August 5th, 2010
London dentists recommend several easy to follow and simple steps for maintaining a good oral hygiene routine. It is all information you have probably heard before but the fact is, with dental decay and gum disease on the rise again and affecting millions of people each year, it would seem we can’t be told enough how best to look after our teeth. This is especially true when it comes to passing the information on to our children. With recent reports in to the terrible state of our children’s teeth, it never hurts to be reminded just how and why we look after our teeth.
The first and most important point is brushing. Using a soft bristled brush, angle the head towards the gums so that not only are you removing plaque but also stimulating and cleaning the gums at the same time. Dentists also say that using a brush with a smaller head will remove more plaque and bacteria as it can access more places in the mouth. Brushing correctly for three minutes, twice a day will help to remove sufficient bacteria to keep your mouth healthy.
Flossing is also very important as it removes plaque build up form the harder to reach areas of the mouth such as between the teeth and around their base. This is especially useful as it is often these areas that are the most prone to suffering from dental decay as they cannot be cleaned with brushing. Adding this routine to regular six-monthly check ups with your London dentist will give you a very good chance of avoiding dental diseases and keeping your mouth feeling and looking healthy.
July 1st, 2010
Even the most cursory glance of the internet when searching for oral health products will reveal literally thousands of products promising to cure bad breath and keep your mouth clean. The reality is, however, that not only are many of these products completely ineffectual at preventing the problems but they could even be making it worse.
This happens because they can interrupt the natural production of saliva in the mouth, the body’s natural defence against oral concerns. This most commonly occurs when people try to treat their bad breath. We all know that this can be a very embarrassing problem, as it happens to all at some point or other during our lives, so we can understand the desire to find a miracle cure to keep us free from this social problem. But the truth is that there is only one true cure for bad breath and that is keeping your teeth and gums as clean as possible.
Proper brushing and flossing will remove plaque and bacteria from the surface of the teeth and remove any food debris that may be stuck in the gaps. Once the bacteria is gone, the source of the smell is removed. This is not the case with some oral hygiene products, especially mouthwash and oral sprays. They do not remove the bacteria or food debris, but only mask the smell for a short period of time. The smell will eventually return anything between ten minutes and to hours later. They also interrupt the production of saliva, which also helps to remove bacteria and keep bad breath at bay. Ask your London W1 dentist for more information about how best to beat bad breath and other dental concerns.
June 5th, 2010
Keeping your mouth and teeth clean is vital for protecting your dental health and avoiding any number of unpleasant and painful dental problems. Maintaining a good standard of oral hygiene is in fact the most important way of fighting tooth decay and gum disease and it also helps you to avoid embarrassing conditions such as bad breath and discoloured teeth.
The main way you can keep your teeth clean and healthy is by brushing. This should be performed twice a day for about three minutes. City of London dentists also recommend that you use a soft bristled brush with a small head. This is most effective at removing plaque from the surfaces of the teeth and is also able to reach more parts of the mouth. Your dentist will be able to demonstrate the most effective ways to clean your teeth at your next check up appointment.
After brushing, the next most important way to keep your teeth clean is by flossing. This allows you to clean the parts of the teeth and gums that can’t be easily reached by brushing. This includes the areas between the teeth and around their base. It is these areas where food and bacteria can often get stuck and cause the first signs of disease and decay.
As well as brushing and flossing there are a number of other ways of keeping your mouth in good condition. These include using a tongue scraper to remove bacteria from the soft surface of the tongue. Ask your dentist for more information about other ways of cleaning your teeth and mouth. This ties in neatly with the final and possibly most important aspect of dental hygiene, namely regular visits to your dentist for a check up. This will help you to monitor your progress and make any changes necessary to your routine.
May 8th, 2010
To keep your teeth looking and feeling their best, it is important to have an effective and thorough daily oral hygiene routine. Brushing, flossing and using other oral hygiene products will help to remove damaging bacteria and plaque from the surfaces of the teeth and in the gaps between them. This will prevent enamel erosion that causes decay, infection and ultimately tooth loss.
Good oral hygiene begins at home but also requires the input of your London W1 dentist every six-months at a check up appointment. Your dentist will be able to assess how well you are looking after your teeth and highlight any areas that need further attention. They can also carry out routine checks for oral cancer and other nasty oral diseases. Dentists, together with dental hygienists will also be able to conduct a thorough clean of your teeth and devise an oral hygiene plan for you to stick to at home. This form of preventative dentistry has been proven to be effective in limiting tooth and gum disease.
