5 Brushing Teeth Mistakes You're Probably Making, According to a Dentist and Dental Hygienist

glamour.com:

are an essential part of our daily routines, but brushing teeth mistakes are much more common than you think. From a young age we are taught to brush our teeth in the morning for fresh breath and before bed to prevent cavities.

But other than going to a bi-annual dentist appointment, we don't receive much feedback about this thing that we do so often.Did you know that oral health isn't just about keeping our teeth and cavity-free, but can actually have an impact on heart health?

Yup, it's that serious. In fact, The American Heart Association penned a post titled “,” which sites a study where one researcher revealed, “poor oral health, based on daily teeth-brushing behavior, is associated with poorer heart health.” That's enough for us to want to step up our teeth-brushing game.To give us a refresher on the right (and wrong) ways to brush our teeth, we consulted with a dentist and a dental hygienist who have a front-row seat to the most common mistakes that patients make.

Read on for the most common brushing teeth mistakes to find out if your dental skills are up to snuff. Spoiler alert: they're probably not.We get it, you want to get out the door or into bed as quickly as humanly possible when brushing in the morning and at night, but if you're not spending enough time on your teeth, you're doing yourself a disservice.