How to Brush Teeth

As a result of reevaluating my dental ablutions I have adopted the modified Bass brushing technique. With this technique one grips the toothbrush similar to a pen, places the brush head such that it is half on the tooth and half on the gum, and tilts the brush to about a 45 degree angle. Then it’s your standard circular movement with very little pressure. Other variants use short horizontal strokes instead of circles, or add a sweep away from the gumline when finishing a section. I’m told that some version of this is the most effective technique. It requires fine motor control, which probably explains why none of us were taught it as small children. But, better late that never.

One of the nice side effects of this technique is that doing it right takes about two minutes. Previously, when just mindlessly brushing without attempting to apply a specific technique, I would divide the mouth into quadrants and try to spend about 30 seconds in each so that I’d reach that 2 minute target that everybody says should be the goal. But that does not necessarily result in an even distribution of the work. Trying to target a specific time is dumb. Timers, whether standalone or integrated into the toothbrush, are dumb. No magic results from simply having the brush in your mouth for 2 minutes. Instead, adopt the correct technique, apply it properly, and let the time take care of itself.

Useful demonstrations, which helped me as I was trying to figure out the motion and its variants (while the “Bass technique” is a specific thing, the “modified” in “modified Bass technique” seems to mean different things to different people), are here and here and here.

The guide published by Curaprox is a helpful summary of how to brush one’s teeth. I first used their toothbrush last year and could not figure out why the handle was shaped the way it is. Then this year I learned how to properly brush my teeth. Turns out their design is actually pretty good. But I haven’t come across anything that makes me think one particular model of toothbrush is any better than the other. It just needs to have soft bristles and fit in your mouth. Since moving to this technique, I have found myself preferring a smaller head than I did previously. The Curaprox CS 5460 and Nimbus Compact both check those boxes for me, but I’m sure there’s about a billion other models out there that do as well.