Monday 30 September 2019
Tuesday 21 May 2019
How to have healthy teeth without visiting a dentist
Healthy Teeth Without A Dentist
How to have healthy teeth without visiting a dentist may seem quite a peculiar statement coming from a dentist because most people know that it's necessary to visit the dentist if you do want your teeth to last you a lifetime.
However we are looking at a particular set of circumstances
or situations. This may be where you may not be able to go to a dentist over a
period of Time For Reasons such as not being able to afford or you are going to
be away and you only want to go and see your regular dentist on your return.
So although I am not advocating that you do not go and see
your dentist there may be however circumstances where you may not be able to
and in that case you need to be able to look after your mouth as well as you
can until you can get to see your dentist.
The reason why I am not advocating that you do not go and
see your dentist is that one of the most important reasons to have a dental
check-up is so that the dentist can check your mouth and throat for any signs
of mouth cancer or any precancerous mouth lesions. A precancerous
lesion is one that is not cancer yet however it has an increased chance of
becoming cancer in the future sometime.
Mouth and throat cancer kills a lot of patients every year and nearly
all of these would have been avoided if a patient at simply gone to the dentist
every six months to make sure that nothing sinister or cancerous is going on.
The other obvious reason as to why you should see your
dentist is so that a dentist can spot early problems early on and you will be
totally own unaware of these problems. One of these problems is decay or dental
caries as it is known. A dentist has many years of training and one of the
stages of their training is to be able to early detect dental decay by looking
at your teeth and carrying out other tests such as taking x-rays. It is important to detect decay in its
early stages because in its early detect stages if it is detected then
treatment can be a lot more simpler and a lot more quicker and you are more
likely to keep your teeth for life. If I ever the Decay has caused a lot of
damage and the decay in this latter stages then you are more at risk of losing
the tooth or having extensive treatment which may not always work.
Likewise, gum
disease in the early stages is fairly painless and a lot of damage
can occur in the stages so that when the gum disease has become more extensive,
then you may start to get gum abscesses or your teeth get loose. By the time
you do get gum abscesses or your teeth get loose, then usually it is too late
to do anything.
Aside from mouth cancer, Decay and gum disease tooth wear is
a important part of what dentists look at and diagnose and treat these days.
Tooth where is where your teeth have become weaker because you maybe grinding
your teeth or they are wearing away for other reasons. Teeth wear away due to
clenching or grinding your teeth especially at night but also the use of fizzy drinks if consumed to excess, causes
tooth wear. The tooth wear from fizzy drinks is caused by the acid in the
drinks that can wear away the enamel off your teeth. Even if the fizzy drink is
sugar-free, it is still acidic and it is the acid which causes the damage. The
damage won't just occur by having one can of or one bottle of fizzy drink, it
is due to a continuous use of fizzy drinks over many weeks and months.
In the view of what has been said above, let's look at how
you can have healthy teeth without visiting the dentist. We are going to be
discussing the best times to brush your teeth and the importance of these sugar
intake frequency. In addition, we are going to look at the use of a particular
chemical to combat gum disease and the best way to reduce sensitivity from your
teeth. Finally, if you do get an actual dental problem occurring, then what
should you do in the circumstances.
When is the last time you actually stood in front of a
mirror and carefully looked at your teeth, your gums and the general condition
of your mouth including looking at your tongue? Looking at your tongue is
important because it will be the most common place where you will likely to
suffer from mouth cancer. Mouth cancer can indeed occur anywhere but the tongue
is the most frequent place and it is the side and underneath the tongue which
are the most common areas. The way you would check your tongue is to stick your
tongue out as far as possible and look at the front surface in the mirror. It
should be a fairly uniform pink colour although some people do have a tendency
to get a white coating on their tongue. You are also looking out for any
particular red patches or ulceration on your tongue. The colour of the tongue
should be fairly even but if there are any uneven patches of colour or lumps or
ulcers. You should make a note of this. Once you have looked at the front
surface of the tongue, then you should carefully examine the and right edges of
the tongue. This is often done best by getting hold of your tongue with a piece
of tissue and drawing it out so you can have a look at the sides but left and
right. Finally, you need to look at very very carefully, underneath the tongue.
Once you do this on the regular basis, you will soon get to realise what the
normal appearance of a tongue is and if something is sinister you will be able
to identify it. As well as having a good observation in a mirror, you must do
this in very good lighting conditions. The best foot the best thing for this is
to use a pen torch or one of those bright LED torches.
