Author Archives: Sixth Avenue Dentistry

Many of the problems we see at our International District Seattle dental clinic could have been avoided with proper brushing. Even something as small as how you hold your brush can have noticeable effects when you go to the dentist’s office. If you feel like you could stand a refresher course on toothbrushing, try following these simple steps:

• Floss before you brush. This clears out plaque and allows the fluoride of your toothpaste to better gain purchase between your teeth.
• Brush twice a day, once after you wake up and once before you go to sleep, after your last meal of the day. Your mouth is less able to clean itself while you sleep, so don’t eat or drink anything but water between your final brushing and your bedtime.
• Brush for two minutes at a time. Too little and you may not be cleaning enough, and too much might be too hard on your gums.
• Do not brush directly after eating. Acids in your food can weaken your tooth enamel, making them vulnerable to being stripped away by your brush for a short while.
• Brush the sides of your teeth in a circular motion, with the brush held at a forty-five degree angle. Gently massage your gums as you go.
• Plaque can gather on your tongue just as easily as any other surface in your mouth. Use a tongue scraper, or simply scrub your tongue with your brush.
• Follow up your brushing with a good antibacterial or fluoride mouthwash. There are many good products available to give your teeth the extra edge they need.

Have you ever considered employing whitening toothpaste as an alternative to a professional cosmetic treatment from our International District Seattle dentistry? If you have, we encourage you to reconsider. The truth is that the so-called “whitening” toothpastes are probably harming your teeth far more than they are brightening your smile.

If your toothpaste identifies itself as a whitener, take a good look at the fine print on the package. You’ll likely find that it only claims to “whiten teeth by removing surface stains”. This means that it’s only wiping away potential stains on your teeth that have not yet settled. This is decent as a preventative measure, but it does nothing for the stains that you already have. To remove real stains, you need whitening agents that are too strong to come in toothpaste form; any bleach in a toothpaste gets rinsed away too quickly to have any real effect, and only serves to make your paste more abrasive on your gum tissues. Do the right thing for your teeth, and restore their whiteness with Sixth Avenue Dentistry.

Proper brushing and flossing habits are a good start for a healthy mouth, but the story doesn’t end there. Don’t forget that the bacteria in your mouth is growing on more than your teeth and gums. This is why our International District Seattle dentistry recommends that you remember to scrape your tongue as a daily part of your oral hygiene routine.

You may be surprised by how much plaque and bacteria is on your tongue. Fortunately, cleaning your tongue is fairly easy to do. You can brush away bacteria and plaque by gently brushing the surface of your tongue with a toothbrush. Most people find the brush uncomfortable, particularly when trying to reach back towards the throat, so you may wish to get yourself a tongue scraper. Such scrapers can be found in most dental care sections, and are designed specially to clean your tongue in a way that you can’t get with your normal brush. An antibacterial mouthwash can also be a good way to kill off bacteria on the tongue, but a tongue scraping is the only way to clear off the detritus, plaque, and dead cells that are gathering on your tongue’s surface.