January 13th, 2012
It is all very well forking out on all the best products in west London shops for the latest gadgets and products to maintain a high level of oral hygiene, but if your application is all wrong, you might as well have saved your money in the first place. Just by buying the best electric toothbrush around doesn’t ensure that you are going to keep your mouth healthy if you don’t know how to back it up. Yes, getting the right brush for your mouth is the crucial first step on the road to a healthy mouth, but you then need to back it up with a good toothpaste to compliment your brush- and then it doesn’t stop there. Finding a good dental floss too and maybe some small, inter-dental brushes will help support the whole oral hygiene process. Now what you need to do is learn how to use them correctly and by getting some advice from a hygienist, you will be well on the way to hygiene heaven. What you are attempting to do here is ensure that you keep your teeth and gums free from the residues of food that can breed bacteria in the mouth. By brushing and flossing after every meal, you are giving yourself the best opportunity of avoiding the pitfalls of disease in your mouth and once you get yourself into a daily routine, your teeth and gums will be forever healthy.
November 22nd, 2011
Good oral health for your child begins with incorporating excellent dental hygiene into your child’s life from an early age. Even before your children’s teeth become visible, their gums should be cleaned with a damp cloth to encourage blood circulation and remove any plaque and food particles. It is important to familiarize your child with the dentist and have a proper check up by your child’s first birthday. With frequent visits to the dentist from a young age, your child will learn not to fear dental check ups and grow to appreciate the importance of oral health. Your dentist will be able to keep track of your child’s teeth and detect any potential problems. Preventative dental care from an early age is crucial to fighting costly dental diseases such as tooth decay. By about two and a half years of age, your children should have all their primary teeth visible. Ask your dentist in London W1 about a fluoride treatment at this stage to harden your children’s tooth enamel. This helps prevent common childhood dental diseases. You may also want to consider dental sealants for children’s new permanent molars. Dental sealants work as an extra shield of protection against cavities. You and your dentist can work together to make certain that your children’s oral health is the best as it can be for them.
August 29th, 2011
Several decades ago it would have been inconceivable that any dentist would advise their patients about the potential benefits of chewing gum. For a long while, chewing gum was one of the enemies of healthy teeth because of the way it exposed those who chewed it to sugar for long periods of time, leaving their teeth at great risk of erosion from plaque. But that has all changed now and dentists are telling patients that chewing gum can be good for their teeth after all.
The biggest change that precipitated this was when chewing gum manufacturers started to remove sugar from their product. At this point, the benefits of chewing gum began to become apparent to all. The first thing to understand about chewing gum benefits is that the process of chewing chewing gum causes the mouth to produce extra saliva. This vital substance is not only crucial in the early digestion of food, it is also a natural defence against plaque.
The fact is that you might not always be in a situation where you can brush your teeth after a meal but you can always pop a lozenge of chewing gum in your mouth and give it a chew. It should be remembered that chewing gum is not an adequate substitute for tooth brushing and flossing but it will help in the short term.
Chewing gums moistens the mouth too so bad bacteria cannot survive there as easily. This, combined with the flavouring of chewing gum, allows breath to become freshened too, making social meetings flow more easily. Have a chat with your dentist in West London if you want to know about the benefits of chewing gum.
June 20th, 2011
Tooth and gum disease are a set of related ailments that can have serious consequences for the health of your mouth. It is best not to neglect looking after your mouth because in doing so you leave yourself open to the pain and indignity of tooth loss, not to mention the prospect of invasive and uncomfortable surgical procedures.
As most people will know, the most basic thing to bear in mind is that as much of the acidic substance known as plaque needs to be removed from your mouth on a daily basis. This can be achieved by effective brushing with a tooth brush that has firm bristles and the use of fluoride tooth paste that helps to strengthen teeth against further attack.
Flossing is a vital part of looking after your teeth too as it helps to guard against dental decay as well as gum disease. You should pull dental floss between the gaps in your teeth after you have brushed. This is because your brush will be unable to reach all the plaque that is in between teeth.
