Most of us brush our teeth, and most of us twice a day. However, even the most conscientious brushers can inadvertently miss the same places day after day, leaving days of plaque to build and grow, into a mature microbial community of plaque bacteria. As dentists we call this “undisturbed plaque”. You might think you are rushing really well but have undisturbed plaque deposits.
One place where I often see a lot of undisturbed plaque is the cheek side of the upper molars, especially the upper wisdom teeth. When you are brushing your teeth with your mouth wide open the cheek is stretched tight against your teeth and even if you think you are brushing as far back as the brush will go, you are not getting to the last 1-2 teeth. If you half close, your cheek loosens and you can get your toothbrush all the way to the back.
Another place people often miss is the gumline at the tongue side of the lower molars. These teeth often tilt inwards slightly, so if you brush with the toothbrush horizontally the gumline is missed. You need to ensure you tilt the brush as needed so it is contacting the gumline.
The third place is around the back of the last tooth on each side, top and bottom. Plaque deposits left here for long periods lead to gum disease and bone loss progressing down the back of the last tooth until the tooth is lost.
If you are in need of help with oral hygiene or a general dental assessment and need a New Malden dentist then do get in touch.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most of us brush our teeth, and most of us twice a day. However, even the most conscientious brushers can inadvertently miss the same places day after day, leaving days of plaque to build and grow, into a mature microbial community of plaque bacteria. As dentists we call this “undisturbed plaque”. You might think you … Continue reading 3 most common places people miss when brushing!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drlucynichols.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}