If you have good dental hygiene what's your routine?

[womaninatightspot]

After a thorough, and much overdue, scale and polish at the dentist today, I am determined to take better care of my teeth. Toothbrushing just doesn't cut it. I do own a waterflosser which I will use more but dentist reckons I need to use toothpicks or floss(teeth are fairly crowded so floss is tricky and not a fan of the tepe brushes) plus waterflosser. Should I use mouthwash as well?

I brush with an electric toothbrush, use a tongue scraper, floss, mouth wash twice a day.

Brushing wise it doesn't really matter what you use (electric or manual), its more about technique. Brush in small circles on each tooth and towards the gumline. No need for vigorous back and forth scrubbing.

In terms of sugar it's the frequency and not the amount that matters. Eg if you eat 5 chocolate bars in the day, it's much better for your teeth to eat them all in one go rather than spread across the day as each time counts as another sugar 'attack'.

Flossing is very important, mouthwash is not so.

Is there any evidence that tongue brushing/ scraping works? My dentist has never mentioned it.

I just timed myself.
if I brush as advised by hygienist it takes me 7 minutes.
as a pp my teeth are very close together. I can't floss without injuring my gums. I can get an interdental brush between a bery few of my teeth.

@AbsentmindedWoman

Do you use an electric toothbrush?

Honestly, that makes a huge difference, especially with the soft heads as another poster mentioned.

I use the floss picks as I find them far easier than string floss - and there's no way I could use the teepee things as my teeth are very close together.

I do use an electric tooth brush and generally my teeth are in good nick it's the little awkward bits that the toothbrush doesn't get to that I'm struggling with/ have been lazy about.

@Luckyelephant1

Brushing wise it doesn't really matter what you use (electric or manual), its more about technique. Brush in small circles on each tooth and towards the gumline. No need for vigorous back and forth scrubbing.

In terms of sugar it's the frequency and not the amount that matters. Eg if you eat 5 chocolate bars in the day, it's much better for your teeth to eat them all in one go rather than spread across the day as each time counts as another sugar 'attack'.

Flossing is very important, mouthwash is not so.

I'm sure a dentist once told me that pretty much everything we eat/ drink apart from water is bad for our teeth but I have form for nibbling on biscuits with coffee at work.

I'm going to try drinking more green tea/ white tea as apparently lots of antioxidants that are good for gums.

@purplesequins

I just timed myself. if I brush as advised by hygienist it takes me 7 minutes. as a pp my teeth are very close together. I can't floss without injuring my gums. I can get an interdental brush between a bery few of my teeth.

7 minutes, I feel like two is sufficient which is clearly where I'm going wrong

I was told to use the dental tape, not the floss as it's narrower. Also, don't 'brush' with an electric brush - just move it slowly from tooth to tooth along the gum line and let the brush do the work.

Was the scale and polish painful? I have noticed that mine are very stained/ need a clean at the back. I drink a lot of coffee (Decaf) but am basically teetotal
Also Drink fizzy water which I think is still bad dentist wise

Floss, brush, the rubber tepe brushes
Tung brush and paste
Hygienist twice a year

Always get told I have very good hygiene by my dentist and I only have to come in every 9 months but this was only in the last 3 years since I use an oral-B toothbrush twice a day for 2 mins, 30 secs each quadrant and floss every night. Easy though! Was just the flossing I was sporadic with before

PS I eat tonnes of sugar way too much and I am not proud of the fact but still get complimented by my dentist... I had fillings before all of this though and dentist can't understand how with my mouth as clean as it is these days but I paid thousands for treatment with a private dentist before and feel they made me had fillings I didn't need (believable though with the sugar I consume so I'm unsure)

Floss before bedtime teeth clean.
I clean after every meal too, with electric toothbrush, never rinse.
Wear a mouth guard at night to stop me grinding my teeth.
I don't have sugar in hot drinks but still eat loads in other things.

I brush twice per day, after breakfast and before going to bed. I use a toothpaste with a high fluoride content on advice of my dentist and don’t rinse my mouth after brushing not drink water for 20 minutes after brushing to give the fluoride time to coat my teeth. I floss every night before going to bed and I brush my tongue also. I have 2 different toothpastes, on advice from dentist, in the morning I use Sensodyne toothpaste and the high fluor content toothpaste in the evening.

@breakdown19

Was the scale and polish painful? I have noticed that mine are very stained/ need a clean at the back. I drink a lot of coffee (Decaf) but am basically teetotal Also Drink fizzy water which I think is still bad dentist wise

It wasn't painful, it's not pleasant, mildy uncomfortable but a lot of that is having your mouth open for so long, little bit twingey near the gumline. She used a water ultrasonic thing/ scrapey thing. It removed a lot of stains (coffee also stains plaque) from down low on the gumline and between teeth. Am also a fizzy water drinker but a dentist told me that really everything is bad for your teeth apart from plain water. In the grand scale of things fizzy water is probably less damaging to your teeth than tea/coffee. Willing to be told I'm wrong about this though.

@MaybeHeIsMyCat

Floss, brush, the rubber tepe brushes Tung brush and paste Hygienist twice a year

I've ordered those from Amazon, hate the little wire brushes they seem to bend rather than poke through.

Was it "airflow" I thought because of covid they couldn't do that kind of thing?

They can do it but they need to wear special masks to protect from aerosols and face shields and there is a big unit sticking out the window that they switch on to suck out the air. I'm pretty sure they have only restarted doing it a few months ago or only had the new equipment for a few months.

I paid "privately" £71 quid so maybe the rules are different for NHS work although it's my NHS dentist.

Same routine morning and night

Brush with electric toothbrush for the full amount of time (think it's 2 mins)
Interdental brush
Floss
Fluoridated mouthwash

After every meal I also use toothpicks that have a sort of "brush" end to make sure there is no food between any of my teeth. Thanks to braces I have lots of spots where food can easily get trapped.