What to Know About Brushing Your Teeth with Baking Soda

  Disclosure:  Noelle Copeland RDH is the oral care specialist and dental consultant to the Brilliant and Baby Buddy oral care lines. The environment your toothbrush lives in, outside of your mouth, is important.  D id you know that you need to clean your toothbrush after your toothbrush cleans your mouth? If you skip this important process, you are potentially introducing contaminants to your body! This is where we start our conversation today. Your toothbrush does a good job of cleaning your teeth and mouth, so maintaining your toothbrush is just as important and brushing your teeth. Whether you choose an electric brush or a manual one, the care is pretty much the same. Keeping your toothbrush clean every day is a sanitizing process and is something you should do with a regular, effective oral care routine. When you sanitize something, you reduce the microorganisms and bacteria present down to a safe level with cleaning practices. This is done on a toothbrush by removin...

  DISCLOSURE: Noelle Copeland RDH is the oral care specialist and dental consultant to the Brilliant and Baby Buddy oral care lines. Today’s Brilliant® question is about brushing and timing. A recent “Brilliant Brusher” asked… ● “Is brushing my teeth after eating a good thing for me to do?” The answer for most people is… No, it’s not! Not necessarily because it’s not a good thi n g, in general, but because it’s typically not a necessary thing to be done. To be honest, I find that the people who ask this question, already have really good homecare routines and pretty healthy teeth and gums. So my concern is that these are the people who are most often my “scrubbers” and “excess-brushers”, which puts them at risk for abrasion and recessive wear if they brush too much. The people who actually need more brushing time in their day are usually the people who don’t think they have time for it to begin with. I know that’s harsh, but it’s true. After 25 years of seeing patients, the only ti...

  DISCLOSURE: Noelle Copeland RDH is the oral care specialist and dental consultant to the Brilliant and Baby Buddy oral care lines through Compac Industries. See terms below Start Oral Care Early Start good habits early. This includes an early oral care routine that can start very early, with a newborn! Get in the habit of regularly performing oral care for your baby and continue this habit in addition to some other guidelines for oral health. ● 0–3 months- wipe baby’s mouth with a sterile cloth, at least once a day to remove milk residue and bacteria. ● 3–6 months- perform an evening brushing routine, using silicone toothbrushes on your baby’s gums to remove biofilms and bacteria. ● 6 months and up- once the first tooth erupts into the mouth, start to use a bristle toothbrush on the tooth and continue to use silicone toothbrushes on teething and budding gums. ● Use a xylitol-based tooth gel for children 3 months and older to help protect teeth and gums. ● Don’t allow a child to...

DISCLOSURE: Noelle Copeland RDH is the oral care specialist and dental consultant to the Brilliant and Baby Buddy oral care lines through Compac Industries. See terms below Finding a specialty toothbrush nowadays is pretty easy. Likewise, the toothbrush aisle is littered with every possible option for a soft toothbrush for sensitive teeth , pediatric toothbrushes and even toothbrushes for your pets. In some ways they all seem the same, just different sizes and different colors. So what are some things, maybe you didn't know about YOUR amazing toothbrush? Well for starters…. ●       The bristles on your toothbrush should NEVER bend out to the side, if they do, you are brushing way too hard. Go see your dentist as soon as possible to discuss. ●       Every time you recover from an illness, you need a new toothbrush. Throw away the old one. So you don't reinfect yourself or spread your illness to another member of you family. ● ...

  DISCLOSURE: Noelle Copeland RDH is the oral care specialist and dental consultant to the Brilliant and Baby Buddy oral care lines through Compac Industries. See terms below Baking soda brushing can damage your teeth if not done correctly, or if done too much…. and to be honest, if it works…. then you may need to step up your homecare routine because all the baking soda is really doing is being more of an abrasive against the tooth surface to remove the plaque and biofilm that you are missing during your regular brushing routine. So YES, you can dip your toothbrush in some baking soda and even a little H202 (hydrogen peroxide) to help loosen and remove the surface biofilm stains on your teeth…. But then you really need to address your daily homecare routine. **The best way to battle tooth stain, is with EXCELLENT daily homecare, before the stain ever gets a chance to adhere.**  Pros of brushing with baking soda Reduces plaque and bacteria Whitens ...