The most important defence against dental problems is brushing. This cleans the teeth and gums, removing the bad bacteria and plaque that cause decay and infection. Brushing twice a day with an appropriate brush will keep the levels of plaque to a manageable level and prevent bacteria acid eroding the enamel. Flossing performs a similar function in the small areas between the teeth and around their base. A daily combination of brushing and flossing will help to keep your teeth looking clean and stop the build up of tartar, which cannot be removed at home by brushing.
Your dentist may also recommend using a tongue scraper or mouthwash, depending on your individual circumstances. These oral hygiene tools can also help to regulate the amount of bacteria in the mouth helping to protect your teeth.
April 23rd, 2010
Flossing is a method of cleaning in between the teeth to get rid of food debris, and keep down the build up of tartar says a West London dentist. Imagine your house having a clean floor with dirty skirting boards, which would look so out of place that it would be very obvious. Well that’s exactly what flossing is, it is the cleaning of the areas that the main method of cleaning miss, you wouldn’t vacuum a carpet and leave dirt around the sides, so why clean your teeth and not floss? It’s not as if it’s even a hard or time consuming exercise. Tartar will build up around the sides of your teeth if flossing isn’t done on a regular basis, this is generally chipped off the tooth when we get our 6 monthly check up, but to prevent the build up in the first place is the sensible thing to do. Flossing is as important as brushing and rinsing properly, even more so, as brushing and rinsing does not remove most of the food residue in between the teeth. This food is attacked by bacteria which feeds on it and then as a by-product, produces harmful acids that damage the enamel on the front of the teeth. Bacteria can then penetrate deep into the tooth and cause infections, if the problem continues we either end up losing the tooth or getting a root canal treatment, neither of these are worth avoiding a few minutes a day that flossing requires. Washing the mouth with water throughout the day will also help to keep down acid build up, but be sure to have a little floss first. Flossing isn’t just for the morning and the evening, it should be done after each meal throughout the day to be fully effective and keep diseases of the gums at bay.
April 7th, 2010
Our overall health isn’t just about eating the right foods and exercising says a W1 London dentist. Our mental attitude as well as our physical being is important to us, and we need to do all we can to keep both in pristine condition. However, not many of us are aware that oral hygiene can have an effect on us if it isn’t done properly. Bad breath is just one aspect of a poor oral hygiene program, gum diseases like Gingivitis can cause us discomfort in the mouth and give us a bad smile. This in turn will make us shy away from people and can in extreme cases make us to be anti-social. On top of that bacteria can leak into our blood supply and cause us other problems like liver and heart disease. All that is required is that we have a regular and tried and tested method of keeping our teeth clean, and free from the causes of gum disease. This can be easily achieved by a regimented routine throughout the day, and not just a quick brush and rinse first thing in the morning and last thing at night. During the day we eat brunch and often have a sandwich with a hot or cold drink, food residue gets trapped in between teeth and drinks contain sugars, both of which give bad bacteria the material to produce acid. This in turn eats away at the enamel and gums, then the bacteria gets inside the teeth and gums and causes infections. Just spending a little more time during the day, to control the food residue in our mouths, will go a long way to helping our overall health. We’ll end up smiling more, being more energetic and feeling much better all round. All it takes is a little time to floss and rinse the mouth during the daytime, drinking water throughout the day will help a lot.
April 5th, 2010
It isn’t generally well known that heart disease has, through recent research, been linked to bad oral hygiene says a City of London dentist. The extensive research, which is a cause of great discussion amongst professionals, has shown that the oral bacteria that causes gum diseases such as Gingivitis has been linked to blood platelet problems. This problem is a known cause of heart disease and other blood related malfunctions in the production of new blood cells. The bacteria is thought to enter the blood system through cuts and abrasions in the mouth, these are generally caused by infected gums that are damaged through rough brushing. In the same way that blood can carry the Hepatitis strain from person to person, oral bacteria infects the blood and attaches itself to the platelets, these platelets then mutate and infect the vital organs that they feed. The immune system eventually adjusts itself to fight off the infection, but in a lot of cases damage was noticed in patients before this happens. It is now vital that we all take more care of our oral hygiene to prevent not just gum disease, but our other vital organs such as the heart. If you are not too familiar with what constitutes as good oral hygiene, then a visit to the hygiene nurse at your dental practice is a must do for 2010. A simple regime will go a long way to eliminating gum disease, which by the way is incurable, if you already have a gum disease then it is important that you learn to brush and floss without cutting the infected flesh of the gums. Regular oral hygiene will not only keep your mouth healthy, but now it seems it will keep your heart healthy as well.