Allowing plaque to flourish lets it attack the enamel on the surface of your teeth and holes will begin to form. Eventually teeth can become not fit for purpose and removal might be the only option left. Gum disease is actually a greater cause of tooth loss though than the decaying of teeth itself. This is because the advanced stages of gum disease leads to the bones which hold your teeth in place becoming inflamed and unable to hold teeth in.
Keeping your West London up to date with what’s going on in your mouth is a vital part of keeping your teeth and gums healthy and free from disease.
May 27th, 2011
Over the years, the knowledge of how our body’s function has increased incredibly; we can identify where problems start and end, and take preventative steps to keep ourselves healthy. Generally, all our bodily parts rely on each other to function smoothly. If you ask any dentist in west London, they will tell you that good health starts with the mouth and what you put in it. Invariably when things go wrong in the mouth though, we are starting to learn that it can radically affect the rest of your main functioning parts. One of the greatest dangers is gum disease which arises from poor diet and bad oral hygiene. This has been proven to have links to diabetes and then heart and kidney disease. Reverse this and you will find that people with diabetes have a greater chance of suffering from gum disease and eventually tooth loss, because they have a lower immunity to fight bacteria and blood problems. Both ways, it’s important to keep control of your glucose levels and diet, and to maintain a high level of oral hygiene through brushing and flossing. Combat any signs of gum disease by getting help from your dentist- having regular appointments with your dentist should be enough to combat this in the first place.
April 14th, 2011
Having a sweet tooth means that it’s very hard to resist when a sugary snack is offered to you. Your cravings will often get the better of you and that is fine as long as they are consumed in moderation. The real problem comes when your predilection for sweet foods means that your teeth and gums are put at risk from decay and disease because of it. What should you do then if you like sweet snacks but are concerned about your oral health?
Have a think about the types of sweet food that you are eating. Some are worse than others when it comes to putting your teeth and gums at risk. It all depends on how long the substances are hanging around on your teeth because the longer they are there for then the more plaque can start attacking your teeth and gums and cause teeth to decay and gums to inflame. Boiled sweets for example are very sticky indeed and can stay for a long time in the crevices of your teeth, particularly your molars at the back of your mouth.
Things like fruit, produce a lot of plaque but they don’t stick to your teeth as much. Think about how you can eat your sweet rewards in a situation when you will be able to brush your teeth and floss afterwards. At the very least you can chew after you have eaten a sweet snack, sugar free chewing gum of course. This will dislodge some of the food particles and plaque and stimulate saliva which naturally helps fight plaque and strengthens the enamel on your teeth. Ask your West London dentist for more help with these matters the very next time you are at the surgery.
March 25th, 2011
For the many people who suffer from diabetes, there are lots of things to worry about. The condition can affect the nerves, kidneys, eyes and heart, to name but a few. But it can also affect the health of your mouth. If you suffer from diabetes it is imperative that you regularly visit your dentist so that your oral health can be monitored.
Diabetes patients are at particular risk of suffering from gum disease. In its most basic form it is known as gingivitis and is quite easy to deal with but must be sorted out so it doesn’t develop into periodontitis that affects the bones holding teeth in place. This is a leading cause of tooth loss, responsible for more lost teeth than dental decay itself.
The reason for this link is the problems that diabetes patients have with controlling the amount of glucose in their blood and this directly affects the gums. It is a further reason for diabetes patients to be rigorous about how well they deal with the blood sugar issue. Excellent daily dental hygiene care can also make a major difference and diabetes patients should brush and floss as directed just like every one else.
Keeping up the routine of visiting your dentist every six months is vital for everyone so that your mouth can be examined by a trained expert and any potentially nasty conditions can be dealt with in their infancy before they get any worse. This is especially so for diabetes sufferers given that they can easily develop gum disease. If you suffer from the condition and want more information, talk to your West London dentist today and he or she will be able to advise you about how to proceed.
July 17th, 2010
It is said that the eyes are the gateway to the soul. A lovely poetic metaphor I’m sure you’ll agree but little more than that. What is fact, however, is that the oral cavity is the gateway to the rest of the body. All of our nourishment, both food and liquid, enters through the mouth, as well as it being the cavity for breathing. So suffice to say, it is very important that we look after our mouths and keep them healthy.
