Discovering The Benefits Of Regular Teeth Cleaning
If you were fortunate enough to grow up with dental insurance
, your parents most likely took you to get your teeth cleaned every six months to a year. You may not have given it much thought at the time, but you were setting an essential precedent that should be continued throughout the rest of your life.
As a dentist once famously said, you only have to clean the teeth that you want to keep! Cleaning your teeth regularly can prevent things as serious as Gingivitis (gum disease), cavities, Periodontis, and many more serious gum problems.
Regular teeth cleaning starts at home. Dentists generally recommend that you brush your teeth at least twice a day, or after each meal.
Brush your teeth with a soft to medium brush, in small circular motions. If you brush your teeth up and down, you can cause gum recession which can be very painful.
The more you brush, the less plaque will build up on your teeth. If plaque is left unchecked, it will mix with carbohydrates you ingest and form an acid which will demineralize tooth enamel.
Improper brushing and dental hygiene is the result of 85% of bad breath. Think how easily this problem could be treated!
Once you have mastered the art of brushing, you are ready for more complicated, unpleasant things. Namely the thing that 80% of Americans forget or choose not to do: floss.
Flossing, while sometimes uncomfortable, is extremely important to the health of your teeth and gums. Perhaps nothing will prevent cavities better than regular and thorough flossing.
Flossing dislodges pieces of food from in between your teeth and gums, that you would never have thought was there. Almost all cavities occur from this buildup, and most often toothbrush bristles cannot reach these small crack and crevices.
Flossing at the end of the day is a great way to toughen up your gums before you brush. The tougher they become, the less likely they are to get gingivitis.
While doing all of this is extremely helpful to the life and health of your mouth, professional cleaning, as mentioned at the beginning, is extremely important as well.
Professional cleaning is called Prophylaxis. Even with the most careful brushing and flossing, dental hygienists can still reach plaque and tarter build up in your teeth and gums that you may not know was there.
The first thing they will do, is use their instruments to scrape the junk off your teeth. Their tools are specifically designed to find those hard to reach places you can't get to on your own.
Once they have completed this, they will use their professional polisher to scrub and shine each tooth individually. This will help your canines to not only be squeaky clean, but to get that sparkle back.
Your hygienist will also floss for you. They make choose to take x-rays at this point.
This is a very important part of your semiannual checkup. With professional x-rays, your dentist will be able to see cavities, dark spots, and even places where you should be particularly aware of future trouble.
When you are a child, your dentist may choose to put fluoride on your teeth, with the permission of the parents. Fluoride has been a controversial product over the years.
While Fluoride is widely accepted by professionals to whiten, strengthen, and prolong the health of your teeth, some people feel that it can have harmful results if too much is ingested. In general however, fluoride is seen for its benefits.
With the help of your dentist, you can detect potential problems early. For example, if you catch a cavity early on, you will most likely be able to repair it through the use of a filling.
If you don't catch it in time, this could result in having to have a root canal, which is both very painful and expensive. For the price of a simple dental cleaning, you could save yourself the expense of much more complex, uncomfortable procedures.
Remember, starting a long-term health program begins at home. Don't forget that the more thorough you are, the more of a chance you have to keep your own teeth in old age!
Make an appointment with your dentist today, and you will be well on your way to having long-lasting, tooth and gum health for the rest of your life. Happy brushing!
by: Ronald Pedactor
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