 Hello everybody Andrea here let's talk about how you know if you're brushing too hard and what damage it can actually cause to your teeth, so I would say. hard brushing is one of the most common things that I see in kids adults seniors it doesn't matter who you are. People have a tendency to brush too hard but it's really not a good thing for your teeth, because what you can actually do. Which i'm actually going to show you guys first i'm going to blow up this photo what you can actually do is, you can take away the gum. Around the tooth so your tooth here is the gum margins, you can actually brush away the gum and some of your tooth enamel do you guys see how the top parts of these teeth are more on the yellow side. That is supposed to be covered by the gum tissue, but this person was likely brushing too hard, this could also be caused by a couple things though as well if somebody's clenching. Every night or during the day, or if they're grinding their teeth, this is called gingival recession, this can also happen from that. But since it's a little bit everywhere that tells me that the patient is brushing too hard, so how do you know if you're tooth brushing too hard, how do you know that. Do you guys see this toothbrush here so i'm going to bring that up sorry guys. Let me bring that up this green bristle toothbrush, this is what your toothbrush should look like it's not going to look perfect after weeks or months of use okay it's not going to look like these perfect bristles that's not going to happen, but. If your toothbrush looks like this so changing up the pictures again notice how this toothbrush here the toothbrush bristles are. displayed quite a bit they look very worn, this is how you can tell you're brushing too hard this toothbrush looks like the same, but this one's just a better angle. If your toothbrush looks like that get another toothbrush and just be more conscious of not brushing too hard. A lot of patients tell me they thought the harder you brush the better because you're taking the plaque away you're taking the bacteria away isn't it a good thing to brush hard. Well there's a fine line if you brush too soft and you're not getting the plaque away than that's one thing. But you should never brush too hard, the key is to buy a soft toothbrush, not a medium, not a hard toothbrush, because that can really cause more damage, the key is to buy a soft toothbrush. Either a manual toothbrush or an electric and do not brush too hard if you're brushing too hard. The gums get worn away and then your teeth look like this and they'll be yellow towards the top, and this can cause extreme cold sensitivity so use a soft toothbrush. And just be conscious not to brush too hard your teeth will feel clean afterwards, even with a soft toothbrush and not brushing too hard, I promise. Your dental hygienists will love you, but what if your teeth look like this now so this yellow area here that is your second layer of the tooth showing through and that is called your cementum. That is actually the root surface of your tooth so tooth enamel does not cover cement that is why the tooth looks yellow up here it's very easy to get a cavity so what if this has already happened to you. The key is to use a good toothpaste brush lightly one with I would say fluoride and xylitol in the toothpaste is better. And your dental hygienists can also apply something called a desensitizer over those areas to protect the teeth. To protect the root surfaces from either not becoming sensitive or just simply covering them up so you cannot get a cavity it's very easy to get a cavity in the cement them. These yellow areas of the teeth it's harder to get a cavity on the tooth enamel which are these white areas it's still possible, as we know. But it's even easier to get a cavity on the cement and that's what happens from brushing too hard once you've taken that gum away, you cannot bring the gun back. If you want surgery to put the gun back in these areas, you can but they take the gum from the roof of the mouth and place it over there to cover it up. Nobody really wants that, in my opinion, I wouldn't recommend it. it's an invasive surgery imagine they're taking gum tissue from the roof of your mouth and placing it over there, it takes a long time to heal it's not the most exciting I wouldn't recommend it, so what I say to patients who have teeth like this. called a gingival recession, where this yellow spot is kind of showing I say we just maintain it from not becoming thinner so their teeth. are thinner up here, so I tell them, we need to maintain things so it doesn't get worse brush lightly use a good toothpaste and have your teeth cleaned on a regular basis by your dental hygienist, so we can look at this for you and monitor. So I hope that helps you guys, let me know please if there's any questions and i'll talk to you guys in the next video.