Brushing our teeth is something we have all been trained to do, and we are usually taught to do it twice a day as children.
But, if you are a particularly clean person you may find that you brush your teeth quite a lot, more than your average person.
If this is the case for you, you may worry you are potentially over brushing your teeth.
Is it possible to over brush our teeth? Could you actually be hurting your teeth by brushing them too much?
This all seems fairly plausible but if you aren’t a dentist then it can be hard to really tell.
We’ve collated information from real dentists so we can really investigate this issue and provide a good response.
Keep reading to see what we found out!
What Does Over Brushing Mean?
There are two ways you can interpret this, either you are brushing your teeth too many times a day, or you are brushing your teeth the normal amount of time but you are brushing with too much force.
They are both actual problems that occur in those who are overly worried about dental health.
Can You Brush Your Teeth Too Hard?
Yes, you can over brush your teeth, but with the right understanding of why we brush our teeth as well as the purpose of teeth brushing we can enact a method of brushing our teeth that won’t cause any harm.
Many fear that they are brushing their teeth too hard and causing potential issues by doing so. This is true, and occurs in many adults by accident.
The purpose of brushing your teeth is to remove plaque, the white material that forms on top of our teeth.
To efficiently remove plaque we need to be accurate as well as enacting good technique, this is what will help your teeth remain clean rather than brushing harder but not smarter.
However, brushing your teeth too hard can be known as ‘toothbrush abrasion’ and can potentially cause a myriad of issues such as receding gums, sensitive teeth.
Of course your gums are sensitive pieces of flesh so brushing too hard can easily hurt them as they are delicate.
Over brushing can also lead to a loss of enamel which is what leads to other problems like sensitive teeth.
If you find you have sensitive teeth but feel you look after your teeth well, you may be brushing too hard.
Can You Brush Your Teeth Too Often?
Well, yeah you can. It’s generally recommended that at maximum you brush once per meal – if you are brushing more than this it may just be unnecessary.
As we mentioned in the previous section, we brush our teeth to remove plaque. If you remove this effectively when you brush your teeth twice, you won’t need to do it again.
Brushing too often could wear down your toothbrush which could in turn damage your gums.
You could damage your gums generally as they are delicate so brushing too often could lead to gum issues.
If you are brushing hard and brushing often, this is bad. You will likely be hurting your gums as well as losing the enamel that is pivotal to keeping your teeth healthy and safe.
We recommend the right brushing technique as paramount over quantity or pressure.
Signs You Are Over Brushing
- Bleeding gums
- Receding gums
- Splayed bristles on toothbrush
- Sensitive teeth
Proper Brushing Technique Explained
To reiterate, brushing your teeth is about removing plaque, this occurs when the correct technique is used, rather than brushing harder or more often.
Here are some tips to get a better brushing technique allowing you to efficiently remove plaque so you can rest easy without the niggling anxiety to brush harder or more often.
Using An Electric Toothbrush:
Get an electric toothbrush – If you feel like you brush too vigorously and hard, then an electric toothbrush could be the ideal solution.
An electric toothbrush emulates the exact motion you require to efficiently clean teeth.
He has combined both of these skills to create his first company, Isopharm Limited, which became one of the top learning platforms within the dental industry.
With over 120,000 active users, he has been able to educate others in order to provide better dental care around the world.
With his expertise and work in the field, Andrew has been able to help many dental care professionals succeed in treating their patients.
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