The next thing you can look at in the mirror is the condition of your teeth. You
will notice that when you have a check-up at the dentist, the dentist reads out
numbers and looks at each particular tooth in turn. So you could start off
doing the same as well. For example, you can start looking at your front tooth
at the top by lifting your lip up and examining it very carefully. You are
looking to see if there are any fillings and if those fillings look
discoloured. In particular, is there any discoloured line around the edges of
the filling. You are also looking to see if there are any black or dark marks
anywhere on the front tooth. In addition you are looking to see if a particular
tooth is generally more discoloured than the adjacent tooth. A discoloured
tooth on its own is usually indicative of trauma. This means, that at some point
the nerve of the tooth may have been damaged and therefore it needs addressing
at the dentist as soon as possible. In addition to the color, you are also
looking to see if there are any cracks or chipping anywhere on your tooth that
you may notice.
This is the general view of looking at your front tooth and
then you would go on to the next one and the next one and the next one and so
on until you have covered your front teeth. You would then do the same with
your lower front teeth. With the lower front teeth, if you do have a small mouth mirror, then you can also examine
the back inside surface of your teeth as well. Lower teeth commonly on the
inside surface, accumulate a coating called tartar. This is the caked on stuff on the back
of your teeth which causes gum disease. Once you have examined the front teeth
then you can start examining the back teeth. Once again you have a Systematic
manner of doing this so you'll get used to it quite quickly. You would first
look at the outside surface of the tooth, the biting surface and finally any
other surfaces that you can see easily.
You may sometimes have to move your tongue around in order to do this.
Whilst looking at your mouth including your teeth and gums,
if you notice anything unusual, you should make a note of it either on your
phone or on a piece of paper which you should have handy. This is because it is
easy to forget especially if you notice several things. Once you get used to
this routine regularly, it becomes automatic and you will become better at
spotting any changes that may be occurring. Another top tip is that to examine
your gums, the best way is to move your lip out as much as you can and examine
the immediate area around the neck of the tooth itself. You are looking out for
any ulcers or any swelling or any redness. Healthy gum is a pinky colour and
the gums are firm as opposed to infected gums which will be red, swollen and
may even look red due to the appearance of blood. You are obviously not going
to diagnose gum disease yourself however the object of looking at your gums is
to make a note and bring you to alert of any problems that may be occurring.
There is a rule in dental oral health called the 5-2 rule. So what is the 5-2 rule?
One of the most important things that you can do to increase
the longevity of your teeth and gums is brushing and your sugar intake. So, in
the 5-2 rule, the number 2 stands for brushing your teeth twice a day and the 5
stands for no more than 5 daily exposures to Sugar. Brushing twice a day means
that you keep your teeth in an optimal condition by removing the plaque and
bacteria regularly. It is this plaque which causes Decay and gum disease and
problems around your fillings. The 5-day sugar intake means that you should not
be having more than 5 sugar exposures in any one day. Unfortunately, due to the
amount of processed food, virtually everything has to be assumed to contain
some sugar. Did you know that the most common source of sugar is not the open
sugar in a packet but hidden. There are many foods that you never would have
thought would have sugar in it such as tomato ketchup, pickled
onions, salsas and even cereals that appear to be healthy such as bran flakes.
In addition, there are the obvious candidates as well such as yoghurt, fizzy
drinks, orange drinks and fruit. So it's probably safe and wise to assume that
is going to be in virtually everything.
Lets again look at the idea of the 5 dietary exposures. If
you have breakfast at 8 in the morning and then you follow up with a snack at 9
in the morning, that will be down as two exposures. Alternatively, and
conversely, if you have your main evening meal at 7 and that is immediately
followed by a pudding, then that is still only classified as one exposure.
However, a bedtime snack a few hours later will then count as another exposure.
You must also not forget to include drinks in the exposures
unless they obviously do not contain any sugar whatsoever.
Let's look at brushing twice a day in a little bit more
detail however we have another link on the website which explains how to choose
a toothbrush, the brushing technique itself and which toothpastes and
mouthwashes are the best. Although two minutes of brushing time is a minimum,
more than half of everyone who brushes their teeth, do not even brush them for
a full 2 minutes. You should actually time yourself brushing for 2 minutes and
you will be so surprised at how long brushing for 2 minutes actually is. For
this, it is best to use a timer on your mobile phone or you can also get an egg
timer. After you have brushed your teeth for a full 2 minutes or more, the next
thing you need to do is something called an interdental clean. Interdental
means the gaps between teeth which are next to each other. In simple terms,
these are the surfaces where you place floss through. Interdental places are
important because like all tooth surfaces they will collect bacteria and dental
plaque. A toothbrush bristle will never get in between the teeth and hence
the reason for using an interdental aid.
