4 Ways to Have Good Dental Health
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According to many dental professionals, there are only a few hygiene principles that people need to practice if they want to keep their teeth and gums healthy for a lifetime. Here are a few of the key principles:
Brushing
Tooth brushing should begin as soon as a child has his very first tooth. Baby teeth are very susceptible to cavities, especially if a child frequently has a bottle or cup full of juice to drink. Parents should never allow their children to fall asleep with a bottle in their mouth, even if they are old enough to avoid choking on it.
Some people believe that the bristles on their brush should be stiff in order for them to remove tough tartar, but in reality the bristles should be soft, and the teeth should be brushed continuously for around two minutes, twice a day.
Flossing
Some people do not like to floss because it hurts their gums. If your mouth hurts when using regular dental floss, check Canada 411 for places that distribute tape-type floss. This type of floss slides between the tightest of teeth. If your gums hurt or bleed when flossing, it is time to visit the dentist.
Dental Visits
Rarely do people go through life with no cavities. Even people who brush twice a day and floss after each meal will benefit from a dental visit. The dentist can find cavities before they become painful, and the hygenist will scrape away the gum-damaging tartar.
Fluoride
Developed areas have fluoride in their municipal water, but some adults may need treatments with it to strengthen their teeth.
Brushing Protocols: Rules to Remember
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Hygiene — it’s assumed — is an easy process. Paste is dribbled across a brush; bristles are shoved inside a mouth; and teeth are explored with hasty strokes, cleaned with a quick efficiency.
Such efficiency may prove to be inadequate, however.
There is far more to brushing teeth than simply applying paste. There are instead rules that must be understood:
Twice Daily for Safety
It’s a seemingly simple request: individuals are encouraged to brush after each meal, to remove all traces of food from their mouths. Achieving this between hectic schedules and daily demands is challenging, however, and too often it can’t be done. It’s recommended therefore to replace this rule with an easier one — brushing should occur once in the morning and once at night. This will battle complications.
Dry Bristles for Effect
Water is forever promised to be a worthy ally, an enabler for health. Applying it to bristles, however, can prove to be counter-productive. The use of water on a brush will alter the pattern of the strands, making them less effective. Individuals should rely only on paste when cleaning their teeth. Dry bristles offer results (and can be washed after the process is done).
Small Amounts for Ease
Excess tends to guide individuals — with all amounts doubled to ensure success. This philosophy doesn’t always work, however. Adding more paste than is suggested will only inspire brief brushing periods: with the taste too powerful to endure and all foam spat quickly into the sink. Using only small dabs is therefore recommended instead.
Brushing is a vital part of hygiene. Accomplishing it simply demands an understanding of the proper protocols.
Keep your Teeth Healthy as an Adult
You know the rules, the way to brush and not to brush. Still, as you get older, those little cavity suckers seem to be eating your mouth out. You’ve had root canals, pulled teeth experiences, and even gingivitis. For years you have been told to floss, but you haven’t. You have been told to visit the dentist twice a year from the dentist as well as your good old insurance policy, but do you?
Here’s what you can do to keep your teeth and gums in the pink!
- Choose your toothbrush carefully. You probably don’t want hard bristles. Soft bristles help you to brush without hurting your gums.
- Brush twice a day. Use a toothpaste with flouride.
- Floss at least once a day. Take the weekend off if you’d like to, but resume on Monday.
- Or invest in a Water pik toothbrush. A lot like flossing, but far more fun. Around $50.
- Gargle with mouthwash after brushing. Keep your breath smelling fresh, and give your teeth and gums an extra kick.
- Visit the dentist twice a year. Even a small cavity is a better experience than a large one.
- Whitening your teeth doesn’t keep your teeth any more healthy, but whitening does make your teeth look healthier. Try this free home whitening remedy here: http://www.essortment.com/all/whitenyourteet_pry.htm or ask your dentist what she recommends.
Knowing the rules of teeth brushing, as you know, if only half of the battle. The difficult part comes in the doing. Start out small. Perhaps floss twice a week to start, or floss only at night when you’re not in a hurry. Find a way to remember what you’ve started; whether it is sticking a handy reminder on your vanity mirror or keeping the items for use out on the counter until you have it down.
Keeping your teeth healthy may not appear easy at first, but like everything else you start and somehow manage to finish, healthy teeth will come in time, and you’ll be glad you did it.
Keep your Children’s Teeth Healthy
Your children tell you they have brushed their teeth when they haven’t, they paint the counter with their toothpaste in favor of brushing with it, and they use every excuse in the book not to brush.
My favorite?
“I did it yesterday.”
Here’s how to keep them brushing:
- Give out a reward. We’re not talking food here; they’ve just brushed their teeth. We’re talking more about a jar filled with stickers or small toys—the ones you can get at the dollar store.
- Make a chart. When your children have brushed for an entire week without fail, they can dip their hand into the tooth brushing jar.
- Purchase a musical toothbrush. All the rage, musical toothbrushes sing a little ditty until the brushing should be over. Musical toothbrushes can be found at your local grocery store as well as online. Options include “The Jungle Book,” “The Lion King,” “If you’re Happy and you Know it,” and more.
