How Hard to Brush Your Teeth

How Hard to Brush Your Teeth Dr. Travis Stork: Let us see how you do with the pressure. When you are brushing your teeth, you only use 150 gm of pressure. That is about the weight in a small orange, so feel that. Pretty light, right? That is how much pressure you want on your teeth. Dr. Jim Sears: So, this is basically a little pressure monitor and we put a little smile on there. So, here is your toothbrush and I am going to put it up to your mouth here. Basically, I want you to -- there is a number on here that is going to show us how much pressure you’re putting. Okay, brush away. We’re aiming for what? 150? Well, I am seeing like up in 300s. So, you are doing a little -- Dr. Travis Stork: Is that how you normally brush? Female: Yeah. Dr. Travis Stork: So, you just get after it. Dr. Jim Sears: So, you’re like really digging in there. You’re using like twice as much pressure you need to. Dr. Travis Stork: So, you are talking about like 300 grams, maybe more like a papaya here, feel that. That is lot heavier. Female: Yeah, I don’t think I stop there either. Dr. Travis Stork: So, more is not better. You got to be more careful but Jim, there is a little something that you can do to help prevent brushing too hard, right? Dr. Jim Sears: Yes, you can use maybe a special toothbrush. Dr. Travis Stork: All right Jim, you got something for us, right? Dr. Jim Sears: Yes, this is really cool. This is the Oral-B 5000. This is actually an automatic toothbrush that turns off if you are using too much pressure. So, pretty cool, ha? Dr. Travis Stork: It will actually give you a timer so that after a few minutes, you know it is time to stop. Dr. Jim Sears: Yes, exactly. Dr. Travis Stork: Are you going to change your way? Dr. Jim Sears: It’s full proof. Female: I promise. Dr. Travis Stork: I believe you now. Thank you so much for being with us.