When it comes to brushing your teeth, we’d usually make sure to go one round on all sides of teeth, but sometimes we can get quite lazy about it, thinking the teeth are there to stay. But what are some of the common mistakes we are making in our oral regime that could potentially lead to the loss of teeth and a decreasing state of oral health? Here are 5 common mistakes you should be aware of.

5 common mistakes of your oral regime:

1. You skip flossing your teeth entirely

If you’re the type that brushes your teeth at 2 times daily, then congrats! You are definitely on track to caring for your teeth well. But if you’re not flossing your teeth, then please take 1 step back because if you’re skipping this in your routine, then you are missing out in-between spaces that your toothbrush can’t reach.

If you’re flossing your teeth daily and after meals, are you flossing correctly? If you aren’t then it definitely defeats the purpose of doing it. Floss your teeth by running the floss along the tooth (in-between) in the shape of a letter ‘C’ by holding two ends of the floss instead of vertically slotting it in and flossing. The latter won’t help to remove the plaque.

2. Brushing too hard and for a too short duration

You do not really need to use force while brushing your teeth as that doesn’t help in removing more plaque than it should be, instead, scrubbing too hard on your teeth actually causes damage to your gums and surfaces of your teeth.

Do you know that the golden rule of brushing is 2 minutes? Without a timer, most of us briefly touched that 1.5-minute point because it probably takes us 2-minutes to fall asleep. Not taking the proper time to brush your teeth will result in poor cleaning that leads to poor oral health. Depending on your urgency to finish brushing, you might end up brushing too hard which hurts your gums and teeth in the process or miss out on areas that are harder to reach.

If you’re worried about not hitting the 2-minute mark, try switching to an electronic toothbrush that has the auto-timer function.

3. Using the wrong type of toothbrush

In the market, there are overwhelming options to purchase and in our attempt to give our teeth the treatment it deserves, we ended up purchasing the wrong type of toothbrush that fits us.

With that many options to choose from these days, the time spent at dissecting the toothbrushes seems longer than the time we spent on at the cashier aisle. So how can we determine a good fit? Here are a few ways to cross-check with:

1. A huge bristle head will not be able to reach the back and sides of your molars well so choose one that can easily manoeuvre rightly
2. Typically a soft bristle can do the work well, so unless you have special conditions require a harder bristle, you probably don’t need those. A harder bristle may end up damaging the gums and teeth.
3. Choose a toothbrush that gives you a good grip so it doesn’t slip off while you brush.

The truth is, the toothbrush is only good for you if it fits your condition, similarly to how skincare works for different types of skin.

4. Brushing too soon after a meal

Many of us felt that it is a must to brush our teeth directly after a meal because of all the food remnants that get stuck to our teeth after. But did you know that acids usually form in our mouth after ingesting citrus food such as oranges, lemons and grapefruits, and brushing too soon after eating them may damage the enamel while it’s in its weakened state. It is advised to wait at least 30 – 60 minutes before brushing to let your saliva do its job!

5. Waiting too long between your last brush and bedtime

As you should have known by now, the saliva is in an active role of preventing dental diseases and as our mouth gets drier when we sleep, it is important that we keep our mouth as clean as possible to prevent the development of cavities when saliva is less present. So sleep after you’re done brushing and watch another episode of Netflix!

Maintaining a good oral regime sounds like plain old hard work but, don’t think that even by doing so, you can skip your regular visit to the dentist! That said, if you consistently care for your teeth well, you can be sure that your teeth will last you for a longer time. ???