I have a confession to make, I hate to stretch. Maybe because it hurts since I don’t do it, or maybe because I was told when I was young I would never be that flexible, but most likely because I am lazy about it. Even though I played team sports in high school, which included some stretching before every wrestling practice it is something I have never found to be easy to do.
Have you ever been to a professional basketball game and got there a little bit early? I have and let me tell you all the players have a personal trainer stretching them out. I wish I had one. Let’s face it, it is very hard for me to keep up with a professional athlete when it comes to taking care of my body.
If you read one of my recent blogs you know that I recently started working out a bit more regularly, something I hadn’t done since my appendectomy almost 2 years ago. One thing I noticed was that my right knee was hurting me a bit. I let my significant other know about it since she is a physical therapist and she told me I needed to stretch. I told her I stretch and she said I didn’t do it right. I needed to hold my stretches for at least 1 minute for 3 times, my 10 seconds didn’t do anything. So what did I do, I got out my smartphone and used the timer and started holding the stretches for 1 minute at a time and guess what….she was right. My knee starting feeling better almost instantly. And now I do my stretches daily and soon I might even be flexible.
So now we get to talk about the average dental patient, the one who brushes their teeth for 30-45 seconds, maybe scrubbing too hard and abrading away tooth structure. Could that be you? (I even had one patient confess to me that even though he uses the SoniCare with a two minute times on it he often quits before it is finished).
The best way to keep your mouth (and the rest of your body healthy since the mouth is the portal where a lot of bad bacteria get into the bloodstream) is to disrupt the bacteria regularly. And dentistry has come up with a magic number….for 2 minutes at a time at least twice a day. If you don’t have a SonciCare or Oral B mechanical brush with a two minute timer you are on your own to how long you actually brush your teeth. So take the Dr. Jon challenge and take out your smart phone and time yourself for 2 minutes and see how long that really is when you brush your teeth……and that’s just the minimum time we recommend.