Often oral hygiene is considered to be an integral part of well being and also reflects the health of a person. A perfect oral hygiene will protect you from several types of diseases starting from gum diseases to diabetes, asthma etc.
Many people just know that brushing teeth and scraping tongue are the only methods beneficial for oral hygiene. But, this process only cleans about 25% of your mouth and keeps it unclean all day long and leads to increase of bacteria which often results in certain problems.
According to ayurveda brushing teeth with twigs will make it healthy than brushing teeth with toothbrush along with paste. If you compare the oral hygiene of using people ancient brushes and now, you would notice vast difference.
In this article, we are going to see how we need to maintain oral hygiene in ayurvedic way to keep our body healthier.
The most common way to brush teeth in ancient days is just using twigs of different herbal trees. These twigs are loaded with many medicinal properties which will help you to get rid of several oral diseases.
How To Choose A Twig?
You should choose the twig that has bitter, pungent taste. Because the bitter tasting twigs has anti microbial properties which helps to fight against the bacteria in your mouth and avoid all oral diseases.
The best example of ayurvedic twig is neem, this herb with pungent taste will remove all toxins from your mouth and improve salivation from the mouth. The astringent taste helps in healing wounds or ulcers and fight against bad breath.
How To Use Twig As A Toothbrush
- Choose the twig length of about 25 cm and thickness should be of your fingers.
- Chew twig a bit from the front and use gentle strokes to brush your teeth.
Use Herbal Toothpaste
Always choose herbal toothpastes that have clove, fennel and neem properties, which help to get rid of bad odor. All the sweetened toothpastes in market are heavily loaded with calcium and baking soda that often results in tarter formation in your mouth.
The herbal toothpastes are better than the tooth pastes that are available in market.
How To Brush Your Teeth Properly
- Brush your teeth gently for more than two minutes.
- Use short and gentle strokes and clean the gaps between your teeth properly.
- While brushing upper teeth, keep your brush at 45 degree angle.
- Put special attention while brushing backside teeth, gums and the areas of restoration.
Use Of Tongue Scraping
Ayurveda strongly recommends to clean your tongue right after brushing your teeth. This must become a regular habit to maintain good oral health along with physical and mental health.
Tongue scraping removes the foul smell and the dirt build up on your tongue. You must choose tongue scrapes that do not have sharp edges, Ayurveda mainly recommends silver, gold, copper tin and brass scrapers to clean your tongue.
Use Of Oil Pulling
Oil pulling is one of the oldest ayurvedic methods to maintain oral hygiene. Using particular essential oil for this process will help you to prevent all the bacteria and dirt built up in your mouth and reduces bad breath and infections.
It also prevents decay, bleeding gums, cracked lips and even strengthens your teeth, gums and jaws.
You can use sunflower oil or sesame oil or coconut oil for this process.
How To Do Oil Pulling?
- Take one table spoon of sunflower or sesame oil and fill your mouth with this oil and swish it around for 10 -15 minutes in your mouth.
- Never swallow this oil, because it turns out with toxins and microbes.
- Once the time is up, spit it out and wash your mouth with plain water for more than 3 times.
This process should be done after brushing in an empty stomach every morning to maintain healthy oral hygiene.