March 14th, 2010
Brushing your teeth is by far and away the most important way of keeping them clean, healthy and free from decay. Effective brushing is the first line of defence against a whole series of nasty and unpleasant dental health concerns that could cause you a lot of pain, embarrassment and expense throughout your life.
London W1 dentists recommend that you brush your teeth at least twice a day for three minutes. It is recommended to use a soft-bristled brush, unless told otherwise by your dentist for specific reasons, as they are the best at removing plaque and ultimately that is the number one aim of tooth brushing. Plaque is the sticky, filmy substance that coast teeth and releases acids which eventually break down enamel and cause cavities. If left untreated, dental cavities will worsen until the enamel is breached and the sensitive inner part of the tooth including the dental nerve is exposed to bacteria and infection. This can be very unpleasant and the source of severe pain and ultimately tooth loss.
When brushing it is important to angle the brush at 45 degrees to the gums so that they are also gently cleaned. This helps to keep plaque off the gums and prevent gum disease, the number one cause of tooth loss in the UK. Using a small-headed toothbrush is also recommended because it allows easier access to more parts of the mouth.
Although brushing is very important, it is also still a good idea to floss your teeth at least once a day as this helps to remove plaque and food debris from between the teeth. As well as this, it is also highly important to make sure you keep up six-monthly appointments with the dentist as even the most rigorous brushers can still be affected by decay and disease.
March 10th, 2010
Dentists cannot stress the importance of daily dental hygiene and its positive effects on dental health. Effective brushing and cleaning can help to keep tooth decay and gum disease from destroying your teeth and gums. This happens because effective brushing and flossing removes the plaque which builds up on the teeth and breaks down enamel and gum tissue.
Dentists recommend that you brush your teeth at least twice a day for three minutes. This should be done with a soft bristled brush for maximum enamel removal and preferably using a brush with a small head for easier access to the difficult to reach areas. The brush should be angled at forty-five degrees to the teeth so that the gums are also brushed but be careful not to press too hard as gum tissue can erode and will not grow back.
It is also important to floss daily to remove bacteria and plaque from the hard to reach areas between teeth and around the base. Much decay begins in these areas and food particles trapped there are often the cause of bad breath. Other cleaning tools are also encouraged such as inter-dental brushes and tongue cleaners. These can help to remove more bacteria keeping the mouth clean.
West London dentists are available to give further cleaning advice and can draw up a cleaning plan on conjunction with a dental hygienist to keep your teeth as healthy as possible. Just by taking a few extra minutes each day to thoroughly clean your teeth you could save yourself the pain and anxiety of dental problems later in life.
February 9th, 2010
The feeling of newly cleaned teeth when you’ve just been to the dentist is hard to beat when just cleaning them yourself. Even the most thorough clean involving brushing and flossing can’t match the cleaning you can have performed by a dentist or dental hygienist. This is because the dentist or hygienist uses techniques known as scaling and polishing to completely clean the teeth. Scaling in particular is probably not the most pleasant experience in the world but it is necessary to achieve the levels of cleanliness important for healthy teeth.
When scaling the teeth, the dentist will use a small implement with a hook at the end. This is used to carefully remove tartar from the teeth without damaging any of the enamel. It is necessary to scale teeth to remove tartar because it cannot be removed with normal brushing. Unlike plaque, which can be cleaned with a normal toothbrush, tartar is hard and sticks to the teeth very firmly. If tartar is not removed it can cause decay and gum disease which lead to nasty infections and ultimately tooth loss. This can be very painful, very expensive and also very embarrassing.
When the teeth have been fully scaled and all the tartar removed, the dentist will then polish them using a mechanical polisher. This removes any further residual plaque and leaves the tooth enamel smooth and free of debris. This makes it hard for the plaque to stick to, protecting the teeth from any future decay. To be fully effective these processes need to be repeated on a regular basis. By visiting a West London dentist or dental hygienist every six months for scaling and polishing you can give your teeth the best chance of staying clean, healthy and free of decay.
