Page 216 - My FlipBook

you brush your teeth." They will generally do it very care-
fully ; better than they do it at home ; or sorrie will and some
will not. Now, you must gain the confidence of the little
fellows and get them to brush their teeth as you direct.
Then when they come again look over the mouth carefully
the first thing when they take the chair ; take the mouth mirror
and go over all the surfaces of the teeth with the eye, and if
you see a point that has not been reached by the brush give
them a glass—say, ''Now, here, Johnnie; see, here is a point
you haven't brushed ; over here is a point you haven't
brushed ; you must be more careful than that." Sometimes
it is better to say, "This won't do ; I can't operate in a mouth
like that you must go home and brush your teeth and come
;
at another time ; I can't operate for one who takes no more
care than that." Impress the lesson in some way that it is
necessary for them to do this thing carefully, and then pre-
scribe the method of doing it. Now. you may brush the
buccal surfaces of the teeth with a back and forward motion
(indicating), but you will not brush the embrasures ; the hairs
of the brush will not get in toward the proximate surfaces of
the teeth. Teach your patients to use the up and down mo-
tion (indicating), along the length of the teeth ; the bristles
of the brush will go into the embrasures and clean them as
far as the bristles of the brush will reach. And this may be
done all over the mouth. It is just as easy a motion as the
other when once learned. The manner of brushing will de-
pend a good deal upon the tendencies in thci case. Children
and young people particularly should brush their teeth with
this up and down motion, for the tendency in them is usually
for the formation of proximate cavities. As they come on to
adult age there is more necessity for the brushing of the
buccal surfaces ; they are more liable to be developing gingi-
val third cavities, and particularly if you find in your patients
a tendency to the development of these gingival third cavi-
ties, then the back and forth motion becomes the important
method of brushing, because it cleans best the portion of
the teeth that is then most liable to decay. Wherever I find
patients showing a tendency to buccal decays I say to them,
''Here, it is simply carelessness on your part to have gingival
third cavities in your molars and bicuspids, or in your in-
cisors, for this is a part of the tooth that you can clean, and

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