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Hey, it’s Dr. Kennelly, and I want to demonstrate proper flossing technique. Many of our patients have found it easier to use the Waterpik® to keep their gums clean, but a flossing technique is also important.

Most people don’t do it correctly, and it’s difficult to do with the little floss picks (D rings). I like to use regular floss wrapped around the middle fingers, and then you have your thumb and index finger to do the driving.

You should get between the teeth with the floss, curve it around that tooth, go underneath the gum line, and back up to where the teeth touch. You should go up and down about 5 to 10 times.

Then curve it around the neighboring tooth and again up and down 5 to 10 times. This is called the C shape flossing technique.

The reason it’s difficult and time-consuming is because getting the floss in there, going up and down, and curving it around takes time.

Many people tend to just floss, but it doesn’t do a lot to pull the plaque off your teeth from below the gum line.

I usually start from the back teeth and work more toward the front. The technique in the front is all the same.

Most people will build up most of their tartar and plaque along the gum line of the lower front teeth. So spend an extra minute up in that area.

I recommend that we floss first, Waterpik®, then brush with a Sonicare toothbrush, and you’ll be doing just about as good as you can.”
Please feel free to contact us if you need further information.

Hi, this is Dr. Kennelley. I want to show you a little bit about how I like people to brush their teeth. In a perfect world, everybody would be using a Sonicare toothbrush. I think they do a great job.

But a lot of people are using a manual brush. If you use a manual brush, you’ll want to use a soft bristle brush, so you don’t push too hard and damage your gums.

That’s one of the common causes of recession, gum loss, and bone loss around the tooth. So if you’re using a manual brush, work from back to front, and you want the bristles not to be straight on.

Angle the bristles slightly up or slightly down so the bristles can deflect and not go straight at the tooth. Deflect the bristles up underneath the gum line or down beneath the gums.

So if using a manual brush, do small circles, gently getting those bristles up underneath the gum line. It’s all time and technique; pressure is not that important.

You can do the same thing on the other side, and obviously, this will take a little bit longer. The idea is to focus on one tooth at a time.

You don’t want to miss these back teeth. So focusing on one tooth at a time, moving all the way forward, you’re going to do the same thing on the top.

Small circles follow the gum line of those teeth, trying to get the bristles underneath the gum line slightly. You’re not going to come straight at the teeth.

Because then you’re not going to clean underneath the gums where it’s important. On a regular toothbrush, the front has an angle at the tip.

That is so you can get behind the back teeth, and the toothbrush should be vertical when you’re working on the backside of the tongue side of the front teeth.

Whether that’s the top or the bottom, you want to be able to get those bristles up along the gumline.

My preferred method of doing all these is flossing first, water picking, and then brushing with your toothpaste and toothbrush.

Please feel free to contact us if you need further information.

Hi, I am Dr. Kennelly. I wanted to speak on something that I explain to patients every day, which is how to use a Waterpik.

Many people go about it differently, but this is how I like to do it. Unlike a toothbrush where you are pointing the bristles up or down at the gum line to ensure that the bristles get underneath the gum line, we don’t want to do that with the Waterpik.

I like to use the visual of biting on a ruler, and you always want to keep the water stream parallel to that ruler.

In doing so, I like to take this tip, start at the back, follow the gum line, and pause in between the teeth for a second.

By doing this, you’re just going to let those pieces of food, plaque, and things like that get washed out from between the teeth.

Then when I get to the middle, I start from the back again and move forward. It’s easier because your head is in the sink using this; your lips are pursed around the tip of this, so the water doesn’t spray all over the place, and I think that’s important.

You never want to take the tip of this and point it at the gums. It is important to keep it flat, so you’re getting that water shooting between your teeth and should, ideally, hit your tongue.

So my goal is to visualize spraying the water along the teeth rather than at the gums. So we’re trying to get everything out between the teeth and the gum line.

Now we can talk about the order of this. Typically, I like to floss first, which loosens up all the plaque between the teeth.

Then I Waterpik, and that shoots all the plaque and food and everything out from between the teeth, and finally, I brush.

Brushing last is because we have all the toothpaste on here with the anti-cavity ingredients, and you want all that fluoride to be able to get into the embrasure of the area between the teeth.

If it’s full of food and plaque, that fluoride isn’t getting there, and you’re not going to get all the benefits of it preventing cavities.

Please feel free to contact us if you need further information.

Hey, it’s Dr. Kennelly. I just wanted to review toothbrushing and the technique using a Sonicare. I don’t have a demonstration Sonicare, so we will have to assume this is one.

With a regular toothbrush, you will make these small circles and remove that plaque manually.

But the important thing is that you’re angling those toothbrush bristles up at the top teeth and down slightly at the bottom teeth if you want those toothbrush bristles to get up and underneath the gum line.

We don’t have to push forcefully for this, but you need the right technique. With Sonicare, we don’t have to make all of these motions because the Sonicare is moving for you.

So what I like to do is work back to front. You’re getting the toothbrush bristles in place using light pressure. Then I slowly move the toothbrush around so the bristles are hitting the teeth at different angles.

But I am not worried about fast motions. You shouldn’t be going back and forth and moving a Sonicare quite quickly.

You want the toothbrush to do the work. That is why you paid that money to get that battery-operated toothbrush.

So I just slowly go along the teeth making small movements so the bristles hit, the teeth in different directions.

I like to start from the top right, then I go to the top left, bottom right bottom left, and then I do the same thing again on the tongue side of the teeth.

So you’re making these small motions; it takes about 2 minutes. The Sonicare, when it gets to 30 seconds or depending on how yours is set up, it will vibrate differently.

Some will be at 2 minutes, they’ll shut off, or they’ll beep or vibrate four times, etc., for different models. It should take you about 2 minutes to do this.

If you’re slowly trying to get this back tooth all the way back here which is neglected, moving to the front, it’s going to take some time.

Many people will stand in front of the mirror and just haphazardly brush around, but they miss the back of this area.

We always see a lot of plaque buildup in many people’s mouths. Of course, some people are nailing it, but others have to improve their technique to prevent cavities.

If they do so, they do a great job keeping their teeth clean. The technique with the Sonicare on the front teeth is also the same.

You’re going to turn it vertically lots of times. It’s easy to get a lot of toothpaste on your mirror if you’re opening big to get these bottom front teeth.

I often recommend that you spit first and then come back and brush the bottom front teeth, or some people like to start with the bottom front teeth before saliva has had a chance to pool in your mouth. That way, it’s not going to make so much of a mess.

Please feel free to contact us if you need further information.