Eight Ways to Make Your Home Dental Hygiene More Effective
The two most important aspects of an effective at-home dental hygiene program are frequency and technique. In other words, it's important that you brush at least twice a day, floss once a day—and do both correctly.

Below are eight tips to make the most of the time you spend brushing and flossing. After all, you're doing it anyway, so you might as well do it right!

1. First, floss each and every day, preferably at night, to remove food and bacteria from the vulnerable areas between your teeth. Any floss can do the job; choose one that you like.
2. Use a toothbrush with soft bristles. They are just as effective at cleaning teeth as their hard-bristled counterparts, yet they're much gentler on gums and tooth enamel.
3. To brush properly, hold the head of the brush at a 45-degree angle to your gums, use firm but gentle pressure, and move the bristles around all surfaces of each tooth using small, circular movements. Overlap as you move from one tooth to the next.
4. Use the tip of the toothbrush to clean the backsides of your upper and lower front teeth.
5. Develop a brushing pattern that works for you and stick to it. This will ensure that you clean every surface of every tooth each time you brush.
6. After you've brushed your teeth, gently brush your tongue, from back to front. Rinse your brush and then carefully brush the roof of your mouth. This will remove a good deal of bacteria and will help to keep your breath fresh.
7. A mouth rinse can be a good addition to your home dental hygiene program. Just make sure the mouth rinse doesn't contain alcohol, which can dry your mouth and result in a new set of problems. Also, rinsing should never replace flossing or brushing, unless it's impossible for you to brush or floss at that time.
8. Finally, here's a little-known fact: you should avoid brushing immediately after ingesting acidic foods or beverages, like orange juice, soda or grapefruit juice. Research has shown that when you brush after an acidic food or beverage, a small amount of the tooth enamel is worn away by the toothbrush rubbing the acids against the teeth. In this case, it's better to rinse your mouth, then wait an hour or two before brushing. This allows time for the saliva in your mouth to work to remineralize your teeth.

Flossing–One of the Easiest Things You Can Do to Live a Longer, Healthier Life
It's no secret that you're supposed to floss every day. But sadly, two-thirds of American adults choose not to floss, despite the fact that their dental hygienists have been actively encouraging the flossing habit for over 80 years.

Here's the bottom line: When you don't floss, it can be compared to having a shower but not washing 30 percent of your body, or vacuuming your car, but ignoring the corners and crevices. And you wouldn't do either of these things, would you?

If you consider yourself to be an "anti-flosser," check this out:

• Michael Roizen, M.D., author of Real Age: Are You As Young As You Could Be? says that daily flossing is "one of the twelve easiest things a person can do to live longer and younger." He adds that adding an age-reducing behavior to your life—and he counts flossing among these behaviors—can make you look and feel up to 6.4 years younger than your actual age.
• Flossing daily can help you keep your heart healthy by helping you avoid periodontal disease. People with periodontal disease are 1.5 to 2 times more likely to suffer a fatal heart attack, and 3 times as likely to suffer a stroke.
• Diabetics who also have severe periodontal disease have trouble maintaining appropriate blood sugar levels.
• Harmful bacteria from periodontal infections can enter your bloodstream from the open sores on your gums associated with periodontal disease. These bacteria have been linked to ulcers, pneumonia, premature births, and the often deadly infective endocarditis.
• Flossing and brushing can help you lose weight by giving your mouth a clean, fresh feeling that you don't want to spoil by eating.
• And regular flossing can help to keep your breath smelling fresh. Who doesn't want that? Avoiding periodontal disease, even if it didn't put you at risk for a host of other ailments, is reason enough to get into the flossing habit. Periodontal disease causes red, swollen gums. It makes your gums bleed and eventually pull away from your teeth, producing an unattractive, uneven gum line. It gives you a persistent bad taste in your mouth, and foul-smelling breath. It causes your body to produce enzymes that break down the bone and connective tissue that hold your teeth in place (this damage is irreversible). And eventually, if it's allowed to progress, periodontal disease will cause you to lose your teeth.