Depending on who you ask, there are a million ways to improve your health and boost your longevity. And as your dental professionals, we’re obviously a little biased – but that doesn’t mean you should discount everything that healthy teeth and gums can accomplish for your overall wellness.
Of course, getting healthy isn’t as simple as just perfecting your brushing and flossing. But with the wide range of conditions that are potentially connected to dental problems like periodontal disease, staying plaque-free could have big ramifications.
If you’re concerned about your health and trying to get as well as possible (and who isn’t?), you could do worse than starting with your mouth. Learn more about the conditions that may be affected by oral concerns, as well as which diseases present early in the mouth, with our handy infographic below. And be sure to read to the end for some tips on getting your oral hygiene as efficient and effective as possible.
How The Mouth and Body Interact
How to Improve Your Daily Oral Hygiene
The steps you take each day add up to great (or not so great) oral health. And you need to be brushing and flossing effectively to keep plaque at bay. It’s probably been awhile since you took a long at exactly how you’re supposed to brush and floss, so we’ve listed some specifics below. If you get your cleaning on point, you can actually spend less time removing more plaque, and get back to what you’d rather be doing instead of standing over the bathroom sink.
How to Brush
- Position your toothbrush at a 45-degree angle to the gums
- Move your toothbrush back and forth across the width of each tooth
- Be gentle – never scrub
- Brush all surfaces of your teeth, including the outer surfaces, inner surfaces, and bite surfaces
- To clean inner surfaces, position your toothbrush vertically and brush up and down
How to Floss
- Get an 18-inch piece of floss, winding most of it around one of your middle fingers. Wind the rest around the middle finger on the other hand.
- Hold floss between your thumbs and forefingers
- Gently guide floss between your teeth with a rubbing motion – do not snap floss into the gums
- At the gum line, curve the floss against one tooth and slide it up into the space where the tooth meets the gums