You could be making big mistakes with your oral hygiene routine.
We all know how important it is to keep our teeth clean. We’ve been told from a young age to brush our teeth twice a day, and any dentist will have hammered home the importance of regular flossing and using mouthwash to really keep your mouth healthy.
But apparently, even if you follow the right steps and brush and floss twice a day, you could still be doing things wrong. To mark National Dentists Day today (March 6), one dental hygienist has claimed that many of us follow the correct steps but in the wrong order – and it means our teeth aren’t as clean as they could be.
Krysta Ambruson went viral on TikTok for sharing the “correct order” for taking care of your teeth and gums – which not only involved doing things in a different order than we’re used to, but even included steps many of us don’t do at all.
The expert shared her advice in a video specifically talking about what your nighttime routine would look like, but she later explained that the morning routine should be pretty similar.
While most of us would brush our teeth for two minutes, then floss afterwards and finish off with mouthwash, that isn’t the correct order. In fact, we shouldn’t even think about picking up the toothbrush until much later.
The dental hygienist says that oil pulling should be your first step if you practice it. Oil pulling is the practice of swishing an edible oil around the mouth for between five and 20 minutes. It’s believed to whiten teeth and improve dental health, but there is no reliable scientific evidence behind it.
If you don’t oil pull, you can skip straight to step two – tongue scraping. Krysta said this doesn’t have to be done twice a day but should be done “at least once”. Krysta also said that if you are only going to do it once, it is actually more important to do it in the morning rather than at night.
Once you’ve scraped your tongue, you should then move on to flossing. Krysta said that practising both regular flossing with tape and water flossing is “best”, but it’s okay to stick to just one method if that’s all you have access to. She also highlighted the importance of “wrapping the floss around each side” of every tooth.
After flossing, Krysta reaches for the mouthwash. And it’s only after she’s followed all of these steps that she picks up her toothbrush and gives her pearly whites a good scrub for two minutes. Most importantly, Krysta does not rinse her mouth out after she’s brushed.
Commenters on the post praised the dental hygienist for her tips, as many of them said they had no idea that they were doing things in completely the wrong order.
One person said: “Wait, tongue scraping before brushing? I think you might have just changed my life.” Another added: “I’m just now learning I’ve been doing it backwards this whole time.”
How to properly brush your teeth
While Krysta’s advice is helpful for getting the order right, many people also struggle with knowing exactly how to brush their teeth to protect them from decay and disease. Colgate recommends the following steps:
- Start with the outer surfaces of your teeth. Gently brush your upper and then lower teeth, taking your time and going tooth by tooth to help make sure you don’t miss any spots.
- Tilt your brush at a 45° angle. Brush against the gumline to get rid of any trapped plaque or food debris.
- Brush the inner surfaces of your teeth. You might be tempted to miss these sections as they’re not as visible, but these areas are just as vulnerable as the outside surfaces.
- Clean the chewing surfaces of your teeth. You should use short back-and-forth strokes to brush the tops of your back teeth, where food can easily get trapped.
- Finish by brushing your tongue. Odour-causing bacteria can sit on the surface of your tongue, so giving it a good scrape can help give you fresher breath.
