1 of 2

Write now Article Tools

Oral hygiene is the most important procedure that should be stringently followed by every individual. In oral hygiene, we should not just focus on teeth. We should think of the mouth holistically and to achieve a healthy mouth, we have to properly clean all the structures that includes the teeth, tongue, cheek areas and even the palatal areas.

The most important oral hygiene procedure is still brushing. It is performed at a minimum of two times per day especially after every meal. This is because minutes after you brush, the oral environment becomes acidic that could be harmful to the teeth since it could promote decalcification.

Brushing should be performed with a minimum of two minutes per day. However, it is not the frequency of brushing that should be taken in consideration but the thoroughness of brushing. This means you have to reach all the tooth surfaces to be able to remove plaque that could cause gingivitis.

There are a lot of toothbrushes to chose from. Even if the success of proper hygiene is still the patient's dexterity, the best toothbrushes would still be the ones with soft bristles as well as toothbrushes with slightly tapering head so as to prevent the tooth from being abraded by the bristles and so that the tapering head would be able to reach the posterior areas without much obstruction from the cheeks or tongue.

The next important thing is flossing. Flossing would help reach the areas in between teeth that cannot be reached by toothbrush bristle. It would help remove plaque in these areas that is one of the causes of bad breath, gingivitis as well as cavities.

Flossing is performed by slowly inserting the floss in a sawing motion between teeth so that it won't cause trauma to the gingiva. As soon as the floss has been inserted, it is adapted to the side of one tooth first then it is inserted again and adapted on the adjacent tooth.

Mouthwash is a helpful oral hygiene adjunct but it is optional because brushing is still the main oral hygiene measure to depend on that would maintain a healthy oral environment. As long as you perform proper brushing and flossing, mouthwash may not be needed. However, in cases of surgery or compromised manual dexterity of a person, mouth rinses especially chlorhexidine, is helpful in inhibiting plaque formation and it would kill harmful bacteria.

Many people neglect to clean the tongue, cheek and palatal areas of the mouth. We should keep in mind that these areas are also places where bacteria could thrive. There are available tongue cleaners but the toothbrush can already be used to clean the tongue. There are even toothbrushes that have special cleaning device on the back part of the head of the toothbrush that could be used in cleaning not just the tongue, but also the cheek area.

No matter how clean your teeth are, if you don't clean the other oral structures, the bacteria present in them could still be pathogenic and can be transferred easily to the teeth. Thus, oral hygiene should be a holistic approach.

Learn more about this author, peterpan.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Oral hygiene?
We want to hear your view. Write now!