At Peach & Bumble we want to make sure that your dental care routine is as effective as possible when using our bamboo toothbrushes. To help you keep your teeth and gums clean and healthy, we’ve asked The Vegan Dentist for some professional tips.
The Vegan Dentist advises that you can brush most effectively with a bamboo toothbrush by using a good brushing technique and toothpaste that protects against tooth decay.
Use a good brushing technique
The Modified Bass brushing technique is considered the best way to brush your teeth:
- The Bass brushing technique is to angle your toothbrush towards your gums (at 45 degrees) and gently brush with a circular motion, without scrubbing back and forth or up and down.
- The ‘modification’ in the Modified Bass brushing technique is to swipe away from the gum after massaging for around 5 seconds.
The gentle circles loosen any plaque and so the swipe can clean it away. This technique will clean your teeth effectively without damaging your teeth or gums, and so help to protect you from tooth decay and gum disease, without causing any tooth wear or gum recession.
Be systematic
It’s important to make sure you don’t miss anywhere, so try using a systematic approach to your brushing routine:
- Start with a back tooth, perhaps in the bottom left hand corner, and work your way round the outsides of each tooth (on the side of your cheeks and lips) all the way to the other side.
- Then do the same brushing along the inside of each tooth (on the side of your tongue and the roof of your mouth) all the way back to the start, angling your toothbrush longways to reach right down to the gum behind your very front teeth.
- Next rub thoroughly on the biting surfaces all the way around.
- Repeat the same technique for your upper teeth.
Time your brushing
Timing your brushing will help make sure you are being thorough enough. Brushing for 5 seconds on the outside and inside of each tooth tooth should easily add up to around 30 seconds per corner of your mouth, and 2 minutes total brushing time.
Ask for a demonstration
Ask your dentist or dental hygienist for a demonstration of a good manual brushing technique so you can see it in person.
Replace your toothbrush regularly
With all types of toothbrush, the bristles start to wear over time and become less effective at cleaning your teeth and gums.
You will know it’s definitely time to replace your toothbrush when the bristles look worn and start to splay! Dentists recommend changing your toothbrush at least every 3 months because this is the longest most bristles will stay effective.
You should therefore expect to use around 4 toothbrushes each year, making our 4 pack the perfect choice.
If you find your bristles are splaying much sooner than this, it may be a sign that you are using too much pressure when brushing or that you need to swap from a soft to a medium brush. Ask your dentist or hygienist for more advice.
Choose a good toothpaste
To complete your dental care routine, you should use a fluoride toothpaste to help prevent tooth decay.
The Vegan Dentist explains:
A basic fluoride toothpaste is all that is required for most patients.
Ignore packaging and marketing that plays “natural” ingredients against “chemicals”. It’s a common meaningless ploy, used in attempt to differentiate products in a crowded market. Chemicals are not inherently bad. Water and oxygen are technically chemicals. Instead, the poison is in the dose – meaning too much of anything can be bad. Even too much water can kill you.
Fluoride is often thought to be a “bad chemical”, perhaps “artificial”, “man-made” or an “additive”. Yet we only know about the benefits of fluoride for teeth because it naturally occurs in some water supplies.
The basic science behind toothpaste is well understood: Fluoride is the key ingredient. Fluoride in toothpaste works mainly by strengthening tooth enamel and dentine to make them more resistant to plaque acid. This reduces the risk of tooth decay, slows down existing decay, and even helps to reverse very early decay.
The Vegan Dentist
A really helpful page listing vegan toothpastes is available on The Vegan Dentist’s website. There are three lists, arranged into categories ‘best’, ‘okay, but not great’ and ‘bad’, based on the fluoride concentration levels. This is a great resource to help you ensure that your toothpaste is able to perform its job properly to prevent tooth decay.
Choose a good toothbrush
There is no good evidence that any particular manual toothbrush head or handle design is superior for dental health. Bamboo toothbrushes are therefore currently the most environmentally friendly way to clean your teeth effectively.
A smaller head with straight bristles will help to reach all corners of your mouth, and medium strength bristles are recommended unless otherwise advised by your dentist or hygienist.
Peach & Bumble bamboo toothbrushes are designed with your oral health and environmental impact in mind. The bamboo handle is 100% biodegradable so that each brush uses 97% less plastic compared to a plastic manual toothbrush.
Our packaging is also biodegradable and includes a condensed version of the instructions above on each 4-pack box. This means that you will have helpful advice on hand each time you replace your toothbrush with Peach & Bumble.
Thank you for caring for our environment.
Sheila says
I found these tips very useful when I got my electric brush, but will carry them on now with the bamboo brushes.
My own tip to stop pressing too hard is to hold the brush nearer the end, so you don’t apply too much pressure 😁