Are You Brushing Your Whole Mouth?

You’ve probably heard it a thousand times before.  It’s important to brush your teeth twice a day to maintain the health of your teeth.

But did you know simply brushing your teeth isn’t enough to keep your whole mouth healthy?  Your entire mouth requires attention for optimal health.

Teeth

The most obvious area to brush is your teeth.  It’s been stressed your whole life that you need to brush twice a day.

You should brush for at least two minutes and be sure to clean all areas: outer, inner and chewing.  This ensures that you remove plaque and bacteria from every surface.

Tongue

You may have heard once or twice that you should brush your tongue.  Being a very textured surface, the tongue is a prime hiding place for bacteria.  Even if you use mouthwash after brushing your teeth, the bacteria can remain.  It can build up and cause bad breath.

It can also cause damage to the teeth you worked so hard to keep clean.  Brushing the surface of the tongue ensures that the bacteria are forced out of the crevices between the taste buds.

Cheeks

One area you probably never thought to brush is your cheeks.  Even though this surface is smooth, bacteria can still accumulate in certain areas.  Being smooth, mouthwash is pretty effective at removing this bacteria, but for the best results, be sure to run your toothbrush along your cheeks.

Roof

Another area that you probably never thought to brush is the roof of your mouth.  It is yet another place that bacteria can accumulate.  And, even if you brush your tongue, it touches the roof of your mouth, which can allow bacteria from the top of your mouth to form again on your tongue, spreading it throughout your whole mouth again.

Brushing the top of your mouth with allow you to get at that bacteria and remove it.

Not brushing your whole mouth means that you are still at risk for spreading bacteria and suffering bad breath, tooth decay or other oral issues.  Keep these problems at bay by cleaning not just your teeth, but your tongue, cheeks and roof of the mouth as well.

Please contact us if you have any questions about brushing your teeth.