CHOMP
Nothing Hard,
Nothing Sticky,
Nothing Chewy

Psst! Want to know how to move your teeth faster? There are two ways. Do both, and your braces will come off in record time. Do only one or neither and plan to be sporting a metal mouth for the long haul.

One way is not to eat any of the foods that break braces.

The other key to a quicker, more beautiful smile is to keep your mouth as clean as the proverbial whistle.

Now, you went over this with Doctor Malerman and his staff back at the office. But just in case you've forgotten, let's review, shall we?

• Floss
  1. To get rid of plaque between teeth that your toothbrush can't reach, start with a nice long piece of dental floss.
  2. Start at one end of the thread, winding it around your two index fingers, holding the floss steady with your thumbs. There should be about one inch of floss between them.
  3. Start at the center of your mouth and work your way out.
  4. Gently work the floss down into the space between each tooth. Pull it all the way down to the space in between the gum and the tooth and rub back and forth gently, loosening the plaque.
  5. Work your way all around your mouth. Don't forget to floss behind your back teeth too.

  Now that we've gotten some of the plaque loose, time to move on to exposing all of it so that you can whisk it away.

• Disclosing tablets
  1. Yum. Take two, they're small. Chew them up well.
  2. "Well" means at least 30 seconds and no chunks left. No cheating.
  3. Once you have reduced the tablets to liquid, swish it around in your mouth.
  4. Use your tongue to coat your teeth.
  5. Spit. Then smile. What do you see? Pull back your lips and open your mouth so you can inspect everything.

  Disclosing tablets dye organic material: in your case, the plaque that is crawling around on your teeth. The purpose of this exercise is to show everywhere your brush hasn't been. So look again. Everywhere you see pink has been there for at least 12 hours. Everywhere you see red has been there for at least 24 hours. Yuck!

  Time to get rid of that which means moving on to...

• Brushing
  1. Arm yourself: you need a soft bristled toothbrush and your favorite cavity fighting toothpaste
  2. Start at the bottom left corner of your mouth on the outside tooth surfaces.
  3. Angle the brush at a 45 degree angle to the gum.
  4. Use a gentle brushing motion to remove plaque from your teeth and gums.
  5. Brush 8-10 strokes per tooth.
  6. Move the toothbrush all the way around one set of tooth surfaces (left outside, left chewing surface, left inside) before moving on to the next set.
  7. When you get to the inside surfaces of the upper and lower middle sets of teeth, use a flicking motion with your toothbrush to get them clean.
  8. Once you've finished brushing, take a good look at your teeth again. Smile! Pull those lips back, open your mouth and look inside. All you should see are pearly whites and healthy pink gums. If you see any pink or red anywhere, brush again! Repeat until all the red is gone.

  Note: your tongue will also dye red, and you shouldn't worry about that. Remember that disclosing tablets dye live, organic material. Your tongue is alive, so it will go red and stay red. But feel free to give it a little brush to get rid of plaque and freshen your breath.

  Okay, you're thinking, but what if I'm wearing braces — how do I brush then?
  And what if I don't really feel like following these directions? So what?