Dental floss and interdental brushes are essentials for dental care

I like how convenient dental floss is these days. It's really easy for kids to use. I used to use Wangta floss, but I switched to cheaper refills. It reaches all the way to the molars well, but it feels like it doesn't clean as thoroughly as regular floss. So, I'm just sticking with regular floss now.

When I brush my teeth, I first clean between my molars with an interdental brush, then brush my entire mouth with a regular toothbrush, and finally floss.

As a dental hygienist, let me give you some basic care tips.

It is good to floss your entire mouth, but flossing the molars can be difficult. However, if you find that food frequently gets stuck in your molars, you can use an interdental brush. Please floss your front teeth as much as possible (cleaning only the tooth walls on both sides without pressing on the gums), and use the interdental brush mainly on your molars.

You should brush using the rotational method (sweeping down on the upper teeth and up on the lower teeth), as the bristles cover about 2 to 3 teeth. Think of it as brushing two teeth at a time; brush 10 times on each, then move to the side and repeat brushing 10 times on every two teeth. Brush the chewing surfaces of the molars firmly 10 times each. Since the inner front teeth are curved, you cannot brush them horizontally; you should brush them vertically 10 times per tooth.

When brushing, use a soft toothbrush and sweep from the gums toward the teeth, moving up and down. It also has the effect of massaging the gums 😄 Brushing like this takes a long time. If you are new to this, it takes about 10 minutes, but it is more important to brush properly once a day than to brush multiple times. It takes 72 hours for plaque to turn into tartar, and tartar cannot be removed by brushing alone.

Since scaling is covered by insurance once a year, it is highly recommended to get it done annually.

I'm sure everyone is already doing this, but I hope this helps those who didn't know.