There have been many times throughout my career as a hygienist I have been taken aback at the stories I hear from patients who were never told to brush their teeth, didn’t have tooth brushes/toothpaste or in some cases, if they were lucky, even shared a brush!
The knowledge I now take for granted is definitely not common sense and is an important part of my role to share with my patients.
My first encounter was while I was at university my tutor asked me to go over and give a mature gentle man oral hygiene instruction.
I felt way out of my depth … How can I teach an older man who has been brushing for years to change his habits? How can I deliver my message to him without him feeling patronised by someone younger than him?
Big, deep breath from me and without any animosity he took on board the advice I o\ered, after the horror stories he shared about his old school dentist whose name he still remembered after all that time! I was delightfully shocked at his willingness to listen and change a routine which had formed part of his daily routine for such a long time.
As a dental professional, everyone assumes that it’s plain sailing for oral hygiene at home, but it’s not always the case.
When my son was younger, before we were aware of his special needs, he hated us brushing his teeth, twice a day. It was so traumatic and uncomfortable all-round. We all tried and heaven knows what my neighbours thought was going on? My husband asked me “Do we really need to brush them?”.
My response was “If you can see them you need to brush them!”.
Luckily, now at 11 years old, he can tolerate an electric toothbrush, but as with a lot of pre-teens he needs constant reminders to actually use it!!
Over the (many many) years I’ve been a hygienist I’ve heard so often “I’ve never been shown” or “I didn’t know that”. At the end of the day, if we’re lucky, we are told from our parents to “clean your teeth”, given a toothbrush & we simply get on with it. There’s no mention of angling the head to brush your gum line, how much pressure to apply or what can happen if we don’t get it right.
Tooth brushing is not a one size fits all and should be tailored to the individual & personal preferences, something which I take great pleasure in educating my patients about. It’s never about “You’re doing it wrong” its just tweaking or adding to what’s already in place.
Only last week I had a returning female patient ask if the back of her lower front teeth looked better this time? She told me no one had ever told her to brush the backs of her teeth.
I consider my demonstrations a major part of my patients visits, a few minutes of advice can be the changes needed to better oral health & could result in less visits to see me!
