When you have to do something, and there is mounting social pressure for something mandatory, you may feel the need to neglect it, precisely because it must be done. Many times this feeling is far from defiance, but rather stress, and it paralyzes us.
I am sure you have heard these words often enough: “You HAVE TO brush your teeth morning and night!” When you are still a child and you have your parents whisking you away to the bathroom to brush, you may have felt that oral care is a tedious chore. Of course, now in adulthood, nothing is mandatory, and you have the right to bodily autonomy, and can do as you please with your mouth and teeth. But brushing your teeth twice a day is not a polite request; it is the only way to make sure your teeth last as long as you do, and did not become a norm out of dentists wanting to tell people what to do.
Time has proven to dentists and researchers that proper at home oral care can protect your teeth and prevent the overwhelming majority of oral problems from forming at all. Regular at home oral care can make sure that you don’t need to experience the pain and discomfort that comes with having dental problems. Knowing all of this, why wouldn’t you take care of your teeth? Telling people to brush their teeth is the same as telling people to drink more fluids during the summer, otherwise you will dehydrate, or to dress up during winter, so you don’t catch a cold.
If you still don’t feel the need to brush intensify, and you don’t feel motivated to brush at all, here are a few tips to help make this chore a little bit more interesting.
Distract yourself
If you find brushing your teeth boring or uninteresting, put on a funny video, or your favourite song while you do it to distract yourself with something pleasant and interesting.
Sometimes you may feel too tired at night or in the morning, or may not have enough time to go and brush your teeth. But if you brush while you take a shower, you save time and energy, and can get two mandatory hygiene requirements done at the same time. If you have an electric toothbrush, check that it is entirely waterproof before getting in the shower.
Keep a toothbrush with you wherever you go, because if you forget to brush, or just don’t feel like it, you may feel like it when social pressure is applied at your workplace or the gym, or wherever you go. Try to brush your teeth at a different time and in a different place then you usually do, perhaps this will make it more interesting.
People usually brush their teeth at night, when they are super tired, or in the morning, when they are still very sleepy, and may not feel like going over each and every tooth surface with careful, tiny circular motions, and this may lead to missing a session or two. Electric toothbrushes do the work for you, and they do a much better job than a tired human.
Don’t forget to remind yourself why it is important to brush at least twice a day. You can find plenty of motivation and a lot of really scary images of what happens when you don’t brush, and these can really get you to go and spend those two minutes brushing your teeth. Just look at your favourite celebrity’s shining smile, or the results of bad oral hygiene, and think that just a few minutes a day can totally help you to avoid these situations, and the astronomical costs they can incur, and you will feel the motivation to brush your teeth.
Remember, brushing your teeth twice a day is one of the best investments you can make!
