Why Brushing Harder Isn’t The Same As Brushing Better

There’s a basic assumption that if you clean something properly, you should do it harder. That sounds like a good idea, because if you clean something gently, you’ve wasted time and energy. This is the whole point of scrubbing pots and pans and so much else. But it’s not true of teeth.

There’s no proof that harder brushing is better, and there’s a large and very solid body of evidence to say that it’s worse. People who brush hard often have damaged teeth and gums. It’s simply the case that the nerves of the teeth and gums have no natural feeling of pressure. As a result, people who brush hard in an attempt to clean their teeth more effectively can’t feel that they’re doing any damage. They can’t feel that they’re putting more pressure on the teeth than they would normally bear, and so they don’t have any way to know that they’re doing it wrong. For help from a Dentist Bournemouth, visit https://gentledentistry.co.uk

This is the root of the problem with all the other things. As long as the sensations of effort and progress are always there, it’s always possible to use them to learn. But in the teeth, because those sensations aren’t there, it’s simply not possible to learn not to brush hard. There’s a large body of evidence now that shows that people who brush hard are more likely to have gums that recede, more likely to have sensitive teeth, and more likely to have cracks in the surface of their teeth.

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