It is also true that if our mouths are unwell it can really affect the body and the reverse is also true. Symptoms in the oral cavity are often the first sign that there is a wider health issue going on. This is why the GP will always examine your mouth as one of the first standard procedures. We all know the wooden stick on the tongue with the accompanying ‘Say aaagghhh’.
Therefore, keeping your mouth healthy and having it regularly examined for problems could be of paramount importance to your general health. This is why it is so important to go to your central London dentist every six months for a check up. They can examine the state of your teeth and gums, addressing any problems, as well as checking for oral cancer and a list of other health problems that manifest themselves in your mouth.
For example, patients who are experiencing heart problems could also be suffering from gum disease. Recent studies have intrinsically linked the two and found that gum disease could be a major contributing factor to many forms of heart disease. By preventing gum disease in its early stages, you could be improving your chances of avoiding heart disease and staying healthy for longer. Make a check up appointment today, there is nothing to lose and plenty to gain.
April 9th, 2010
Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK suffer from diabetes. It is a problem that is becoming worse because of the poor nature of many people’s diets and alcohol consumption. There are many complications with diabetes including heart and kidney problems but one of the least well-known is how it can affect your gums and teeth.
It has also recently emerged that the problem may well be a two-way street. Not only are people with diabetes at a greater risk of gum disease but people with gum disease are more likely to start suffering from diabetes. Serious gum disease has the potential to affect blood glucose levels which will increase the risk of contracting diabetes.
People with diabetes are at a greater risk of gum disease because a weakened immune system makes them more susceptible to infection and disease. Bacteria that builds up in the mouth cannot be as easily removed if you are suffering from diabetes. It is recommended that if you have diabetes you should be making very regular visits to your West London dentist. The dentist will be able to closely monitor your gums for the first sign of disease and infection. Not only will this protect your gums but it will help to keep your teeth and mouth healthy and also interrupt the link between gum disease and heart disease. Controlling gum disease will also help you to deal more effectively with your diabetes by reducing the amount of infection in the body. Your dentist will also be able to give you wider health information about what to do and avoid, to help keep your diabetes under control.
October 23rd, 2009
Fear of the dentist is one of our most common fears. According to a recent study, it is a fear shared by more than 90 per cent of us. For most of that 90 per cent it is a fear that can be overcome by the knowledge that visiting a dentist is crucial for the maintenance of good oral health, and that by missing appointments it will only lead to future dental problems and further dental appointments. This kind of fear is known as dental anxiety and is usually fairly easily overcome. For some patients however, their fear is much greater to the extent that they are willing to sacrifice their dental health for the sake of fear. This more irrational fear of the dentist is commonly known as dental phobia. Patients who suffer from dental phobia frequently suffer from dental problems such as tooth decay, which will eventually require them to visit the dentist.
People’s fear of the dentist is usually sparked by one of several factors. An unpleasant childhood experience of the dentist can lead to a lifetime of fear. Others are embarrassed by the state of their teeth. Some patients simply describe a feeling of lack of control or vulnerability when in the dentist’s chair. Whatever the cause for the phobia, running away from your fears is never the answer and in most cases only succeeds in further compounding the problem.
Dental phobias are very real to the sufferers but they are not insurmountable. Very often just talking through your fears with the dentist will be enough reassurance. After all, you are unlikely to be their first nervous patient. They will also have been specially trained to deal with nervous patients. Other techniques to help you relax include breathing exercises or self-hypnosis. Patients who can maintain a level of trance like calm can often visit the dentist with little or no anxiety. The use of lavender oil can also help to calm the patient’s nerves before an appointment.
It is also worthwhile remembering that dentistry has made large strides in the last twenty years. Today’s dental practices resemble health spas more than hospitals. Most procedures can now be carried out with the minimum of discomfort and pain caused to the patient and can now be carried out in a fraction of the time it used to take, reducing the time you will need to spend in the chair.
If you suffer from dental anxiety or dental phobia, talk to your London W1 dentist before your appointment. They will be able to reassure you and offer advice on how to stay calm and relaxed throughout the appointment.
