‘Light Touch’ Dental Care

Our Burton dentists suggest a few additional ways to help keep your teeth and gums healthy.

The basics of good oral health care are well known. Avoid too much sugar, brush your teeth regularly with a fluoride toothpaste, floss between your teeth and see the dentist every six months for a check up. With the exception of flossing, which only around one in five of us do in the UK, most people will do the rest. An increase in the number of people flossing would make a big difference to the nation’s oral health too, so please take note.

For today’s blog, we will presume that all of our patients do all of the above. There are, however,  a few little ‘extras’ that patients of the SG Dental and Implant Centre might want to consider as well. Most of these are very easy and just require a little effort to get into the habit of doing. Let us take a look then.

Dental hygienist visits

We decided to include this in this section despite it being a ‘heavier’ touch. The fact is that too many people see this as being something unimportant or just an extra cost. The reality though is that seeing your hygienist every six months means that you have a greatly improved chance of avoiding gum disease and having a much healthier and cleaner mouth. If you don’t believe us, try an appointment for yourself and see. We think that after going once or twice, you will continue to do so.

More water

There are two parts to this one. Firstly, water is the best drink for both our teeth and our general health. Try to drink more water and less fizzy drinks, juices etc. This will quench your thirst in a much more tooth friendly way. The second reason for drinking more water is that it will help you to stay hydrated and avoid a dry mouth. This means that bacteria in your mouth, and food particles too, will be washed away more regularly and help to keep your mouth healthy.

Eating regular meals

Increasingly, in the west, we tend to snack throughout the day, sometimes instead and sometimes in addition to our regular meals. Not only is this likely to have contributed to obesity and diabetes in the UK, but is also bad for our teeth. Even if the snacks are reasonably healthy, the reality is that the enamel on our teeth softens when we eat, and continually snacking will not allow it time to harden again, putting it at more risk of damage. Try to stick to regular meal times as much as you can.

Don’t brush too soon after eating

Related to the above, if you brush your teeth too soon after eating, the enamel on your teeth will be worn away more quickly. This means that not only will your teeth be at a higher risk of tooth decay but you might also experience potentially painful sensitive teeth too. Have a break of half an hour or a little more after eating before you brush your teeth.

Say ‘cheese’

A little tip for when you finish a meal. Try eating a small amount of cheese to finish the meal. This is an excellent way to rebalance the acidity in your mouth and help to reduce its effect on your tooth enamel.

Use a straw when drinking

You don’t need to use a straw if you drink water, but especially if you drink any drinks that are high in sugar, using a straw helps more of the liquid avoid the surfaces of your teeth. As these drinks are sometimes high in sugar and acids, this is a small but very beneficial thing to do to help keep your teeth healthy and strong.

Breath through your nose

This might be difficult during sports, for example, as you need to get enough air into your lungs to keep going. Most of the time though, we can breathe through our nose, and ‘mouth breathing’ is often just a habit. The problem with breathing through the mouth is that our mouths become dry more easily. When this happens, bacteria start to increase, some of which can contribute to gum disease so please try to breathe through your nose as much as possible.

Chew sugar free gum

Chewing sugar free gum is a great way to stimulate saliva flow and help to wash away bacteria and food debris as well as freshening your breath. This shouldn’t replace brushing and flossing of course, but is a useful ‘additional extra’. We don’t expect you to carry all of these out all of the time, but with a little thought and practice, these small changes can really make a difference to the overall oral health of our Burton patients so please so try to consider these throughout the coming days and try to establish them into your daily routine where possible.

If you would like to see the hygienist at SG Dental and Implant Centre why not call us today on 01283 845345 to arrange an appointment.