Unfortunately most people do not use interdental aids as part of their brushing
routine. Usually, the reason why people do not use interdental aids as part of
their cleaning regime, is that they have never been shown or they are unaware
of them. It is usually best to ask your dentist to show you which interdental
it will be best for your teeth and how this is best accomplished. This website
has links to how you can use interdental aids such as interdental brushes, interdental sticks, interdental plastic
sticks, dental floss and dental tape. The advantages and disadvantages
of all these is explained in detail by following the link onto this website.
I often get asked the question, which is better, brushing in the morning or brushing at night-time?
Let's look at brushing in the morning first. Straight away,
the advantage of brushing your teeth in the morning is to give you a fresh
feeling and to get rid of any bad breath. The next question therefore is, are
you going to brush in the morning before your breakfast or are you going to
brush in the morning after you have had your breakfast?
Brushing your teeth in the morning before breakfast makes
sense because you can incorporate this into your daily washing-up routine to
get ready for the day. However, once you have had your breakfast afterwards,
there will be lots of bits that remain on and in between your teeth. These bits
are going to stay there for the rest of the day and cause the buildup of plaque,
bacteria and the potential for tooth decay and gum disease. So in conclusion,
it is best to brush after your breakfast.
What about brushing at night-time?
Brushing your teeth at night-time is logical because after
you have brushed your teeth as the last thing you do before going to sleep,
your teeth are then bacteria free for the next 8 hours you are sleeping. One of
the reasons why people do not brush their teeth at night-time is simply because
by the end of the day, they get too tired. Even though you are tired, there is
always the risk that you are not going to brush your teeth as well as you could
because you will do it in a rushed and hurried fashion.
Brushing your teeth at night time, in conclusion, is
undoubtedly better than brushing your teeth only in the morning. The best times
to actually brush your teeth are as following.
●
Brush your teeth after breakfast.
●
Brush your teeth after having a snack or meal during
the day. This means that if you are not at home, you need to pack a toothbrush
and toothpaste with you.
●
Brushing your teeth thoroughly just before bedtime and
when you are not going to have any other snacks or drinks afterwards before
going to bed.
Can you become a DIY dentist?
Have you heard of disclosing tablets to identify plaque and
bacteria growing on your teeth?
If you go to the supermarket or the chemist, you can ask for
disclosing tablets to identify plaque and
bacteria in your mouth. They usually come in packs of 4 or 8 tablets. common
colours are either red or blue. When you are at home, and just before you are
about to brush your teeth, you should try using a disclosing tablet in your
mouth as follows:
- Firstly, rinse your mouth
out with water to make sure there is no obvious food debris hanging
around.
- Then take the tablet out
of its packaging, and put it in your mouth.
- You then for the next 30
seconds chew the tablet until it becomes a liquid in your mouth. This
liquid is then swished around forcibly around your mouth but you are not
supposed to swallow any of it. If you do accidentally swallow some of the
disclosing liquid, it is quite harmless and don't worry about it.
- The disclosing liquid in
your mouth is then spat out into the sink.
- You will then need a
mirror to look into. Initially, you will get quite a shock because all
your tongue and gums will become a bright red or blue colour.
However, the important areas to focus on is the surface of
your teeth themselves. If there is no bacteria or plaque on your teeth, the
disclosing chemical will not stick onto the surface of your teeth and your
tooth and enamel will look white as normal. However, if there is bacteria or
plaque on the surface of your teeth, this area on your teeth surface will
become stained by the disclosing tablet. You now have a general idea which
teeth are most affected by the buildup of bacteria and plaque in your mouth.
These areas are usually the areas near fillings, around the neck of the tooth
at the gum line and in between your teeth. You now start brushing your teeth as
you normally do.
Once you have brushed your teeth thoroughly and spat out all
the toothpaste, you then re-examine your teeth in the mirror again. This time you
should notice that the discoloured areas on teeth are much less as you have
removed the bad plaque and bacteria from your teeth. However, on closer
inspection, you will still notice plaque building up on certain key areas.
These areas are around the gum line,
around any fillings you have, and where the teeth meet each other. These areas are called interdental areas or
contact points between teeth. You now need to have another go at removing these
areas where plaque was missed with your initial toothbrushing. This may mean
that you need to brush your teeth again paying particular attention to these
areas. It will also mean that you will need to use interdental aids such as
interdental brushes, interdental sticks, dental floss and dental tape.
Once you have spent time doing this, you will automatically
notice that your mouth feels as clean as it has ever been. In addition, you
will have been alerted to which areas of your mouth you need to concentrate
more on, in the future. As you can see, disclosing tablets are extremely useful
and they are very cheap for the potential benefits you get from them.
How many times should you be eating sugary snacks, sweets or biscuits during the day?
