Can you brush your teeth too much?

[alissataylor0214]

Hello All,
I was just curious, from reading posts on here about gum recession. I have none at this point. But can you brush your teeth too much? I just got traditional metal braces on a month ago, and I usually brush after everything I eat, even if its just a snack. Is this excessive? Should I only brush after breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Actually right now for me this is how it goes, I wake up and brush, get to work and eat breakfast and brush, eat lunch and brush then sometimes a snack and brush, then dinner and brush, then shortly after dinner is bedtime. I sure dont want to brush too much and mess up my gums. Thanks for any helpful advice!!

[JennyLaughs]

I brush after breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then one more time right before I go to bed (this is when I do my once-a-day flossing as well). If I eat anything really sugary in between meals, I'll go have a quickie with the toothbrush, but if it's not sugary, I just rinse my mouth out really well with really warm water and call it a snack. I don't know what brushing TOO often would do to your gums.

[ashesgap]

I was brushing four times a day at the beginning, but decided that was just too much. I brush morning and night. Night time i do the whole routine, toothbrush, proxy brush, floss, childrens brush for the hooks. During the day anytime i eat i use my RediBreeze...power washing everything out of my brackets. My teeth still feel clean all day long, but i'm not worried about scrubbing enamel off my teeth anymore. And the real test, anytime they take off your old ligs, look at them. You can see if they have any yucky plaque on them. I think i usually only have two with it, and thats those bottom canines with the hooks. Very little on them, and sometimes none at all. My assistant (i get the same one everytime) tells me i can't do anything more to clean my teeth.

[alissataylor0214]

Well thats good to know, I didnt know to look out for the plaque on the ligs, I will now! I haven't gotten them changed yet tho, so we shall see. What is the purpose of rinsing with warm water instead of cold? And what is readibreeze? Thanks for your replies!

[lu lu]

You could cause damage by damaging your tooth enamel as well as your gums if your brushing them too hard.

Enamel is one of the major tissues which make up the tooth & it can be worn away by brushing & by acidic foods & drinks. So I wouldn't 'over' brush & be careful how long you leave it until you brush. You shouldn't really brush straight after you eat / drink something acidic. You're doing more harm than good because the enamel is softened by the acidicness.

Once your enamel has worn thin it doesn't grow back. You can normally tell if it has worn thin becuase your tooth looks 'see through' & you can see it's a lighter colour to the rest of your tooth / teeth.

I'm very conscious of my enamel as it has worn thin on a couple of teeth & I do worry about 'over brushing' or brushing too hard.

[ashesgap]

The RediBreeze is like a waterpik, but it attaches to the faucet. I don't have room in my bathroom for the big waterpik tank.
Warm water vs cold would depend if you have sensitive teeth. I can't use cold water, it hurts.

[Plumcore]

Speaking of pain to cold, do teeth get more sensitive with braces on? My sensitivity went down since i started using sensodyne, before my braces. but now i notice they are really really sensitive.

[ashesgap]

I was using GelKam when i first got my braces, prescribed by my ortho and my sensitivity was gone. But after a disagreement between my ortho and my dentist, who are cousins and kinda funny, i stopped using the GelKam. The sensitivity came back and i do think the braces make them a little more sensitive to the cold. I'm actually going to go back to using the GelKam, which is like super loaded flouride and fights plaque and sensitivity. I just can't stand the pain from cold water.

[drgnchsr36]

I don't think you can over brush.. but definitely how hard you brush affects things.

I brush about 3x a day, floss 3x (but am going to cut down to 1x)... but I have a huge tendency to brush too hard. That's the hard part..

[JennyLaughs]

I use warm water instead of cold due to some sensitivity and because for some reason I feel like it does a better job softening up the food particles and flushing them out of my brackets.

[mentos]

yes definitely! we always hear about teeth demineralizing due to bacterial plaques and acidic diet, but we forget that teeth also remineralize. For this, they need an uninterrupted alkaline environment with a lot of saliva and the right ions (calcium, phosphate, etc). So I think we should brush enough to remove the bulk of the plaque, but not too often so that the mouth doesn't have a chance to rebalance itself. Eating a proper diet is more important to dental health than actual dental cleaning.