The healthy teeth partnership

Summer 2023

At a time when most households are feeling the squeeze, we thought now would be good to remind you about the importance of maintaining great dental care between visits.

Visiting us as often as recommended is vital for helping us spot any potential issues before they become painful or more expensive to treat. But it is the all-important partnership between our dentist, hygienist and the care you give your teeth at home that will help keep them healthy for life.

As we have been highlighting in National Smile Month (May 15 to June 15), the four key messages for better oral health are:

1. Brush your teeth for two minutes, last thing at night and at one other time during the day, with a fluoride toothpaste.

2. Clean between your teeth every day.

3. Cut down how much and how often you have sugary foods and drinks.

4. Visit your dentist regularly.

Brushing at bedtime is important because the fluoride in our toothpaste will continue to protect our teeth while we sleep.

Remember: spit don’t rinse! Rinsing after toothbrushing washes away the fluoride protection.

Use floss or interdental brushes before toothbrushing to remove any plaque between your teeth (more on page 2).

Our dental and hygiene team can suggest the right sized interdental brushes for your mouth, as well as providing dietary advice, such as eating sugar in one sitting rather than throughout the day, not drinking sugary drinks, including fruit juices – or using a straw if you do, to keep the sugar away from your teeth.

Joining a monthly dental health plan can help spread the cost of essential dental and hygiene care and save you money. Please ask us for details!

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Spotlight: top tips for great oral health

A healthy smile doesn’t only benefit our mouth, it also helps us achieve better physical health and mental wellbeing.

Daily brushing is important because it removes plaque. If plaque isn’t removed, it continues to build up, feeding on the bits of food left behind and causing tooth decay and gum disease, the biggest causes of tooth loss.

Interdental brushing really works!

The action of cleaning in between our teeth, using interdental brushing, dental floss or water or air flossers, loosens bacteria and food debris from between our teeth. This allows brushing to be much more successful at removing plaque. Studies show that those of us who interdentally clean before brushing are left with a much cleaner mouth than those who did it afterwards.

Beware of snacking

What we eat can have a big influence on our oral health. Snacking every now and again may seem harmless but can actually do more damage than we think, particularly if we are having sugary foods and drinks.

It’s far better for our teeth and general health if we eat three meals a day instead of having snacks. Try and maintain a healthy balanced diet and for our teeth it’s important to avoid sugar when we can.

Try a fluoride mouthwash

Using a fluoride mouthwash can help clear the mouth of debris and stop plaque from building up on our gums, in between our teeth, and on the surface of our teeth in between brushing.

Mouthwash can help to freshen our breath by killing the bacteria associated with bad breath.

Use a fluoride mouthwash daily as a supplement to brushing twice daily, but not as a replacement.

If you, or someone you know, has got into some bad habits, it’s never too late to make a positive change and improve your oral health. If you’d like some guidance or advice, just ask.

Gum disease and diabetes are linked

In recent years, poor oral health, specifically gum disease, has been linked with a number of general health conditions such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes, giving birth to a premature or low-birth-weight baby and respiratory (lung) disease, says the Oral Health Foundation.

The early signs of gum disease are bleeding gums when brushing, sore, red or inflamed gums, bad smells and bad tastes, loose or drifting teeth and receding gums.

People with diabetes are more likely to have gum disease than people without it.

This is probably because diabetics are more likely to get infections in general. People who do not know they have diabetes, or whose diabetes is not under control, are especially at risk.

If you do have diabetes it is important that any gum disease is diagnosed, because it can increase your blood sugar. This would put you at risk of diabetic complications.

Also, if you are diabetic, you may find that you heal more slowly. If you have a problem with your gums, or have problems after visits to your dentist, discuss this with our dental team before you have any treatment.

New research has also shown that you are more likely to develop diabetes if you have gum disease. And if you have diabetes, you have an increased risk of losing teeth.

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