The blotting technique It was developed during the 1960s by Dr. Joseph Phillips and is still as effective today as it was then. The only difference is that thanks to the Internet, more people around the world can benefit from it.

It is very clear that Dr. Phillips was a man ahead of his time. Not content with his patients coming back again and again with poor gum conditions, he set about devising a method by which he could help prevent their gums from deteriorating between appointments.

By chance he saw, during a film about African culture, members of the Masai tribe fraying the tip of a twig that they collected from the bushes in the wild and used to clean their teeth. Rather than dismissing this as a primitive tribal habit, it got him thinking about how he could take advantage of this approach in his practice.

Upon further investigation, he discovered that this ‘twig’ was from the Salvadora Persica (mustard tree) and arranged for some to be sent to him. Using the same frayed end principle, Dr. Phillips developed the blotting brush with a frayed nylon bristle. Then his patients were able to use the blotting brush between appointments and he immediately noticed a reversal of their conditions. He then set about perfecting his drying technique so that drying brush users get the best out of this method.

Dr. Joseph Phillips was a periodontist (a gum specialist) who taught every patient that gum disease, subsequent surgery, and tooth loss were totally unnecessary if the mouth was properly cared for. Dr. Phillips’ extensive research was destroyed in a fire after his death. Therefore, without access to your valuable documents and records, this book can only be treated as anecdotal.

Even after retiring from active practice, he lectured tirelessly in the US and internationally to promote “teeth for life.” Its drying technique goes beyond the traditional brushing and flossing routine to give you “a new standard of cleaning” that promotes the health of your teeth and gums. It’s simple and inexpensive, making this simple technique understandable and affordable for everyone.

The key to total oral health ‘for life’

Dr. Phillips described his drying technique as “an oral care method that actually removes plaque.” Where conventional toothpaste brushing can move plaque around the mouth and even on the gum line causing gum disease, Dr. Phillips’ drying technique is a simple technique that removes it from the mouth.

The technique itself is based on capillary action: the same principle works when a sponge absorbs liquid or when excess paint on a canvas accumulates on the bristles of a brush. Capillary action is what lifts and holds plaque on the brush so it can be removed.

No matter how well you clean your teeth with conventional brushing, your mouth remains 90% dirty.

Some people:

– Get out of bed in the morning and take about 45 seconds to vigorously brush your teeth.

– They only brush their teeth: few people brush their tongue, cheeks and gums.

– Given that teeth occupy only 10% of the surface of the mouth, what happens to the remaining 90%? And what would your body be like if you only washed the same 10% every day?

When Dr. Elmar Jung and I first met in 2007, I handed him a copy of Dr. Phillips’ book ‘Acquiring and Maintaining Oral Health’ suggesting that he read it and let me know which sections would need to be revised in the light of modern techniques. . Dr. Jung returned the book to me a week later and said that at most it would change very little. He was amazed that such valuable information was available so many years ago and was largely unrecognized.

Conversations with Dr. Phillips

During several phone conversations with Dr. Phillips in Wisconsin between 2001 and 2002, he took the time to explain the reality of dentistry to me and helped me understand the mechanics and benefits of his blotting technique.

After his death in 2003, Dr. Phillips’ work was almost completely lost. Although holistic dentists in the US pleaded with their family to uphold their important legacy and to continue to make blotting brushes available, the energetic driving force was gone. Due to the difference these brushes have made to our oral health, my wife Phylipa and I didn’t want to be without them either. I spoke with Dr. Phillips’ daughter Paula and she was delighted to allow me to promote brushes as her father had done before.

Blotting Brushes: Weapons of Plate Destruction