General Care Of My Teeth
What are the essentials of good dental hygiene?
The essentials of good dental hygiene, and the need for dental hygiene, never goes away. However, it is going to vary depending upon your age and your ability. You should never expect your young child to be able to brush their teeth themselves because they just don't know how to do it. They don't have the coordination so you'll need to brush the teeth of your young child yourself. As children progress and get more agile, they're going to be able to do that themselves and their dental hygiene will improve. You as an adult are able to carry out dental hygiene yourself. And, as we age and get more dependent on others, we may complete the cycle and need someone to brush our own teeth when we are older.
How do I brush my teeth?
When you're brushing your teeth, you need to brush your teeth for five minutes. Five minutes is a very, very long time. When you think about it, if you were at a sports event and you spent five minutes watching runners run, they would run more than a mile in that five minutes. So, five minutes is a long time, but you need to brush for five minutes to do an adequate job. The tooth brush you use should have soft bristles. They need to be soft bristles for a couple of reasons. One, if it's a soft bristle, it won't harm your teeth. Two, if it's a soft bristle it'll be flexible enough to get into all the nooks and crannies and clean things well. In addition to that, we have to focus upon where the tooth meets the gum. This is where everything happens. This is where the plaque deposits, this is where the tartar's going to form if you don't clean the plaque. This is where you have to do the job. So, you need to get in there with a soft toothbrush, and then after you're finished with the toothbrush, you need to floss so you can get down below the gum. Many people use electric toothbrushes because they find it easier. The problem with an electric toothbrush, and it can be overcome, is to make sure that you have the electric toothbrush go to all those areas you would do with a hand brush. Sometimes it's going so fast that you lose track of where it is. You have to make sure you cover all of these bases. Of course if you're using an electric toothbrush, the five minutes may not be necessary; you could probably go down to two minutes if you are careful to get to every area of the mouth.
How do I know which toothpaste is right for me?
People are always concerned about getting the right kind of toothpaste. Is this the one that's going to whiten my teeth? Is this the one that's going to give me a dynamite smile? I'm sorry to tell you the answer is no. The toothpaste won't do it. The thing that cleans your teeth is the toothbrush, not the toothpaste. The only time you really have to worry about which toothpaste to take is if you're concerned about sensitivity in your teeth. If that's your concern, then you need to take a toothpaste that has a lot of flouride releasing so that it will desensitize your teeth. There are many types of these desensitizer toothpastes and there are some that are only available to you with a prescription for really sensitive teeth. So once again, if you think you're going to get that really bright smile because they told you on television it's not going to happen with your toothpaste.
How do I floss my teeth?
When you floss your teeth, you want to make sure that you don't damage your gums, so you need to slide between the teeth carefully. As you slide below where the teeth contact each other, you want to stay in contact with one of the teeth and then slide down below the gum when you floss your teeth. Then you should come up over the triangle of the gum, and then down the other side on the other tooth. Then you can pop the floss out through the top. You need to floss between each of your teeth and this should be done at least once a day, preferably twice a day. There are many types of floss to use. There's tape, there's regular floss, there's waxed and there's unwaxed. Personal preference will let you decide whether you like to use tape, or whether you use regular floss. Ideally you should use unwaxed floss because it tends to take out more plaque than the waxed floss. However, it's much easier to use the waxed floss and I would prefer to have you using something you're going to use, than not using something that may be better for you. So if using waxed floss will make you floss, use the waxed floss. But floss!
Should I use mouthwash?
Many people use mouthwash to help with getting rid of bad breath. And there are some mouthwashes that really do a good job of this. Most of them contain zinc. Zinc has been proven to be a powerful ingredient to arrest mouth odor. If you're going to use this mouthwash to get rid of bacteria, and maybe doing away with some of your brushing, you're probably wasting your time and your money.
What is "fluoride"?
Fluoride is an ingredient that is found in some toothpastes, and in the topical application that you can receive at your dental office. Fluoride will help to toughen the structure of your teeth so that it better resists tooth decay.
How can my diet affect my teeth?
Your diet can affect your teeth greatly. The more sugar in your diet, and the stickier the foods you eat, the more likely you are to develop tooth decay. Also, if you don't take in enough calcium in your diet, you may see a deterioration of the bone around your teeth, and sometimes, in the structure of your teeth themselves. So your diet is very important where your teeth are concerned. Remember, we are what we eat.
How can smoking and alcohol affect my teeth?
Smoking and alcohol do have an affect on your teeth, and its not a good affect. Some of the affects that smoking has on your mouth, in addition to just your teeth, is a desiccation of your mouth which is a drying out of your mouth because of the smoke. Also, appearances of a hotspot, because of the smoke, occurs, particularly with pipe smokers. These areas, such as your teeth, are also susceptible to cancer, just like other parts of your body, so smoking is not a good idea. Alcohol also dries out the tissues of your mouth, but the tissues of your mouth are not supposed to be dry, they're supposed to be moist, that's what the saliva is for. So alcohol is not a good thing for your mouth or teeth, but in moderation, it's not a problem.
