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Dentist EXPOSES the Truth About Brushing Twice a Day · SmileMoreDentistry with Mariliza LaCap, DDS

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's an enormous problem with the recommendation to brush your teeth twice a day.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because in 35 years of dentistry, I saw people all the time who brushed twice a day, every single day, and they still had bleeding gums, bad breath, tartar buildup, cavities, and way more dental work than they expected.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So what's going on?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Either all of us dentists are lying about brushing, or brushing twice a day does not mean what most people think it means.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: After 35 years in dentistry, I can tell you there is one part of this recommendation that almost nobody explains.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And once you understand it, you'll know what to look for in your own mouth, how to take the best care of your teeth.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: You wake up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you do a beautiful job.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then what happens?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: You eat breakfast, you have coffee, you go to work, and you have lunch.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe something gets stuck between two teeth, but you're busy.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you rinse your mouth or drink some water and keep going.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then you have dinner and finally at night you brush again.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, technically you did exactly what you were told.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: You brushed twice.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: But that recommendation makes people focus on the number of times they brush instead of asking a much more important question.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is your mouth actually staying healthy?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because those are not the same thing.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: You can brush twice a day and still have areas you are not cleaning.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can brush twice a day and still have inflammation around the gums.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And once certain problems develop underneath the gums, you can brush three times a day, four times a day, buy the most expensive toothbrush in the store, and you are still not going to fix them at home.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is the part people do not understand.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start with something simple.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: If your teeth overlap or crowd together, there are little areas where food and plaque can sit.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: You may brush the front of your teeth beautifully, the back beautifully, the chewing surfaces beautifully, and still never really clean between two teeth that are tight or overlapping.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: That is why I laugh when somebody tells me, well, I brush really hard.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Brushing harder does not make the bristles magically go somewhere they cannot reach.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: If the problem is between the teeth, you have to clean between the teeth.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if food keeps getting stuck in the same place every day, that is something I want you to notice.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not because one piece of food is going to destroy your mouth, but because repeated patterns tell us where the problem may be starting.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So tonight, after you brush your teeth the way you normally do, clean between them.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Use floss or a water flosser.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I care much more that you actually clean between the teeth than which ones you use.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: And pay attention to three things.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Where does food keep coming out?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Where does it bleed?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if you use floss, is there one area where the floss has an odor when it comes out?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: You are not diagnosing yourself, but if the same area keeps bleeding, trapping food or smelling over and over again, that is telling you something.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where the video gets more important.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because once you start seeing bleeding regularly, I do not want you to just say, I guess I need to brush more.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Healthy gums should not consistently bleed every time you clean them.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: If they are bleeding regularly, there is inflammation there.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the early stages, you might have soft plaque sitting around the gum line.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: That is the stuff we would want you removing at home.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Brush it, clean between the teeth, do the basic things well.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: But if that plaque sits long enough, it can harden.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now you have tartar.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And once tartar is sitting underneath the gum, this is where home care hits a wall.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Think of it like cleaning your house.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can vacuum the floors and wipe the counters every day, and that matters.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: But if something is growing below the floor, cleaning the floor harder is not going to fix it.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: That is what happens once the problem moves underneath the gums.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can brush until your arm falls off, but you are not reaching it anymore.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're watching this because you keep having the same dental problem, even though you feel like you're doing everything right, that's exactly what we look for in our office.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: We don't just look at one tooth and fix whatever broke.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: We look at the whole mouth, the gums, the bone, how the teeth fit together and where the problem keeps starting.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're near one of our office and you want us to take a look, you can contact us with the link in the description.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot brush hard and tartar off from underneath your gums.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot floss it off.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot rinse it off with mouthwash.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot buy a stronger electric toothbrush and vibrate it away.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be physically removed.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if that inflammation keeps going, the problem can move deeper.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Dentists call this periodontal disease.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: I myself usually explain it to patients as bone disease, because that is what I want them to understand.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: The bone that supports the teeth starts to go away.