“Brush and floss!” your mom might say before you go to sleep, and that’s not a warning; it’s a command. One that you might respond with a lie and say “I already did,” or you already did and your mom just doesn’t believe you.

Your mom gets mad at you just because your teeth are naturally yellow and she thinks you haven’t been brushing or flossing. Say you had broccoli, steak, and mashed potatoes for dinner and it’s all in your teeth and your mom finds a piece of broccoli or steak in your teeth you couldn’t get out. Now, your mom thinks you lied to her when you said, ¨I did floss.” She doesn’t believe you, grounds you, and says “We need to talk.” Your mom is now mad with you, she nags you to brush and floss every single night!

That is just a nibble of what you will experience when you have a mom who could’ve been a dentist.  

If you think you can just lie to your mother, think again because she’ll know that you’ve been lying when you get a cavity, or worse gum disease. Now you’re grounded for months and you’ll have a cheap dentist appointment, $100-150 if you get a silver filling. Gum disease is even worse, the problem with it is that it doesn’t have a cure. Now you have bloody gums and missing teeth. It’s now a pain to eat the food you love. Now you live your life in regretful pain.

Now what if you did listen to your mom, you didn’t lie and brushed and flossed 2 times every day? Maybe a third time after lunch just for good measure? Now you have nice pearly teeth and healthy gums. Your mom doesn’t ground you, she’s happy with you because you listened to her. You also feel good about yourself because you upgraded your hygiene and you feel responsible.

Always remember to brush and floss your teeth, you may not during the morning, but every night, try to brush and floss your teeth. You may not feel like it, but you’ll feel better after you do. When you floss, make a U motion, go up the tooth, down in between, and back up on the neighboring tooth; do that motion 3-4 on each tooth. To ensure you don’t put gunk in your next tooth, reel in more slack from your floss. When you brush with a toothbrush, apply friction to scrub your teeth, kind of like using a face cloth. Make sure to get your back teeth and the front middle teeth. An electric toothbrush is good for getting plaque off your teeth because it’s good at scrubbing, just make sure that you don’t get water on the charger. 

Flossing is very important, your toothbrush isn’t going to get all the food scraps out of your teeth. You need to floss whether you like it or not because if you don’t, your consequences shall be dire.