Being in dental hygiene school and all, people tend to frequently ask me what kind of toothpaste I use and would recommend, or how I have such a white, healthy smile. Honestly, it’s really quite simple. I’ll let ya’ll in on a little secret.
1. Brushing twice a day for two minutes, especially with an electric toothbrush (I love my Oral B Professional Care Smart Series… you can read here why electric brushes are the shizzle),
2. brushing with a really great toothpaste twice a day for those two minutes, and
3. flossing every (and I mean every) single night after brushing.
For some reason, us Homo sapiens have not yet programmed ourselves to do this simple act of routine self-care on a daily basis. It takes little effort and yet yields great results. And I am speaking honestly from my own personal experience. Truth be told, I didn’t start flossing until I made up my mind I wanted to become a dental hygienist four years ago. I made a promise to myself that I was going to begin flossing every single day. I’d have to practice what I’d preach. Growing up with orthodontic work and braces when I was younger, my oral hygiene was admittedly absolutely embarrassing. I never flossed. Probably never really knew how to properly manually brush my teeth. No wonder my gums bled and I had gingivitis. Who wants to thread floss through every single metal bracket between 28 teeth? No thank you. I didn’t value the importance of good oral hygiene. But let me tell ya, after going through this program, I am a changed woman (in good and bad ways, but I’ll just leave it at that). Never have my teeth and mouth been happier. I’m not saying you, too, have to go through 2 years of training and stress and pulling out your hair on a daily basis to achieve optimum oral health, but that I’m here to decode it a bit for you. It’s really pretty simple, and takes little effort.
I have to say I’ve flossed 99.9% of the days since I made that promise to myself several years ago. When I first started, I proudly bragged to my hygienist the next time I came in for my routine cleaning (my teacher would slap me on my hand for referring to this as a “cleaning”, as in professional terms we should refer to it as a “scaling”, but whatever…). She couldn’t tell the difference. My technique was obviously not correct. But for some reason, once I began to work around teeth a whole hell of a lot more and had to start teaching these methods to my patients and flossing their teeth also, my own technique drastically improved. Not only does technique matter a lot (hug your tooth in a C shape motion and go up and down a few times making sure you are frictionally removing those bugs), but the actual type of floss itself is imperative. Some people have tight contacts, so unwaxed is great for this, but Glide should go take a hike. That crap does absolutely NOTHING, but that’s just from my own experiences. Personally, I absolutely love Reach’s mint Gum Care woven fluoride floss. Interestingly enough, Amazon even states that “this floss removes up to 52% more plaque than Glide Original Mint”. So there ya have it. It isn’t always easy to find at CVS, Walgreens, or Rite Aid, and tends to be pretty pricey (ranging from $4-5 per package), so I went ahead and purchased the pack of 6 on Amazon for just 18 bucks. It’s a great deal, and could probably last you up to a year. It’s seriously the best. Just trust me on this. Just read the reviews if you aren’t convinced enough. Once I switched to this entirely, I hardly ever have any calculus build-up on my teeth, and no more sensitive or bleeding gums. I went in for my own routine cleaning today and my hygienist (and personal mentor) remarked how healthy my gums are now compared to what they used to be. My last recall appointment was 7 months ago, and I had hardly little to none build-up. In an ideal world, we could all keep our mouths free of unhealthy bacteria and calculus/plaque build-up, but we can do a pretty good job of getting pretty darn close to it. If I can, you can, too. Dare I say it, this floss will change your life.
If I haven’t convinced you yet enough, look at it this way. Each tooth is it’s own entity, it’s own “house”, so-to-speak, sitting on some property. Your gums and surrounding bone are the foundation. When you brush, you maintain the front and back parts of your house(s). But what about the side yards, in between those houses all lined up in a row? You can’t neglect those either, just because they’re tight and close together. They need some lovin’ too. So reach for that floss and get busy. Do the dirty work. Your neighbors will thank you. And the “foundation” holding it all up will, too.
Ok, but enough about floss. That isn’t my real intention behind this post. I really came on here to tell you about these toothpastes that will change your life. Trust me on this.
