How to Brush, Properly, in Two Minutes

Brushing is aimed at one thing: removing the soft film of bacteria that sits along the gumline and between the teeth. Everything else, the foam, the flavor, the fresh feeling, is packaging around that job.

Two mistakes account for most of the difference between people who brush twice a day and still have problems and people who do not. The first is pressing too hard. The second is rinsing your mouth out straight afterward. Both are easy to fix tonight.

Two minutes, twice a day, and the clock is not a suggestion

Most people brush for somewhere between thirty and fifty seconds and are convinced it was two minutes. Time yourself once with a phone or a brush timer and the gap is usually surprising. Two minutes is roughly thirty seconds in each quarter of your mouth.

Twice a day matters because plaque re forms continuously. The night brush is the more important of the two: saliva flow drops while you sleep, so anything left behind sits against the teeth for eight hours with none of the usual rinsing. If you are ever going to skip one, do not make it that one.

Angle the bristles into the gumline, not flat against the tooth

Plaque that causes gum disease collects exactly where the tooth meets the gum, in a shallow groove. A brush held flat on the tooth surface sails straight past it. Tilt the head at roughly forty five degrees so the bristle tips point into that junction, and you will feel them slip slightly under the gum edge.

From there use short, gentle movements, a wiggle or small circles, rather than long horizontal scrubbing. Let the bristle tips do the work: it is the ends that clean, not the sides. Spend a little longer on the inside surfaces of the lower front teeth and the outside of the upper molars, because those are where tartar builds most and where brushes usually skid past.

With an electric brush the technique changes. Do not scrub with it. Place the head on one tooth, hold it there for a couple of seconds while it does the movement, then move on to the next tooth and repeat, keeping that same angle at the gumline.

Pressure is the first mistake almost everyone makes

Harder is not cleaner. Plaque is soft, and it comes off with very little force. What extra pressure does is flatten the bristles so their tips no longer reach into the gumline, which means you scrub the middle of the tooth harder while cleaning the important part less.

Sustained over years, heavy brushing contributes to gum recession and to worn notches at the necks of teeth, which get sensitive and then get decay. The tell is a brush head that splays out within a few weeks, or bristles bending as soon as they touch the tooth.

Hold the brush in your fingertips rather than your fist. If you use an electric brush, buy one with a pressure sensor and pay attention to it. Replace the head roughly every three months, or sooner once the bristles lose their shape, because a splayed brush cleans badly no matter how well you use it.

Rinsing straight afterward is the second mistake

Fluoride toothpaste works by leaving a low level of fluoride in contact with the enamel, where it helps repair the surface after acid attacks. Filling your mouth with water immediately after brushing washes most of that away, which throws out a large part of what you just did.

Spit the excess out and stop there. No water, no mouthwash for the next half hour, and ideally nothing to eat or drink either. If you use a fluoride mouth rinse, use it at a different time of day, such as after lunch, so it adds a separate dose rather than replacing the one from your toothpaste.

• Use a fluoride toothpaste, a pea sized amount for adults
• Spit, do not rinse, and skip the mouthwash straight after brushing
• Wait about half an hour before eating or drinking
• Brush before breakfast, or wait an hour after anything acidic
• Keep the same routine at night, when it counts most

Follow the same order every time so nothing gets missed

Brushing on autopilot means the same surfaces get missed every single day, and those are the ones that end up with decay. A fixed route around the mouth fixes it, and after a fortnight you no longer have to think about it.

Brushing alone reaches about three of the five surfaces on each tooth. The two sides that touch the neighboring teeth need something else, whether that is floss, an interdental brush or a water flosser. If you only ever add one habit, make it cleaning between the teeth once a day.

• Start at the back of the upper right, work along the outside to the upper left
• Come back along the inside surfaces of the same teeth
• Repeat on the lower arch, then do the chewing surfaces
• Brush the tongue gently, front to back, which helps with breath
• Clean between the teeth once a day, at whichever time you will actually do it

The fastest way to improve is to have somebody watch you do it

Nobody can see their own technique. A hygienist or dentist can point out the two spots you always miss in about ninety seconds, and it is the single highest value thing you can ask for at a routine visit. Disclosing tablets, which stain plaque bright pink, do the same job in your own bathroom for a few dollars.

Ask directly at your next appointment: where am I missing, and what should I change. If you do not currently have a practice, the directory searches every dental practice in the United States by town or ZIP code and shows the closest first, free and with no account.

Two things are worth raising rather than brushing harder to fix. Gums that bleed every time you brush are not normal, even though they are common, and teeth that catch on cold need looking at rather than scrubbing. Both are questions for a dentist who can see what is going on.

Frequently asked

This is general information to help you ask better questions, not a diagnosis. Anything happening in your own mouth needs a dentist who can look at it.