Oral Hygiene
Professional Cleaning
Daily brushing and flossing will keep dental calculus (tartar) to a minimum, but a professional cleaning will remove calculus and disrupt bacteria in places your toothbrush and floss have missed. Your visit to our office is an important part of your program to prevent gum disease and help you keep your teeth for your lifetime.
Professionally applied fluoride varnishes are the most effective way to help strengthen teeth and protect them from decay. The teeth are dried and the varnish is flowed directly on the tooth and/or root. The varnish is very sticky and will remain there until it is brushed off four hours later. During this time, the fluoride goes into the tooth enamel and increases its resistance to disease. Patients like being able to eat or drink right away because the varnish will not rinse off. The sticky feeling only lasts a few minutes and the benefit lasts for months.
Caring For Your Teeth
There are many techniques and tools to efficiently remove bacterial plaque from your teeth. Our dental hygienists will work with you to develop a daily preventive regimen that works best for you!
Sometimes teeth are sensitive to hot and cold. If your teeth are especially sensitive, please let us know. There are many medicated toothpastes and mouth rinses made especially for sensitive teeth. There are also some treatments that we can do in our office to help decrease your tooth sensitivity. We can even use a special desensitizing cleaning paste at your maintenance appointment.
Choosing Oral Hygiene Products
There are so many products on the market that it can become confusing. Choosing between all the products can be difficult. Here are some suggestions for choosing dental care products that will work for most patients.
Automatic and high-tech electronic toothbrushes are safe and effective for the majority of patients. Oral irrigators (water spraying devices) will rinse your mouth thoroughly, but will not remove plaque. You need to brush and floss in conjunction with the irritator. We see excellent results with electric toothbrushes, in particular the Oral-B Triumph and the Oral-B Professional Care.
Some manual toothbrushes have a rubber tip on the handle; this is used to massage the gums after brushing. There are also tiny brushes (interproximal toothbrushes) that clean between your teeth. If these are used improperly you could injure the gums, so be sure to discuss proper use of these brushes with your hygienist.
If used in conjunction with brushing and flossing, fluoride toothpastes and mouth rinses can reduce tooth decay as much as 40 percent. Remember, these rinses are not recommended for children under six years of age. Tartar control toothpastes will reduce tartar above the gum line, but since gum disease starts below the gum line, these products have not been proven to reduce the early stages of gum disease.
Anti-bacterial rinses, approved by the American Dental Association, contain agents that may help to bring early gum disease under control. Use these in conjunction with brushing and flossing. Some examples are Listerine and Crest Pro-Health.
There are many products on the market with ingredients to actually re-mineralize. These products usually contain calcium phosphate and can help to re-harden enamel that has started to soften. This is only effective in the very early stages of the decay process where the softening has not penetrated completely through the enamel. The calcium phosphate can be found in toothpastes like Enamel Care by Arm and Hammer and chewing gum like Trident Advantage.
Nutrition
Good nutrition plays a major role in your dental health. Brushing and flossing keeps your teeth and gums healthy and strong. A balanced diet will supplement your body’s immune system, resulting in less vulnerability to oral disease.
What you eat and how often you eat have both been found to affect your dental health. Sugars and starches (carbohydrates) form the sticky material that attaches plaque to the teeth. Carbohydrates also serve as food for the bacteria which give off harmful acids that cause decay and contribute to gum disease. Foods that stick to your teeth or are slow to dissolve, allow the acids more time to work on destroying tooth enamel.
Starchy foods:
- Crackers
- Breads
- Cookies
- Candy
Sticky/slow to dissolve foods:
- Granola bars
- Chewy fruit snacks
- Dried fruit
- Hard candy
Sticky and starchy foods create less acid when eaten as part of a meal. Saliva production increases at mealtime, rinsing away food particles, and neutralizing harmful acids.
Soda and some of the sport or energy drinks have a low pH, which makes them very acidic. They are also high in sugar. Both of these factors are very destructive to tooth enamel. Even diet drinks are acidic and, sipped frequently, can cause decay. Be careful to limit these types of beverages. Drink them quickly rather than sipping them slowly over a long period of time.
Foods such as nuts, cheese, onions, and some teas have been shown to slow the growth of decay-causing bacteria in the mouth.