The Spots You're Most Likely Missing When Brushing Your Teeth

You brush in the morning.

You brush again before bed.

So everything should be clean, right?

Not necessarily.

The frustrating thing about brushing is that you can be perfectly consistent about doing it while being inconsistent about where the bristles actually go.

Research examining brushing behavior has found that people don't distribute their brushing equally across every surface. In one study, nearly three in ten participating parents completely missed the inner surfaces of their teeth during observed brushing.

Another study found substantial plaque could remain around gingival margins even after people were instructed to brush to the best of their ability.

That's the difference between brushing time and brushing coverage.

The front is easy

Your front teeth are visible.

They're easy to reach.

And because you can see them in the mirror, it's natural to give them attention.

The harder places are less obvious:

• behind the front teeth
• back molars
• inner tooth surfaces
• areas near the gumline

The ADA's brushing guidance specifically calls for holding a toothbrush at an angle toward the gumline and using a separate vertical technique for the inner surfaces of the front teeth.

That alone tells you something:

A toothbrush may be simple.

Using one thoroughly is not always simple.

Two minutes helps, but technique still matters

The standard recommendation is to brush twice daily for two minutes, and longer brushing generally removes more plaque than a very short brushing session.

But a timer can't tell whether you spent 30 seconds repeatedly cleaning an easy front surface while barely touching a back molar.

Two minutes measures duration.

It doesn't automatically measure distribution.

What if the brush surrounded the teeth instead?

This is one of the problems Feno was designed around.

Instead of starting with a small brush head that you manually move from tooth to tooth, the TrueFit Mouthpiece surrounds the dental arch.

Feno currently offers seven TrueFit sizes, matched after a mouth scan. Each mouthpiece contains about 18,000 ultra-soft bristles and is designed to clean accessible surfaces throughout the mouth simultaneously during its 20-second cycle.

You still move the mouthpiece gently in circles as directed.

But the basic geometry is completely different.

Instead of asking your hand to remember every individual section of your mouth, the brush starts with thousands of bristles already positioned around your teeth.

Consistency should mean more than remembering to brush

Brushing twice a day is a great habit.

But there's another question worth asking:

When you brush, are you cleaning the same easy surfaces over and over?

Because the area you forget once is probably not the problem.

It's the area you forget every day.

See how Feno approaches full-mouth coverage →