I am going to explain to you how to use Interdental brushes to clean between your teeth for gum disease prevention. We use interdental brush where the toothbrush cannot reach. The reason that we need to brush in between the teeth with Interdental brushes is to get the areas that the toothbrush cannot.

 

If we don’t clean it, we can get cavities between the teeth and we’ll also get gum disease on that gum crest that lies between the teeth. This area, if it’s neglected or not brushed, is a major cause of gum disease, and as shown in this model.

What gum disease does to your teeth

Gum disease will eat away the bony support for the teeth, in between the teeth. And these large triangular spaces do need cleaning. The electric brush cannot go through these gaps. Otherwise, the teeth can be lost with bone loss and gum disease.

What is an interdental brush?

Interdental brushes has bristles on it and it’s very good for cleaning in all the gaps, and it cleans the bulk of the bacteria out. It doesn’t replace floss, but has to be used as well as floss. Because literally, it just cleans that triangle out and not where the teeth touch each other. And if you clean that area really well, you shouldn’t get receding gums. First of all, you dip the little brush in toothpaste, once for the whole upper arch. You do the whole upper teeth. And when you’ve done all the upper teeth, dip it in again in toothpaste and do the lowers. That will not only clean in between the teeth, but put a little bit of toothpaste between the teeth. And this will help keep them nice and healthy. The important thing with Interdental cleaning is that’s the first job that has to be done. You have to do Interdental brushing first, then floss, then electric brush. If you have a mouth like the one we have here,

with beautiful healthy gums that are pink and not bleeding. It would be assumed that this doesn’t need much cleaning, but this is why it’s beautiful and pink and healthy. The small Interdental brush will go between the teeth and will clean really efficiently all the bulk of the bacteria. In that small triangle, and we carry on around doing every single gap. This is the smallest one they make (0.5mm). And how I find when is if it’s tight in between the triangle, is to wiggle it a bit and then it just slides through.

A few brushes backwards and forwards, and remember that when we talked about earlier, we dip it in a bit of toothpaste first. So you actually get some toothpaste in between.

How to reach the inside teeth?

When we’re doing the further back, It’s sometimes an idea to bend the brush. You can bend the brush about that angle. See the picture.

If you’re going for the very back teeth up behind there, you can easily get between them without the lips being in the way. If it’s too straight it’s too hard to get the angle right, so a small bend of approximately that angle will make all the difference. Or you can also you the angles interdental brush available here.

When you’ve brushed all the gaps of the top and bottom teeth, it’s time to get flossing.