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 →

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.

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.