toothbrush to be effective, it has to be used correctly.

The way I was using it was very ineffective. I was told before to tilt the brush head toward the gums, but I was tilting it too much, and pushing way too hard. I was missing part of the surface of the teeth, abrading my gums in the process, and encouraging them to develop pockets, which is bad because it encourages gingivitis and infection, which can lead to gum recession, cavities below the gum line, and even bone loss. I was moving the electric toothbrush back and forth like a regular toothbrush, and that isn't the way to do it either. Further, I was going over the teeth way too quickly.

What I learned about brushing teeth the right way

It only took about five minutes for my hygienist to show me what I was doing wrong. Here's a summary of what she told me:

• About three seconds per tooth. So if you have fourteen teeth on the bottom (no wisdom teeth) that's 42 seconds for those teeth. It wasn't clear exactly whether this was per surface or for the whole tooth, but she said that teeth brushing should take about three minutes. That's a little bit less than three seconds per tooth per surface but it was certainly far longer than I was doing it.
• Make sure the brush is almost flat against the tooth, with a very slight tilt up toward the gums. Only a few degrees. The more straight up-and-down the bristles hit the tooth, the better. (The mathematical term is “perpendicular.”)
• There's almost no side-to-side brushing motion when using an electric toothbrush. The motion was more like dragging the brush head slowly over the teeth. The brush gets under the gum line when the bristles spread out on the surface of the tooth. I could feel this when I brushed this way. I had been trying to force them underneath the gum by having a sharp “angle of attack” with the brush, but all I was really doing was attacking my gums; it wasn't effectively getting underneath the gums clean.
• There's not a whole lot of pressure. There's some pressure, but not much. Pushing hard against the teeth with the brush just wears out the head faster and gives more wear and tear on teeth and gums.
• Loosen up the cheeks to get the back teeth. The hard-to-reach places are easier to reach if the cheeks aren't tightened up against the teeth.

With root canal therapy and crowns running around $1,000 a pop, and hours in the dentist's chair, the extra couple of minutes a day brushing teeth the right way to prevent these expenses is time well spent.