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: That is why it's bone disease.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And once that bone is gone, you do not brush it back.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is the part I wish people understood much earlier.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because by the time somebody is losing bone around the teeth, this is no longer a conversation about whether they should brush twice or three times a day.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: We are now talking about controlling a disease process and preventing more damage.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why I say brushing twice a day is good advice, but it is incomplete advice.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Your toothbrush can remove plaque from the places you can reach.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: It cannot tell you whether you have buildup underneath the gums.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: It cannot remove hardened tartar, and it cannot show you whether you are already losing bone.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it cannot tell you that everything is healthy just because nothing hurts.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: That is why home care and professional care are two different things.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: At home, I absolutely want you doing the basics well.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Use a fluoride toothpaste.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: An electric toothbrush is one of my go-to recommendations.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Clean between your teeth with floss or a water flosser.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you like mouthwash, fine, use it.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: But understand what mouthwash is doing.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: It can kill some bacteria and make your mouth feel fresher.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: But if the problem is underneath your gums, mouthwash is not going down there and removing hardened buildup.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: That is why I do not want people using mouthwash as proof that everything is okay.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: The same thing goes for bleeding.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you brush and the gums bleed, then you rinse with mouthwash and your mouth feels fresh.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: The fresh feeling does not mean the inflammation disappeared.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: The smell changed, the sensation changed, the condition underneath may not have changed at all.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that leads to one of the biggest mistakes I saw in practice.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Patients would measure how healthy their mouth was by how it felt.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing hurts, so everything must be okay.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: My breath is better after mouthwash, so the problem must be gone.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: My gums only bleed when I floss, so I'll just floss less.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is how little problems get ignored.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I understand why people do it.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel fine and you are brushing twice a day, why would you think something is wrong?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: That is exactly why regular dental visits matter.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not because I think you cannot brush your own teeth.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you can.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: The point is that there are things we can see and remove in the office that you cannot see or remove at home.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: We can look between the teeth, we can look underneath the gum line, we can see whether buildup has hardened, we can measure what is happening around the gums and bone.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we can catch changes before you are walking around with loose teeth are a much bigger problem.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is why for most people, I still recommend being checked and professionally cleaned about every six months.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Some people need to come more often, especially if they already have bone disease or other risk factors.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: But for most people, that twice a year visit is the other half of the recommendation nobody talks about enough.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: You brush twice a day because you're trying to control plaque every day.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Then you come in regularly so we can check the things brushing cannot show you and remove the things brushing cannot remove.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Those two things work together because after 35 years, one of my biggest beliefs is that the best dentistry is the least amount of dentistry.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I do not want you needing crown after crown, treatment after treatment, because we keep repairing damage without asking why it keeps happening.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I would much rather see you every six months, find almost nothing, clean the areas you cannot get to, and send you home.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is a successful dental visit.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I want to come back to the recommendation we started with.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Brush twice a day.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, do that.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: But do not use that as proof that everything is healthy.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: The real question is what your mouth is doing.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Are your gums bleeding in the same place?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Does food keep getting trapped in the same area?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Are you developing buildup underneath the gums?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going years without anyone checking because nothing hurts?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the things I want you paying attention to.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So tonight, brush your teeth and use fluoride toothpaste.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Clean between the teeth and notice where you repeatedly see bleeding or food getting stuck.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if the same problem keeps showing up, do not answer it by brushing harder or even more often.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Have someone look at it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Then keep your regular checkups, even when nothing hurts, because that is when I would much rather find the problem.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Brushing twice a day is excellent daily maintenance.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: It is just not the same thing as knowing your mouth is healthy.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want more videos like this, subscribe because there are a lot of things people do every day thinking they are helping their teeth when they may actually be covering up the problem.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: In the next video, I'm going to talk about bad breath, why mouthwash often does not fix the real cause, and the three things I want you to look at instead.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Watch that one next.