Personal Care And Hygiene Codexery

Oral hygiene

Practice of keeping the oral cavity clean to prevent disease.

Last updated

Regular oral hygiene prevents dental disease and bad breath.[1] Keeping the oral cavity clean and free from disease and issues such as halitosis is what oral hygiene involves.[1]

Last updated 2026-10-07 from the source article.

Quick Facts

Field
Dental health and preventive medicine
Known for
Prevention of tooth decay and gum disease through regular brushing and interdental cleaning
Key practices
Brushing at least twice a day with fluoridated toothpaste, interdental cleaning
Common diseases
  • Tooth decay (cavities)
  • gingivitis
  • periodontitis
Common practices
Brushing at least twice a day with fluoridated toothpaste; interdental cleaning with floss, tape, or brushes
Major diseases prevented
  • Tooth decay
  • gingivitis
  • periodontitis

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

Tooth decay is the most common global disease.[2] Over 80% of cavities occur inside fissures in teeth where brushing cannot reach.[2] Indian medicine (Ayurveda) has used neem tree twigs to create teeth cleaning tools.[3] Routine tooth brushing is the principal method of preventing many oral diseases.[4]

For adults, standard recommendations are to brush using a fluoridated toothpaste at least two times each day.[5] Interdental cleaning, which is the term for cleaning between teeth, holds equal importance to brushing with a toothbrush.[5] People have employed various methods for cleaning their teeth long before any written records existed.[3] Chew sticks, twigs from trees, feathers from birds, bones from animals, and porcupine quills have all been uncovered in archaeological digs as cleaning implements.[3]

Since the Islamic Golden Age, the miswak—derived from a twig or root—has seen widespread use across the Muslim world.[3] The duration people typically spend brushing falls between half a minute and just over one minute.[4]

What the cited sources add

Calcified dental plaque from archaeological sites reveals significant alterations in the oral microbiome that occurred during the Industrial Revolution.[6] During the pre-Neolithic period and among early hominins, dental caries and periodontal diseases were uncommon.[7] An evidence brief from the Australian Healthcare and Hospital Association recommends that adults schedule dental check-ups once every three years.[8] In 1998, the American Dental Hygienists' Association declared that no evidence exists showing therapeutic benefit from scaling and polishing limited to above the gums.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Procedures Manual to Accompany Dental Hygiene: Theory and Practice", Saunders/Elsevier, 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dental Caries (Tooth Decay)", Centers for Disease Control, 12 December 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "How to Whiten Your Teeth", WebMD (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The effect of brushing time and dentifrice on dental plaque removal in vivo", Journal of Dental Hygiene, 2009, p. 111–116; "Oral health", World Health Organization, 2012; "Oral Hygiene habits of young adults", J Periodontol, 1955, p. 43–47; "A comparative study of electric toothbrushes for the effectiveness of plaque removal in relation to toothbrushing duration. Timerstudy", Journal of Clinical Periodontology, August 1993, p. 476–481; "Toothbrushing duration and plaque removing efficacy of electric toothbrushes", American Journal of Dent en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Delivering better oral health: an evidence-based toolkit for prevention", GOV.UK; "Current concepts in toothbrushing and interdental cleaning", Periodontology 2000, 2008, p. 10–22; "The plaque-removing efficacy of a single-tufted brush on the lingual and buccal surfaces of the molars", Journal of Periodontal & Implant Science, June 2011, p. 131–134 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The oral microbiome - an update for oral healthcare professionals", British Dental Journal, November 2016, p. 657–666; "Probiotics: A Promising Role in Dental Health", Dentistry Journal, September 2017, p. 26; "Structure, function and diversity of the healthy human microbiome", Nature, June 2012, p. 207–214; "Periodontitis: a host-mediated disruption of microbial homeostasis. Unlearning learned concepts", Periodontology 2000, June 2013, p. 203–217; "How is the development of dental biofilms influenced by the host?", Journal of Clinical Pe en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Sequencing ancient calcified dental plaque shows changes in oral microbiota with dietary shifts of the Neolithic and Industrial revolutions", Nature Genetics, April 2013, p. 450–5, 455e1; "The global burden of oral diseases and risks to oral health", Bulletin of the World Health Organization, September 2005, p. 661–669; Arthur C. Aufderheide, "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Paleopathology", Cambridge University Press, 1998; "Early hominid dental pathology: interproximal caries in 1.5 million-year-old Paranthropus robustus from Swartk en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "How often should you have dental visits?", Deeble Institute, August 2025 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Oral hygiene" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "American Dental Hygienists' Association Position Paper on the Oral Prophylaxis", American Dental Hygienists' Association, 29 April 1998; "Routine scale and polish for periodontal health in adults", The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, December 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Oral hygiene (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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