Oral Hygiene
At “Miranda Family Dentist”, we believe that oral hygiene is a critical element of any dental treatment. Healthy teeth and gums not only make you look and feel good but also play an essential part in your overall well-being and vitality.
Expensive and time consuming invasive dental treatments are usually a direct result of lack of proper oral hygiene and preventative care. Most dental treatments will fail overtime if good oral hygiene is not maintained. At Miranda Family Dentist of Sutherland Shire, we focus on preventative care, good oral hygiene to avoid more invasive treatments later.
As a part of good oral care routine we recommend
- Brushing twice daily
- Flossing after every meal
- Biannual dental visits
It is a well-known fact that prevention is better than cure so, we recommend these simple guidelines to help you achieve good oral hygiene and avoid expensive, time consuming major dental work.
Brushing Tips:
Brush twice with a recommended tooth paste everyday preferably with a soft/ultra-soft tooth brush.
We recommend the following method to help maintain your dental health and remove plaque:
- Move the brush in up and down strokes several times. An alternate technique is to move brush in short, semi-circle strokes.
- Brush the outer surfaces of each tooth, top and bottom, keeping the bristles angled against your gum.
- Use the same method on the inside surfaces of all the teeth, using short up and down strokes. This might need a bit of getting used to as it is difficult to achieve initially.
- Clean the inside surfaces of the front teeth by tilting the brush vertically and make several gentle up and down strokes with the front part of the brush.
- You should not forget your tongue, brushing it will help freshen your breath and clean your mouth by removing bacteria.
Basic Flossing Tips:
An essential part of your routine, flossing removes plaque from between the teeth, areas where gum disease can begin. Please follow the method below.
- Wind roughly 20cm of floss around middle fingers of each hand. Hold each end of the floss between your thumbs and index fingers, leaving about 2cm to 3cm of length in between. You should use your thumbs to direct the floss between your upper teeth.
- Keeping the length of floss nice and firm between fingers, use index fingers to direct the floss between the lower teeth.
- Gently guide the floss between the teeth by using a zigzag motion. Use a smooth and flowing motion around each side of the tooth.
Dental Check-up and Cleans:
Regular biannual dental check-up helps monitor health of gums, teeth and other dental related problems discussed below.
The most common gum diseases are Gingivitis and Periodontitis.
Gingivitis is an inflammation of gums and is easily reversible. It is caused by bacteria and by-products irritating the gums, causing redness, bleeding, swelling and pain. Gingivitis causes bad breath and can be treated with a professional dental clean to remove the plaque and tartar from the tooth surface.
If left untreated, gingivitis can progress to periodontitis. Periodontitis is a more chronic condition and occurs when bacteria damages the bone and ligaments below the gum. If left untreated it can cause tooth mobility and finally tooth loss. Periodontitis may need deep professional clean to remove debris from deeper within the gums, in severe cases patients are referred to a gum specialist (Periodontist) for further treatment.
The most common tooth problem is decay.
Tooth decay is caused by bacteria which damages the mineral content of the tooth. Depending on the extent of damage caused by bacteria the range of treatment options may vary from a simple filling to much more complex, invasive root canal treatment or even removal of tooth followed by replacement.
Other dental problems include cracked teeth, worn out/flat teeth, crooked or crowded teeth, discoloured teeth, missing teeth.
Headaches, migraines, sinus pain, sleep apnea, snoring are also associated with teeth and habits related to teeth.