Even if your teeth have extremely stubborn yellow stains on them, a professional teeth whitening procedure will go a long way toward improving your overall appearance. However, while this procedure is designed to last a long amount of time, certain precautions are necessary to ensure that it doesn't fade sooner than it should. For example, to protect a professional teeth whitening procedure by brushing up and down instead of side to side, read these three tips.      

Use A Plastic Dental Scaler To Loosen Plaque On Your Front Teeth

Brushing up and down is easier on your teeth because you won't be tempted to speed up your brushing strokes to the point where they're unnecessarily abrasive. To keep this cleaning strategy from getting too slow and inefficient, use a plastic scaler on your front teeth before you start to loosen up plaque.

While it's a good idea to slowly go across the entirety of your mouth with a metal scaler every once in awhile, there's no need to work with the plastic scaler for longer than you have patience for. A few swipes on each tooth is all it takes to loosen plaque enough for your actual toothbrush.

Put Toothpaste On Your Brush Twice For Each Row Of Teeth

It's harder to balance how much of your toothpaste goes on each tooth when you're brushing up and down because it's a more clumsy task to transfer between each row of your mouth. To compensate for this, apply half of your normal toothpaste allotment to your toothbrush twice instead of applying it all at once.

To get the full effect of your first toothpaste allotment, don't wash your toothbrush in water before you switch to the other row of your mouth. If there's so much paste and saliva residue on the brush that you don't think the new toothpaste will sit still, just lightly shake the brush over the sink for a few seconds.

Make Sure That The Bristles On The Brush Aren't Bending Too Far

The harder you press your toothbrush on your teeth while you're brushing up and down, the less room that the ends of the bristles will have for actually moving across the enamel. In the worst case, the bristle ends will just stay in one place while the bristles themselves wobble up and down, stunting the effectiveness of your brushing regimen. Your teeth themselves will also get unnecessarily sore from the pressure you're putting on them.

If you have to, use your free hand to hold your upper or lower lip away from your teeth so that it's easier to hold and move your toothbrush in a consistent way. Always keep track of whether the ends of the bristles are actually able to move across the lengths of your teeth.

For further assistance, contact a local family dentist, such as Village Family Dental.