Brushing

The most effective and most simple method of prevention is brushing the teeth twice a day.

To achieve the desired effect, two things have to be kept in mind.

- Always use fluoridated toothpaste

- Brush the teeth to clean, not to let the toothpaste foam.

The method we advise is quite simple.

We have chosen this method because it has to be easy for children to learn to clean their teeth efficiently.

Young children do not have well developed co-ordination, so they cannot clean their teeth very well.

These children need to be instructed and assisted by their parents.

A good method to teach children to brush, is to help them before they go to bed and let them brush their own teeth in the morning.

A method of knowing if children are capable of cleaning their teeth well is to see if they can wash the dishes properly. If they can wash the dishes, this means that their co-ordination has developed enough for them to master their hand movements.

Parents should stand behind the child when assisting the child with brushing. The parent has a good view of his or her 'working space' and the child can look in a mirror to see how the brushing is done.

And now let's go to the real work......

	1- Put a little fluoridated toothpaste on the brush. The toothpaste has several functions. It contains fluoride to prevent caries. It is a cleaning substance. It has a fresh taste.
2 - Spread the toothpaste over the chewing surface of the teeth, so that is evenly spread across the mouth.
	3 - Brush the outside of the teeth let the child close his or her mouth turn the brush a little upwards when brushing the top teeth. turn the brush a little downwards when brushing the lower teeth. brush with a movement to and fro in a longitudinal direction of the brush. but take care to brush with short movements so that the bristles of the brush are able to reach between the teeth.

That's right!! Even the gums are touched.	You don't need to go all the way over the gums.

Even the inside can be brushed in a right way.	And in a wrong way. The lower portion of the tooth isn't touched. The bristles don't reach the gums.
We end where we started. The chewing surface of the teeth is the last side to be brushed.
	To finish, let the child brush his or her own teeth. You will often see that the brushing method isn't adequate. In this photography you can see that the border between the teeth and the gums isn't touched. And it is precisely that border where most plaque accumulates!

ã Hein van der Woerdt 2001