Cleaning Your Teeth at Home

Most of what keeps your teeth and gums healthy happens at home, between visits. Two habits do most of the work: a soft brush angled at the gumline, and something in between the teeth every day.

Each short video below shows one technique, step by step, and none of them needs sound. Not sure you’re doing it right? Ask us to check your technique at your next cleaning.

Brushing at the gumline

The plaque that leads to gum disease collects right where the tooth meets the gum, so that’s where the bristles need to go. This is the modified Bass technique.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1. Hold a soft brush at 45 degrees, bristles pointed toward the gumline, so the tips rest right at the gumline.
2. Make short, gentle back-and-forth vibrations, about 10 to 20, covering 2 or 3 teeth at a time.
3. Roll the brush toward the biting surface to sweep the loosened plaque off the tooth.
4. Move to the next 2 or 3 teeth, overlap slightly, and repeat, working around the outside and the inside of every tooth.
5. For the inside of the front teeth, hold the brush upright with the heel of the brush at the gumline.
6. Scrub the biting surfaces of the back teeth with short back-and-forth strokes.

Two minutes, twice a day, with gentle pressure. A hard brush doesn’t clean the gumline better; in a clinical trial, hard bristles actually scuffed the gums and raised bleeding scores. More on that in our bleeding gums article →

With an electric toothbrush

An electric brush does the scrubbing for you, so the technique changes: guide it, don’t scrub.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1. Place the brush on your teeth, then switch it on. Use a soft brush head; switching on first can splatter toothpaste.
2. Angle the bristles toward the gumline, about 45 degrees, with the bristle tips at the gumline.
3. Use light pressure and let the brush do the work. Just guide it along; don’t press hard or scrub.
4. Guide it slowly from tooth to tooth. With a round, oscillating head, hold it on each tooth for a few seconds. With a sonic head, use small back-and-forth strokes.
5. Clean the outside, inside and chewing surfaces, top and bottom, along the gumline and behind the back teeth.
6. Let the timer pace you: two minutes, moving to the next section of your mouth at each 30-second pulse.

Cleaning between the teeth

The brush can’t reach between teeth, and that’s where gingivitis usually starts. Floss, GUM Soft-Picks and a water flosser all work. The best one is the one you’ll actually use, once a day, every day.

Flossing

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1. Break off about 18 inches of floss. Wind most of it around one middle finger and the rest around the other.
2. Hold it tightly between your thumbs and forefingers. The other middle finger takes up the used floss as you go.
3. Guide it between your teeth with a gentle rubbing motion. Never snap it into the gums.
4. At the gumline, curve it into a C shape against one tooth and gently slide it into the space between the gum and the tooth.
5. Keep it against the tooth and rub up and down the side. Then wrap the neighboring tooth the same way.
6. Move to a clean section of floss as you go from tooth to tooth, top and bottom, including the back side of your last teeth.

Using a water flosser

A water flosser (like a Waterpik) rinses along the gumline and between the teeth with a pulsing stream of water. It can be easier when floss is hard to handle.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1. Fill the reservoir with lukewarm water and start on the lowest pressure setting. Turn it up gradually as you get used to it.
2. Lean over the sink and put the tip in your mouth before you turn it on. Close your lips just enough to stop splashing, and let the water flow from your mouth into the sink.
3. Aim the stream at the gumline, at 90 degrees.
4. Glide the tip along the gumline, pausing briefly between teeth. Start with the back teeth and work toward the front.
5. Do the outside and the inside, upper and lower.
6. When you’re done, turn it off and empty the reservoir. Clean it as your model’s manual directs.

Soft-Picks

GUM Soft-Picks are small picks with soft rubber bristles that slide into the space between two teeth.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1. Choose a size that slides in with light resistance. Spaces vary, so you may need more than one size.
2. Gently ease it between two teeth at the gumline.
3. Move it gently in and out a few times.
4. Never force it into a tight space. Go down a size, or use floss there.
5. Don’t forget your back teeth. A curved handle or flexible neck makes them easier to reach.
6. Throw it away when you’re done. Soft-Picks are single-use.

Around implants and bridges

Plaque collects where an implant crown meets the gum, and under a bridge’s false tooth, where a toothbrush misses. Those spots need their own tools.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1. Thread floss under the false tooth of a bridge with a floss threader, or use floss with a stiff end, like Super Floss.
2. Gently clean under the false tooth, then each supporting tooth: curve the floss into a C shape and slide it up and down, just below the gumline.
3. Floss around each implant crown too, gently, just below the gumline.
4. Clean the spaces beside an implant with an interdental brush with a coated wire, in the size your dentist or hygienist recommends. Ease it in; never force it.
5. Trace the gumline with a water flosser: aim at the gumline, pause between teeth, and rinse under the bridge.

If food keeps packing in beside an implant, flossing harder isn’t the fix. Here’s why it happens and what we can do →

A full-arch implant bridge (All-on-X)

A full-arch bridge is screwed onto your implants, so it stays in and you clean it in place. Only a dentist takes it off. Plaque collects along its underside, where it rests over the gum, and around each implant.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1. Brush twice a day, for two minutes, with a soft brush tilted to where the bridge meets the gum.
2. Run a water flosser under the bridge: start on the tongue side at one end, then glide slowly to the other.
3. Thread floss under the bridge: guide a stiff end under it, between two implants, like Super Floss.
4. Wrap the floss around each implant where it meets the gum, gently. Never force it below the gum.
5. Use small brushes at each implant: an end-tuft brush where it meets the gum, and a coated-wire brush underneath.

We make and maintain full-arch bridges, and take over ones made elsewhere. More about full-arch implant bridges →

Cleaning someone else’s teeth?

Brushing a parent’s or partner’s teeth is a different job from brushing your own. Floss picks, small interdental brushes and water flossers are often easier than string floss when you’re doing it for somebody else. Read our guide for caregivers →

What home care can’t do

Tartar doesn’t come off at home. That part is ours. A cleaning removes what the brush and floss missed, and it’s a good time to ask us to check your technique. About cleanings and prevention →

These videos are general information, not a substitute for an exam.