Hopefully someone in your life should have given you the lecture by now, but if not I’ll gladly pass it on here.

Minimally, you must properly brush twice a day and floss once a day to keep everything clean. If you want to go above and beyond then brush/scrape your tongue once a day and use a antibacterial and/or fluoride mouthwash right before bed because you should not eat/drink for 30min after fluoride treatment anyway.  Proper technique as well as other information can be found here: http://www.dentalhealthonline.net/

Need more motivation? Then try some of these experiments! (Yes, I have done them.)

Experiments:

• Importance of brushing:
1. Brush your regular way
2. Press gently but firmly on your gums where they end right at the edge of your teeth (the gumline, or “gingival margin”). Your goal is to squeeze anything in the gum pockets (“sulci” or singular “sulcus”) up and out.
3. If you see white material come out of your gums, then you could brush better.*
• Importance of flossing:
1. Brush first.
2. Floss as properly as you can
3. Any junk on floss was left behind from brushing.
• Importance of tongue scraping:
  1. Just try it once. Results are self-explanatory.
  2. Compare the smell of your breath before and after scraping for extra motivation**

Oh, one more thing. Use the softest brush you can find with which to brush your teeth. It’s not about scrubbing, but gentle technique. Use enough pressure to get the job done, but remember that your toothbrush bristles should look nearly as good as new after 3 months!

*You could also use plaque disclosing solutions or tablets, but they are so hard to find!
**It is reported anywhere between 70-90% of bad breath is from the tongue, but who cares about numbers when results speak for themselves!