Oral Hygiene - Dentistry in Woodbury
Dentist Serving St. Paul, Woodbury, Minneapolis, Hudson, Lake Elmo, Stillwater, Minnesota
Keeping your mouth healthy – free from decay and periodontal disease – is a general dentistry maintenance issue. But why do you care if your mouth is healthy?
- The public’s perception of you. If your breath is bad, your teeth look fuzzy, your gums are an angry red instead of a pleasant pink, or maybe you have a big hole in one of your teeth – people’s impression of you might not be as favorable as you want it to be. People might physically back away from you if your breath is bad. If you are interviewing for a job you want to make the best impression you can, and a healthy looking smile makes you look confident and professional. You might even want to get your teeth whitened. It’s said that you only get one chance to make a first impression – make it a great one! It doesn’t matter if you’re meeting someone new for the first time, or if you are in an interview or meeting, you want that impression to be a favorable one
- Pain. No one wants a toothache. When teeth and periodontal disease are advanced enough to hurt, you are actually in danger of losing teeth. At the very least a toothache is an emergency trip to the dentist. It is better to avoid the inconvenience, time, expense, and possible antibiotic prescription with daily maintenance.
- The systemic link. There is a direct link between gum disease and many systemic diseases including heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and more. The shin bone truly is connected to the thigh bone, just as the song says. The mouth is also connected to the rest of the body. Diseases can become more acute, or more difficult to treat because of the bacteria in your mouth. Healthy gums make for a healthier body.
- Money. It’s cheaper to maintain a healthy mouth than it is to deal with gum disease, and decay.
So what do you need to do?
Brush your teeth. Our Woodbury, Minnesota Dentist recommends that you brush at least two times a day, after breakfast, and just before bed. Use a soft toothbrush, fluoridated toothpaste, and brush for at least two minutes. The new power toothbrushes are a great aid in removing plaque from your teeth.
If you are using a manual toothbrush, scrub the top chewing surfaces of the teeth to get the toothpaste foamed up, and that portion of the teeth cleaned. Then aim the bristles at the gum line and clean the gum line with a small circular motion. (The bacteria that cause gum disease hide below the gum line.) After about five seconds of the small circular motion, brush away from the gumline five to ten times to clean the side of the teeth. Pick the brush up and move to the next section.
If you are using an electric toothbrush, follow the directions that they give. If you have any questions, bring the brush in to your hygienist, and she (or he) will help you with the proper technique. I love the electric brushes, but if you use the wrong technique, you might not get your teeth as clean as you want them to be.
Floss your teeth. Floss once a day. In a perfect world, just before bed is best. When we go to sleep the saliva flow comes to a near stop, and saliva actually helps neutralize the ph in your mouth, which helps to prevent decay. So if you are prone to decay, bedtime is the best time to floss. For purposes of preventing gum or periodontal disease, flossing should be done once every 24 hours. If that is your main concern, and you are not prone to decay, it doesn’t matter what time of day you floss, just floss.
To use floss from the roll, our dentist recommends you pull off about 18-24 inches from the roll. Wrap the floss around the middle finger of one hand, leaving just enough to wrap around the middle finger of the other hand to anchor it. Leave about six inches of floss between the fingers and you can then use your index fingers or your thumbs to guide the floss between your teeth. You can move the floss from one hand to the next as you need a clean piece of floss. Start in one corner of your mouth and work your around. Gently saw back and forth to get the floss through the contact (the point where the teeth touch) then pull the floss toward the front tooth in a c shape and slide up and down three to five times. Go up and over the gum tissue, then push the floss toward the back tooth in a c shape and slide it up and down three to five times. Pull it back out through the contact and move on to the next tooth.
Many people feel they don’t have the dexterity to floss, their fingers are too big to get to the back of their mouth, or they just don’t like to put their hands in their mouth. The pre-strung floss picks are an option.
There are other tools our dentistry team recommends to help clean in between your teeth. Sonicare has come out with AirFloss. It uses a small amount of liquid and air to blast the bacteria and debris from between the teeth. Water Piks are also an option to help clean in between the teeth and down below the gum line. They use water to flush out bacteria and debris. There are small proxy brushes on the market that will fit in between the teeth, and stimudents can also be used in some cases.
Mouthwash. The antibacterial mouthwashes will help kill some of the bacteria in your mouth and help decrease the amount of plaque on your teeth. Plaque is a film of bacteria on the surface of your teeth. Just like a bad penny, you brush it off, and eight hours later it’s back. The rinses will help, but you still need to brush and floss.
Schedule time to brush in the morning, and to brush and floss at night. You will have a much healthier and happier mouth.
Our Woodbury dentist, Dr. Nippoldt, and his experienced dentistry team serve general , cosmetic and periodontal patients in Minnesota and Wisconsin, including St. Paul, Minneapolis and Woodbury, MN, and Hudson, WI, and the surrounding areas. Please call 651-739-8573 or email Centre for Distinctive Dentistry today for a general dentistry appointment.
