12 Mistakes You Make Brushing Your Teeth

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I’m going to be pointing out 12 mistakes that you are probably making when you’re brushing your teeth.

I know many of you have been brushing your teeth for 30 years, 50 years and in some cases maybe more. You’re seeing cavity. I’ve never had a cavity. I’ve been doing this for long enough and I don’t think I’m making any mistakes. I think maybe most of you are consistently making many of these mistakes. Please stick around. Some of the mistakes you’ve heard before.

1. Use your toothbrush way too long

After about 200 uses about 3 months you need to start looking for a new toothbrush. The reason is the bristles. The bristles of a toothbrush that’s been used too much are going to start to go all over the place, which affects other items we’re going to get into but it does not allow you to brush your teeth properly. So you need to look to get rid of this toothbrush every three months okay?

2. Not brushing your teeth long enough

Recently I started using Meyarn Sonic El ectronic Toothbrush. The cool part about this toothbrush is that it has a two-minute timer. I’m not used to using a timer on my toothbrush. That was a lot longer than what I expected and what that told me is that I have consistently been not brushing my teeth long enough. Two minutes is what we’re supposed to use. It gives time for the fluoride to start to react to the teeth to go in there.

I think most of us are brushing our teeth less than 2 minutes. We just get into a routine that I hit everything and then I’m done. Two minutes is what you want to shoot for and that’s one of the reasons I recommend trying electronic toothbrushes. The timer in it is worth it. If you don’t have a timer, just simply use a stopwatch, use your phone or something to brush your teeth for two minutes.

3.You're rinsing with water

After you brush even for two minutes, and you spit it out. Guess what? You’re taking most of that fluorine out of your mouth. You need to leave that in your mouth. A way around this and still being able to rinse out your mouth is to actually use mouthwash that has fluoride in it and then you can quickly rinse gargle, spit that out and the fluoride actually can still go to stick to your teeth. Don’t use water after you brush your teeth. Just spit it out and get used to that feeling.

4.Store your toothbrush in the bathroom

I think maybe almost all of us are doing it because of convenience. The problem is that more than half of the toothbrushes that are tested had a few feces on them even if you put them in a cover. You can actually just take them out of your bathroom.

5.Not flossing

I know the hardest part is actually creating a habit to start flossing. The best tip I’ve heard is just to floss one tooth because when you start to floss one tooth, you actually floss the rest of your teeth.

I floss at the end of the day and I don’t always do it. But when I do it, I try to reward myself. It’s a good feeling. I’ve got those individual floss picks. I find they’re better for me than actually wrapping it around my fingers.

6.Not cleaning your tongue

Invest in a tongue scraper. That’s the best way to remove your tongue coating. If you don’t want to do that, then get a toothbrush. On the opposite side, it’s actually got a little bit of a tongue scraper, which is not as good as a tongue scraper but it’ll get the job done. The worst case is that use your toothbrush and actually brush off the tongue after you’ve been brushing your teeth for two minutes. It’s important to do every time you brush your teeth.

7.Using a too hard toothbrush

Don’t even use the medium. Go with soft or extra soft. It doesn’t really make a difference. You’re just looking to get rid of some food that’s gotten stuck around your teeth. You’re not going to shine those things up. That’s not the aim of the toothbrush.

A lot of you guys are using medium or harder brushes, which will damage your gums and that takes us to point number eight.

8. Not brushing in circles

Don’t go back and forth and that takes us to mistake number nine.

9.Not using a 45°angle

That’s one of the reasons that you see the bristles of a lot of toothbrushes go at an angle because most of us go straight on and go back and forth.

10.Using the same routine

We do not change up our routine. We get used to going in the same order. The problem with that is we get lazy and sloppy. We need to change up our routine and that’s something we have to consciously think about.

That’s the advantage of an electric toothbrush. Literally, you can guide it and it usually does a better job because it requires less effort.

11.Brushing more than twice a day

It can actually lead the damage, and that’s not something that you want to do to your teeth.

12.Not waiting 30 minutes after eating before brushing

The PH levels have dropped. Basically, your mouth is more acidic after you’ve eaten and you need time to be able to get rid of that saliva, which has a lot of acids. Otherwise, you can damage the teeth a bit.

What you think? Let me know which mistake surprises you the most in the comment below.