A dentist with the Bongo District Hospital is cautioning against the use of hard toothbrush to brush the teeth.
According to him, using such brush does not properly cleanse your teeth but causes the outer layer, which protects the teeth, to wear off and also trauma to the gum.
He said contrary to the wide held notion that hard brushes clean better, they cause harm to the teeth.
“We recommend that you should use a very soft tooth brush. The hard one, all of us are used isn’t good. But people feel that when they use that one it cleanses properly,” he stated.
“When you are using the hard tooth brush, you are wearing that protective part of the teeth away and even you are causing trauma to the gum and even the interdental space – those space between the teeth – food particles get stuck, the hard one is not able to enter there”.
Agana Emmanuel said soft tooth brush is the recommended tool for oral care.
He indicated that, unlike the hard brush, the soft one is able to rid of particles trapped in between the teeth and in hard to reach areas without causing harm to the gum.
The dentist recommended a t least 3 minutes of brushing in order to effectively clear dirt.
He said this while speaking in an interview on A1 Radio in Bolgatanga.
Agana Emmanuel stressed the importance of oral hygiene as he urges individuals to brush twice daily and visit the dentist occasionally.
Doing this, he said, will prevent the loss of teeth even at old age and gum diseases.
Agana particularly emphasized the importance of brushing especially before bedtime.
He said failing to clean the teeth before going to bed gives room to living organisms in the mouth to feed on particles stuck in there and produce biometabolic substances harmful to the teeth.
“What happens in the night is that you are going to close the mouth not less than 8 hours, no activity so normal organism in the mouth come out to play around.
So when you eat the food, particles get stuck in between your teeth, that is what they feed on especially sugary food. So they act on it and produce waste products – biometabolic substances that are not okay for the gum”.
