Oral Hygiene Tips

Dental hygiene allows us to eliminate plaque on teeth. Plaque is a set of microorganisms and its products that adheres to dental surface, which causes cavities and diseases on gums (gingivitis and periodontitis). The elimination of plaque is of vital importance to achieve dental health.

How can we eliminate plaque?

The brush is the principal tool we count with. We generally recommend soft or medium brushes, depending on each case. Despite the typically suggested frequency of 3 months to change the brush, we recommend a higher frequency, of one or one and a half month.

The brush on its own is not sufficient to eliminate plaque between teeth. Therefore, we count with other elements:

Dental Floss: Taking it with both hands, dental floss has to be collocated between teeth, going behind the contact point between them. Once there, the interdental space has to be cleaned, passing the floss on both teeth surface, and rubbing up to the gum carefully so that the last ones don’t get damaged. Palillos dentales: Tienen forma triangular y permiten limpiar los espacios interdentales.

Dental sticks: Of triangular shape, they are used to clean interdental space.

Interproximal brush: it is a fine-point brush used when interdental spaces are wider. For example, it is used when gums are retracted as in periodontitis.

How many times a day should we brush our teeth?

The ideal situation would be to brush teeth after each meal (three times a day). As a minimum, you should brush your teeth twice a day, in the morning and at night.

How should we brush our teeth?

For explanation purposes, we will just explain the inferior jaw. The three surfaces of teeth should be brushed: external, upper (they are present in molars only), and inner. Always starting from the same side, from the right back, we clean all surfaces until we reach the last tooth on the left side. The brush must always be positioned at 45 degrees, pointing half of the toothbrush bristles to the limit between the bump and the tooth, trying to get the bristles in the gingival sulcus. The brush should be moved back and forth ten times, on sets of four teeth at a time. Once the cleaning of the external surfaces is finished, we should proceed in the same way with the inner ones. As regards the upper surfaces, the brush should be simply collocated in parallel to them, moving it with repeating movements back and forth.

Cleaning a removable denture

In order to keep a removable denture clean it has to be brushed with a soft brush – not necessarily a toothbrush – after each meal. The use of a toothbrush and toothpaste is not necessary, unless there are dental implants, dental pieces or roots with posts under the denture. In this case, they must be carefully brushed.

As director of Drs. Pelcman’s Practice, Dr. Samuel Pelcman is a dentist Argentina patients trust to provide treatment for all of their oral health needs. Practicing dentistry for more than 35 years, he is highly regarded as a Buenos Aires dental implants and restorative dentistry provider. In addition, he offers cosmetic treatments including teeth whitening and porcelain veneers in Argentina.