As discussed above, if you are having 3 meals a day, you are
already exposing your teeth to 3 out of the 5 permitted sugar exposures that
are discussed above. This means that now you only have a very small leeway to
have further sugary exposures during the day. Once you exceed this number, you
are increasingly likely to develop Decay and fillings which may start to leak.
However, although this may seem very restrictive, you can
actually use this 5-2 rule to your advantage sometimes. For example, let's say
you are about to have a bag of sweets. A bag of sweets, can only be counted as
one exposure if you eat the sweets within a fairly short time, And all in one
go. The worst thing to do, is to munch on the sweets over a few hours. This
will mean that you are bathing your teeth in plaque producing acidic conditions
all day and this is very detrimental to your teeth.
What if you notice your gums bleed?
Firstly you need to identify where the bleeding is coming
from. The easy way to verify this is by brushing a few teeth on one side at a
time, then spitting out and seeing if there is any blood within the toothpaste.
Then you do the same with another section for example three lower teeth and you
repeat by spitting it out and noting if there is any additional blood in the
toothpaste. Bleeding gums are an obvious sign that you have gum disease. There
are two basic types of gum disease. You can have gingivitis or you can have the
more serious periodontitis. You cannot tell as a patient if you have one or the
other.
There is a chemical called chlorhexidine which will help you
if you suspect you have gum disease. Chlorhexidine is found in mouthwashes. It
is not found in every single mouthwash so you have to look to see which
mouthwash does contain chlorhexidine. Usually, the concentration of
chlorhexidine is 0.2%. The mouthwash is on the link separately on this website
under mouthwash
reviews.
Chlorhexidine works by inhibiting the formation of bacterial
plaque on your teeth and gums. It does this, by binding onto the hard and soft
tissues in your mouth. When chlorhexidine binds onto hard and soft tissues in
your mouth, it subsequently prevents the attachment of bacterial plaque in your
mouth. It is therefore only useful to prevent new plaque from forming. If you
already have plaque on your teeth, the chlorhexidine will not have any useful
effect. The best time therefore to use chlorhexidine containing mouthwash is immediately
after you have brushed your teeth as thoroughly as possible. Chlorhexidine,
however does have disadvantages. One disadvantage is its taste and aftertaste.
The initial taste is quite strong but you will get an aftertaste which
interferes with eating and drinking. The other drawback of chlorhexidine is
that it will stain your teeth. One way to reduce the staining, is to spit out
the toothpaste as much as you can and then put the mouthwash in your mouth. You
can also dilute the mouthwash by 50% and it will still retain nearly all of its
effectiveness. By diluting the mouthwash, you will reduce the amount of
staining possible. This staining is not permanent but you will need to go back
to a dentist, who will remove the staining professionally by scaling.
Another home remedy is the use of a sensitive type of
toothpaste. A sensitive toothpaste, will work by brushing in
the same way as you do with your normal regular toothpaste. And additional tip
here is to spit out the toothpaste, but not to rinse out with water afterwards.
This means that the toothpaste retains itself in your mouth and carries on
working to reduce the sensitivity that you may be experiencing. Sensitive
toothpastes are mainly useful for mild sensitivity. Sensitivity, that is more
than mild, is best dealt with at a dentist. Another tip to using sensitive type
of toothpastes is the following: rub a
little bit of the toothpaste on to a particular sensitive area of your tooth
and just leave it there.
At the chemist you may have seen emergency DIY dental kits. There are various ones
available and they have things in them like a mouth mirror, a probe, maybe a
little spatula, temporary filling material for crowns or fillings. The temporary filling materials can be messy and
difficult to use but I suppose it's better than nothing. You could also find
clove oil at a chemist or a health food shop. Clove oil has a property in that it can numb
the pain up that you may be experiencing. You can put clove oil into a cavity
by soaking a small cotton wool bud, dipping it into the clove oil and then
putting it where the tooth is painful. This is obviously not in place of proper
dentistry but as an emergency measure to help alleviate some of the pain. You
may or may not also need to use additional painkillers if you are having pain.
It's ok normally to take paracetamol and ibuprofen. You can take both of them
in combination because it is known that if you take both of them in
combination, this seems to work better than either of them on their own. Don't
worry about getting any particular brand of ibuprofen or paracetamol. All
ibuprofen is the same and just therefore get the cheapest. The market Leader is
Nurofen but you do not have to use this as it
will not work any better than any other Brand and it will probably be the most
expensive Anyway.
So the above is a quick summary of how you can have healthy
teeth without going to the dentist and how you can maximize your chances of
reducing any dental problems that may occur.
Friday 1 February 2019
Monday 10 December 2018
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