Shut Your Mouth – Maybe Just A Little!

If someone tells you to “shut your mouth,” or “shut up!” it can be upsetting, for sure. The implication that what you’re saying needs to stop immediately can hurt your feelings quite a bit. On the other hand, if our dental professionals ask you to shut or close your mouth just a bit, we have another reason for that.

Often times, when you brush your teeth, you are opening your mouth too wide. While this might be ok for some areas of your mouth, it’s not optimal for cleaning in the very back of your mouth.

It’s kind of counter-intuitive actually. Intuition tells you to open up real wide to reach the very back of your mouth. However, when you open your mouth super wide you can actually create a type of barrier around the teeth or tooth in the very back of your mouth.

Try a little experiment: Open your mouth real wide and stick your cleaned finger along the outside of your back, upper teeth. Notice how your cheek becomes snug to your back teeth and it’s hard to push your finger all the way back to reach that last tooth back there. Now, close your mouth slightly and try sticking your finger along the outside of your back, upper teeth again. Notice the freedom your finger has to extent further to the outer portion of your back tooth. The same freedom for optimal cleaning will occur for your toothbrush if you use this technique.

Buford Family Dental would like to remind you to shut your mouth – just a little, next time you brush the outside of your teeth in the very back of your mouth to prevent the buildup of plaque and other harmful issues that could occur as a result of not brushing properly. Book your dental appointment with us today. We look forward to hearing from you.