Clean Your Teeth. Clean Teeth Never Decay!
These 7 steps, performed in just 7 to 10 MINUTES EVERY DAY, will lead you to great dental health!
STEP 1... Lather up! Apply toothpaste to all your teeth with a soft bristle manual or electric toothbrush. (The electric brushes, especially the Oral-B/Braun 3-D Excel®, are very effective and easy to use.) You wouldn’t consider washing your hands or bathing using only water. Toothpaste is an important cleansing agent that contains active ingredients, such as fluoride, which are beneficial in preventing tooth decay. This process will require only 20-30 seconds.
STEP 2... “The Earthquake Step”. This breaks up the infrastructure of the bacterial biofilm (plaque). Once the toothpaste is on all of the teeth, moisten a Stim-U-Dent® and insert the pointed end between each tooth with the flat side next to the gum. Use a gentle but firm in/out motion, contacting the sides of each tooth and stimulating the gum tissue between the teeth. Do not force into tight spaces between the teeth. Trace around the gumline to the next interdental space. Dental floss misses the concave areas of the tooth, especially on the back teeth, which have multiple concave contours. If plaque and tartar (mineral deposits from your saliva, also called calculus) are present and gingivitis is the result, the gums will generally bleed when this thorough cleaning technique is employed for the first few times. As the causes of disease are removed, the bleeding will stop or become less each day and stop completely as the tissues heal. Normally, no bleeding will occur upon “Stim-U-Denting” after three to five days, except in extreme cases where professional treatment may be required to remove the disease-causing material from under the gums and between the teeth.
STEP 3... Brush all teeth thoroughly. For a manual brush, use a circular, scrubbing motion. Clean each surface that the brush bristles can reach, including under the gums, both front and back, being sure to brush the cheek side, the tongue side, and the chewing surface.
STEP 4... Floss between all of your teeth while the toothpaste is on the teeth. Guide the floss between the teeth using a firm but gentle rubbing, scrubbing motion on the side of the tooth.
STEP 5... Rinse out, swishing the water thoroughly between your teeth. Rinse your brush also.
STEP 6... Brush again with a small amount of toothpaste to effectively remove all of the plaque from each surface of each tooth, because plaque can adhere tenaciously to the tooth surfaces. Pay special attention to the tongue side of the teeth since the Stim-U-Dent® was inserted only from the cheek side in Step 2. If the spaces between your teeth are large, an Interdental Brush can be used to clean those spaces. The electric toothbrushes are also very effective in cleaning these areas. Feel your teeth with your tongue- they should feel exceptionally clean! If not, continue to pay more attention to those areas while cleaning, and the clean feeling will result. Any tartar (calculus) continuing to remain on the teeth may have to be removed by a dentist or dental hygienist.
STEP 7... Rinse again with water and enjoy the thoroughly clean feeling you have produced!
YOU TO GREAT DENTAL HEALTH!