Is Your Tooth Brushing Technique Third-Grade Level?

Tooth brushing technique will impact your health. Just like obesity, gum disease is having a significant impact on our health. It’s now linked to Diabetes, Heart Disease, Pancreatic cancer, and Alzheimer’s. These  are all preventable with a little bit of education

So why is gum disease on the rise?  Short answer: It’s how we use the toothbrush, and what we are thinking when we brush.

The problem is not the brush, it’s the Technique

Most people brush exactly as they were taught in the third grade, (up and down or in circles). Additionally when we brush, we are not thinking about brushing. We’re thinking about our kids, job, taxes, and getting out the door on time. Meanwhile our arm is brushing on autopilot and we’re just along for the ride.

Remember back in third grade when a dental professional came to visit and explained how to brush?  They probably taught you to brush in circles or in an up and down fashion. Do you know why?  At the time, there was absolutely no way, that you could grasp the ADA approved BASS METHOD. This requires placing the bristles 45 degrees into the gum line using short vibratory strokes. So, they  taught you a technique that would remove some bacteria which was still better than not brushing at all. You were taught an inferior brushing technique because your dexterity wasn’t developed.

Unfortunately, most of us never stopped brushing like that.

What if I told you that brushing technique is more important than the brush, the paste or frequency of brushing?  What if I told you the standard 2 min brushing drill was created for the 70% of us who brush poorly? It assumes, that even that even poor technique, can be mildly effective given enough time. Conversely, what if I told you that brushing for 45 seconds with good technique is all you really need, and is more effective?

However, there is problem

Brushing with the Bass Method is difficult to learn and perform correctly. In my experience it requires sitting down with a patient and demonstrating what the technique physically FEELS like. I stress the word FEEL, because like many things, done correctly it feels a certain way. When we designed the MD Brush, we asked the question, “How can we make our toothbrush TEACH the bass technique”?  It wasn’t easy and took allot of trial and error.

The MD Brush, by way of its handle, bristles and indicators make you THINK about position so u will begin to FEEL what the BASS technique is. Most claim that it takes two to three days to fully grasp the technique and retrain the arm to brush. Users state that the MD Brush cleans like no other brush on the market and have no intention of going back to older brushes or techniques. 

It’s OK for your kids to brush with whatever technique gets a brush in their mouth, but you should start talking about 45 degree angles. Alternatively, if you’re over the age of 18 you should be using the BASS technique and  thinking about the sulcus when you brush. The sulcus It that little pocket just below the gum line where bacterial gum disease starts and it’s why we made the MD Brush the way we did.

“Brushing your teeth correctly FEELS a certain way. 70% of us have gum disease right now because we don’t understand what that feeling is”