Let’s say you take your oral hygiene pretty seriously. Whether it’s tooth decay or gum disease, you’re someone who wants to avoid harmful dental conditions. As such, you always brush your teeth daily to ensure a clean smile. However, your dentist still diagnoses you with oral health problems. How is this possible? Well, you could be making simple errors in your routine dental care. Find out for sure in this summary of four common teeth-cleaning mistakes from a dentist in Lawrenceville.
You Brush Too Hard
You may think brushing your teeth harder will make them cleaner. After all, doesn’t adding force remove more harmful bacteria?
Not quite. In truth, you could end up *overbrushing* if you’re too forceful. When that happens, you don’t just reduce plaque — you also wear away your enamel and gum tissue. Consequently, you could expose your teeth’s dentin layer and cause your gums to recede. Gum recession, especially, would be a serious concern, as the tissue won’t recover or come back.
You Ignore Your Gums
It’s also bad to ignore your gums when brushing your teeth. Doing so would let harmful bacteria gather at the gum line and trigger inflammation. From there, you might contract gum disease and suffer tooth loss.
Therefore, you should lightly brush your gum tissue as part of regular oral care.
You Only Brush Once a Day
Even if you remember to brush your teeth, you may only do it once daily. If so, you’re putting your mouth at risk.
You see, your dentist in Lawrenceville recommends you brush twice daily. You’re likely to leave plaque behind that causes gum inflammation when you don’t. If the latter advances enough, your gums will peel away from your teeth, the gum and bone will get infected, and you could lose teeth.
You Don’t Floss
Even if you think it’s tedious, you need to floss daily. The practice both dislodges food debris and keeps plaque from building up between teeth. As a result, it lowers your odds of having a tooth infection.
That said, be careful when you break out the string. Snapping floss too hard can create gashes in your gums, cause bleeding, and contribute to gum recession and disease.
As you can see, keeping teeth clean requires following the proper practices. Keep the mistakes above in mind so your oral hygiene habits are truly effective.
About the Author
Dr. Bruce E. Carter is based in Lawrenceville, GA, having earned his DDM from the University of Florida’s College of Dentistry. He’s also completed over 1600 hours of advanced training as a Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry. As such, he offers top-quality preventive, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry, not to mention emergency dental treatments. Dr. Carter currently practices at Transforming Smiles and is reachable at his website or by phone at (770)-995-7616.