The best toothbrush to use has soft bristles. If you brush your teeth and gums too hard, medium or hard bristles can damage your gums and cause them to bleed. When dentists examine your teeth, they can tell if you brush your teeth too hard.
When you’re ready to brush your teeth, hold the bristles at a 45-degree angle to your gums. Also, don’t press too hard on the head of the brush. Instead, use just enough pressure on the toothbrush to feel the bristles against your gums and between your teeth.
Use short circular strokes when brushing your teeth, which will clean about two teeth at a time. Make sure to brush the front, back, sides, and the top of the teeth while brushing. Dentists can show you the best way to hold your toothbrush to clean your teeth.
The best floss to clean between your teeth with is the type that you like using. It doesn’t matter if the floss is waxed or not or if you use a holder, pick, or hold it with your fingers. As long as you floss, that’s all that matters.
If you hold it between your fingers, leave about an inch of floss to clean your teeth. Gently use a sawing motion to move the floss down to the gum line, and stop when you feel resistance. Then, curve the floss around the side of the tooth and gently scrub back to the top to remove bacteria or food particles from your teeth. Repeat this method for both sides of a tooth.