At the start of every year, a lot of resolutions are made and then rapidly broken. The majority of these resolutions will relate to improving the body image, so there is an increase in gym membership (although not attendance past January), adoption of the latest diet and attempts to cut back, or more ambitiously, eliminate smoking and alcohol. However, the simplest thing we can resolve to do and make the world a better place is just smile a bit more. We can all improve on our smile by brushing the teeth twice a day for two minutes each time – just 4 minutes a day.

I would like to think that this is ‘old news’ and everyone knows this, but surveys tell us that the average time spent brushing the teeth is just 40 seconds and only 52% of the population brush their teeth twice a day. I am now a fan of electric toothbrushes as they have a built in timer and you feel really guilty if don’t complete the full 2 minutes. I use to think that electric brushes were a bit of an indulgence but there is now evidence to suggest that everyone will brush their teeth more effectively with an electric brush as opposed to a manual brush. Everyone using the conventional manual brush will improve their brushing by timing their brushing and bringing in an egg timer into the bath room – just 4 minutes a day.