- Even if your children aren’t allowed sugary snacks, they still must learn how to brush so as to avoid tooth decay. At their next visit, if your child is not offered plaque disclosing tablets that show where he has brushed and where he hasn’t, ask for a few. For a week, use the tablets as a motivation for exceptional brushing. When your child has a mouth without any red spots, he will know he has won the prize from the jar.
- Keep a dentist’s poster of your choice on a mirror above the sink. Ask for a free one at the dentist; they often have them, or purchase a poster here: http://www.zazzle.com/dental+posters.
- Pick up some children’s flavored toothpaste.
Keeping your kid’s teeth healthy can be a real trick, but it will be a real treat for you the next time you take them to the dentist if they don’t have any cavities because you’ve used some of the above ideas to keep them brushing.
Getting Dental Patients To Understand
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Being a dentist can be a rather difficult thing. It’s tough when a patient comes in who has clearly not cared about his or her teeth. You want to shake them or tell them to shape up because of the long term damage it can have on their heart, health, and financial concerns that poor dental care can have on them. So the real question becomes: how do you get your patient to start caring about their teeth the way they care about their favorite televisions shows.
Start Slow
Asking a patient to floss every single day after they have spent years not flossing at all would make for a rather big commitment to fill. Asking them to floss weekly is a much more safe and reachable goal. Once they see the benefits of it they might be willing to do it more. But you can’t go from 0 to 60. There has to be a nice middle ground.
Keep the Important Things
Once again it’s nice if your patient does a complete 180 and decides to do what you want them to do to it’s fullest but the truth of the situation is that there is only so much you can get them to do. Getting them to floss weekly and brush their teeth at least twice a day is a good start. Make sure they are brushing it in the morning and once again at night before bed. You can’t change everything so you have to change what you can. This is a good start.
Don’t Try Too Hard
Here’s the thing: you can’t get everyone to change. The only thing you can do is get them the right advice and then let them do what they want. You can’t help everyone. You can only do what you can do.
Diagnosing A Receeding Gumline and How to Treat It
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A receding gum line is a disease that can almost always be avoided by using good dental hygiene. A receding gum line is one where the the gums shrink back far enough so that the roots of the teeth become exposed. When this happens, food can become trapped underneath the gum line and bacteria also has easy access to the roots. Because of this foreign material gaining access to such a sensitive area, pockets of infection form easily which results in the loss of teeth and jawbone. A receding gum line also causes the teeth to be sensitive to hot and cold food and liquid.
When a person does not brush and floss their teeth, they set their mouths up for damaged gum lines but this problem can also caused by being hit in the mouth, having crooked teeth or having genetically thin gums. Periodontal disease also causes receding gums. A person will begin to show signs of this disease before their dental hygienist even diagnoses them with it. Some things to look for include: noticing that the teeth seem longer than they used to and the spaces in between the teeth seem to be getting wider, having bad breath, having swollen or reddish gums. If the teeth bleed after they are brushed or the roots of the teeth can be seen, more than likely the gums have begun to recede.
A trip to the dental hygienist will help determine what is causing this gum line problem. If only the few teeth in front are affected, the cause is probably due to the tooth brushing method used by the patient but if all of the gums in the whole mouth are receded, there is probably some periodontal disease involved. The dental hygienist can teach the patient the best way to care for their teeth or set them up with treatment if they do indeed have periodontal disease.
Teaching a Child Good Toothbrushing Habits
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Human teeth are very strong and they are the perfect tool for their purpose, but if they are not well maintained, they can cause severe pain. If they become infected, that infection can spread throughout the rest of the body and cause severe problems. It is best to develop a relationship with a good dental hygienist so that good practices can be developed early and become habitual by the time the child has their adult teeth.
When a child is still less than two years old, their teeth should not be brushed but rather wiped off with a cloth so that the fragile enamel is not damaged. As the child grows and graduates to a toothbrush, the bristles should be the softest ones on the store shelf. When purchasing toothpaste for a young child, seek the recommendation of the dental hygienist. Young children do not understand that the toothpaste should not be swallowed, so there is special toothpaste formulated for that age.
Train the child to brush their teeth at least twice per day. A good habit for them to learn is to head to the washroom as soon as they leave the table after a meal and brush their teeth. They may not stick with that particular tooth brushing habit, but they are sure to form an acceptable frequency habit by starting this way. Discuss with the dental hygienist how the child should hold the toothbrush for the most effectiveness.
While fluoride is necessary to the health of a child’s dental health, the dental hygienist should help guide a parent concerning the correct dosage for their child’s needs. Too much fluoride in a child’s diet will create white spots on their teeth, but too little fluoride will not give teeth the proper protection during their adulthood.
The dental hygienist is available to answer any questions a parent may have about their child’s dental health. A parent should feel free to discuss any concerns with the hygienist, and if the child is difficult about caring for their teeth, the dental hygienist is sure to know a few tricks.
