Everything You Need to Know About Cavities – Part I
The pain definitely tells us when we have cavities, but few of us understand why we get them. You likely know that poor dental hygiene causes cavities, but do you understand why not brushing or flossing causes cavities?
In order to understand all that’s involved in the making of a cavity, you’ve got to first understand the key players. Those players include saliva, pellicle, plaque and calculus and each resides in the mouth.
Saliva is really important when it comes to protecting teeth and keeping our mouths healthy. Saliva keeps teeth, gums and other tissues inside the mouth lubricated and moist. Saliva helps break food down while eating, and afterwards it washes away some of the bits of food that get stuck on teeth.
Saliva also can neutralize acids which lowers the amount present in the mouth. Interestingly, it can even help protect us against certain viruses and bacteria.
If you’ve ever noticed a
Click here to continue readingCleaning Your Teeth and Gums – Tooth Brushing
Removing plaque from your teeth and gums is what proper dental care is all about. Daily, you can handle this task on your own by brushing right and flossing. Twice a year, however, you should let a professional take a look inside your mouth.
When it comes to brushing your teeth, you’re probably going through the motions, but not actually brushing efficiently. In fact, you could be damaging your gums and/or leaving plaque behind. And if you’re not flossing to remove the plaque you missed while brushing, your teeth may slowly be decaying.
There are several ways you can brush your teeth and the one you choose should be based on your mouth and your age. The best place to turn when deciding on a tooth brushing method is your dentist. In addition to advising you on the right method for your mouth, he or she can demonstrate proper brushing technique and
Click here to continue readingCleaning Your Teeth and Gums – Flossing
Brushing your teeth properly is an effective way of removing plaque, that sticky white substance that grows in between and along the bottom of teeth and along the gum line. But rarely will tooth brushing alone remove all plaque, no matter how good a job you do.
To ensure you remove every bit of plaque from your teeth, you’ve got to remember to floss. While most people will make the effort to brush in the morning and at night, few take that extra step of flossing. Rather than flossing daily, they’ll floss weekly or worse, they just don’t floss at all.
Flossing takes a bit of time and a lot of coordination which probably is why so many choose to skip this step. But like any habit, if you’re willing to practice and repeat the process, in a few weeks you’ll be flossing daily like a pro.
As you
Click here to continue readingCaring for, Cleaning and Replacing Your Toothbrush
How long has it been since you started using that toothbrush you used this morning? Is it fairly new? Is it a month old? Two? Three? Is it older than that? If you’re still using the same toothbrush you were using three months ago or worse, even longer, then get yourself to the store and purchase a new one as soon as possible!
You need to regularly replace your toothbrush because over time, the bristles are going to start breaking down. You’ll know when this is happening because they’ll start looking frayed and they’ll flare outwards. Once this breakdown starts to happen, it’s not going to be possible for your toothbrush to work as effectively or efficiently as one with bristles that are standing straight up.
If your toothbrush is relatively new but you’ve just gotten over a cold or the flu, or if you’ve had a cold sore, an infection in
Click here to continue readingFood and Your Teeth
Eating sweets is bad for your teeth, but do you know why? Do you know that even eating ‘good’ foods can be bad for your teeth or that eating at certain times during the day is better than others? If you don’t understand that when and what you eat can affect your teeth, then read on.
The problems all revolve around plaque, that sticky, whitish substance that covers your teeth after you eat. As you probably already know, carbohydrates break down into sugars, the fructose, maltose, glucose and lactose that fuel our bodies. We think this process happens after food leaves our mouths, while en route to our digestive tracts.
That’s true for many foods, but some foods begin breaking down right in our mouths. These foods are referred to as fermentable carbohydrates. Bacteria living on your teeth use the sugars found in fermentable carbohydrates like cookies, crackers, cake, soft drinks, cereal,
Click here to continue readingThe Importance of Dental Care
Everybody knows that dental care is what helps keep our smiles white and our teeth bright. But the reasons why proper dental care is so important go much deeper than that. Proper dental care is crucial if you want to keep your teeth from decaying and possibly even falling out for good.
That may sound drastic but it is true. A cavity results from tooth decay and dentures or dental implants are the end result of teeth that have decayed beyond repair. Poor nutrition and lifestyle habits such as cigarette smoking can both contribute to tooth decay, but by far the most common reason these types of tooth problems develop is improper dental care. Teeth that aren’t cared for properly can also cause the dreaded ‘bad breath’, a foul odor that others shun.
It’s never too early to start learning about dental care. In fact, it’s a habit that should be taught
Click here to continue readingToday’s Quick Tip: Brush Properly
Food stuck on teeth can cause bad breath. You have to brush twice a day. It isn’t just enough though, to brush at a random pattern. Brushing should last for at least 3 minutes. Be sure to include the back portion of your teeth and the teeth located at farthest portion of your mouth. Some dentists recommend brushing at a downward or outward motion to help get rid of food particles and bacteria.
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Click here to continue readingContributors to Bad Breath
It is a known fact that poor oral hygiene is the most common cause of bad breath. But the case can be even worse if they are coupled with eating certain types of food that can cause bad breath. Some of them are the following:
Onions and garlic – the two are probably the most common ingredients that are associated with bad breath. They contain sulfur compounds which give them their distinct smell and, unfortunately for those who consume them, bad breath.
Milk – dairy products like milk can also cause halitosis. Dairy products contain protein which produces an unpleasant smell when broken down by bacteria. This is much like spoiling food inside the mouth, so it is always a good idea to brush immediately after eating or drinking dairy products.
Coffee – although there is no scientific evidence to back this up, coffee is also said to cause bad
Click here to continue readingBrushing Correctly
For most people, brushing their teeth becomes a mere ritual to be gotten over as quickly as possible. But, if you don’t learn how to brush your teeth and the surrounding areas correctly, then you may be on your way to experiencing a terrible case of bad breath.
The first step to a good brush is by brushing the teeth, gums, tongue and the inside of the cheeks with a dry toothbrush and without toothpaste. This ensures that much of the bacteria that reside on the surfaces are removed. After then, brushing with toothpaste can commence.
When brushing your teeth, it should be done in a circular motion around the incisors, making sure that the areas near the gums are also brushed. This is to prevent plaque from building up there which can cause not only bad breath but also tooth decay.
The gums should also be brushed so that
Click here to continue readingHow to Know if You have Bad Breath
There are several ways of determining if you have a case of bad breath. While they can be embarrassing, it is one step closer to solving the problem.
The first way of determining if you have bad breath is, believe it or not, when another person complains about it or at least calls the person’s attention to it. This is probably the most embarrassing of all the ways of finding about the problem. But if you look on the bright side, it is also the most surefire way in making you deal with the problem immediately.
Another method is by asking a close friend or family member to smell your breath. This is effective if you suspect that you have bad breath and wants confirmation. It is the first step in taking care of this embarrassing condition.
However, if you are really embarrassed to ask other people’s
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