Keeping your mouth clean is the first and most important step towards healthy teeth. Regular visits to the dentist are important too, but it is the day to day care which can make all the difference.

• Toothbrushes – choose the right toothbrush for your particular mouth. If you don’t like the feeling of anything touching the back of your throat, choose a small head. An electric toothbrush is the best kind; these often have replaceable heads, so this makes it easier to get the one that suits you best. Additionally, you can make sure that the head is always in good condition; frayed or splayed bristles can damage your gums and scratch the inside of your cheek, which is very painful.
• Toothpastes – these come in many different combinations of benefits now and the trick is to find the best one for you. Don’t pay for something you don’t need – such as a sensitive tooth remedy – but do make sure that you read the label. Don’t use an abrasive toothpaste too often because this can be a big cause of tooth erosion.
• Timing – if you brush morning and night you will be doing a lot towards your tooth care, but you must be careful exactly when you brush. It is better to brush before meals rather than afterwards, because food and the bacteria in your mouth can combine to create acids which soften the enamel. If you brush when this process is ongoing (up to thirty minutes after eating) then you can wear the enamel quite badly. Each brushing will only remove a microscopic layer, but in time your enamel will be thinned and your teeth weakened.
• Thoroughness – it is possible to buy timers to measure how long you brush for, but this is not necessary. You should aim for two minutes each time, with circular movements on the backs and fronts of the teeth, paying particular attention to the surfaces of the molars at the back. Don’t ‘scrub’ – think of your teeth as any other area you would clean and don’t concentrate on just one area. Move evenly around the mouth. Spit afterwards, don’t rinse as this is better for your teeth, especially if you use an enamel repair or sensitive tooth paste.
• Floss – floss at least once a day. You can buy all kinds of gadgets to make flossing easier. A remarkably small percentage of people floss their teeth regularly which is a shame because between the teeth is where the plaque builds up most and the damage to the teeth is done. Flossing sometimes is better than never flossing at all, so if you really hate doing it, try to settle on a routine which includes flossing at least every other day – everyone is human, so no dentist expects flossing to be a popular task, but some flossing makes a big difference.
• Mouthwash – the same applies to mouthwash as flossing. Some people hate it and so for these it may be an irregular thing, but sometimes is better than never. It really does reduce the ‘stickability’ of plaque, so makes the mouth feel so much cleaner. Combined with a good brushing regime, using a mouthwash really does give your teeth that ‘squeaky clean’ feel.

The secret to good oral hygiene is making it a regular habit. Brushing once in the morning and once at night is ample for most people and because getting up and going to bed is something most of us do to quite a strict timetable, adding in some basic mouth hygiene is a good plan, because it becomes very hard to forget.

Read the whole article about routine oral hygiene and learn moore about teeth brushing and cleaning between teeth. If you are taking care with these tips, you will have a bigger chance to prevent tooth erosion. which affects the entire surface of the tooth.