Ways To Take Care Of Your Teeth and Gums

Smiling healthy teeth

Why take care of your teeth and gums?

We all take care of our teeth and gums in a bid to stay healthy. If your teeth are healthy, there is less risk you will have tooth decay and gum disease. A sticky combination of food and bacteria cause tooth decay and gum disease.

While eating, food and bacteria accumulate to form a plaque which builds up on the teeth to cause tooth decay and gum disease. This build up happens a few minutes after eating, causing tooth decay and gum disease over time, if you do not clean your teeth well each day.

If the plaque is not removed, it transforms into a hard deposit known as tartar which gets trapped at the tooth base. Tartar and plaque cause irritation and inflammation of the gums, and produce toxins and bacteria leading to infected, tender and swollen gums.

When you take good care of your teeth and gum, you prevent the following problems caused by plaque and tartar:

• Bad breath or halitosis
• Toothache, pain and abscesses
• Cavities: These are holes damaging the teeth structure
• Periodontitis: This is the destruction of the bone and ligaments supporting the teeth which may lead to tooth loss
• Gingivitis: This is the swelling, inflammation and bleeding of the gums

Do you know how healthy teeth and gums look like?

Healthy teeth are clean and have no cavities while healthy gums are firm and pink.

How do you ensure you have healthy teeth and gums?

Steps to caring for your teeth and gums

You will surely maintain healthy teeth and gums by following these five simple steps to proper care for your teeth and gums:

• Brush your teeth
• Floss your teeth
• Rinse your teeth and gums
• Eat right to maintain good dental health
• Visit your dentist regularly

Brush and floss your teeth

• Brush your teeth

Always brush your teeth and gums at least two times a day using a soft-bristled toothbrush. Each brushing should take about 2 minutes. You can brush thirty minutes to one hour after every meal you eat.

When you brush, you remove plaque, a sticky combination of food and bacteria, from your teeth and gums. If the plaque is not removed, the bacteria and the food react to generate acids that cause cavities.

15 simple steps you can take to brush properly:

1. Use a soft-bristled toothbrush and place a pea-sized dab of fluoride toothpaste.
2. Place your toothbrush on your teeth at 45 degrees angle to your gum line.
3. Move your brush across your teeth in a small circular motion. If you have an electric toothbrush, follow steps one and two above and allow the electric toothbrush do its work.
4. Clean one tooth at a time and keep the tips of the toothbrush bristles on your gum line.
5. Do not press so hard so that the bristles will not lie flat on the teeth. Only brittles tips clean the teeth.
6. Make sure the bristles reach the spaces between your teeth.
7. Get the bristles into the groves and crevices.
8. Brush the chewing surfaces of the back teeth.
9. Clean the backside of the upper and lower teeth.
10. Clean the inside of the bottom of your front teeth. To do this, point the bristles towards the bottom of the inside of your mouth, and move your brush in an up-and-down position.
11. Clean the inside of the top of your front teeth with the head of the brush angled in an up-and-down position, and the tip of the bristles pointing towards the roof of the mouth.
12. Brush your tongue gently, starting from the back of your tongue forward. This will enable you remove bacteria from your tongue and freshen your breath. Avoid tongue scrubbing.
13. Rinse your mouth with a mouthwash after brushing your teeth.
14. Replace your toothbrush after every three months. A worn-out toothbrush will not brush your teeth clean.
15. If you have dentures, retainers and other appliances, always keep them clean by brushing them regularly.

• Floss your teeth

Clean between your teeth once a day using dental floss which disrupts and disorganizes plaque. So, flossing removes plaque and food between your teeth where your toothbrush will not reach.

If you do not remove the plaque, it gets hardened into tartar which can only be removed by a dentist or hygienist.

But how do you floss?

6 simple steps to floss your teeth:

1. Take a strip of floss from the dispenser.
2. Wind the floss around your middle fingers and leave 1 inch part for cleaning in-between your teeth.
3. Put the floss in your mouth and gently push the floss between the teeth, using your index fingers. Ensure that you do not push too hard so that you do not injure your gums.
4. Move your floss up and down as you clean between the teeth. Also clean around the gum line. As you clean your tooth, the floss should coil round the tooth in a C-shape.
5. Clean not only between the teeth but also behind the back teeth.
6. When a section of a floss is used up, wind the used section around your fingers and use a clean section.

Good teeth care equals healthy teeth

• Rinse your teeth and gums

Apart from flossing, you can also undertake antibacterial mouth rinsing or fluoride mouth rinsing to reduce bacteria causing plaque and gum disease.

Your daily oral care routine is not complete without mouthwash.

4 simple steps to rinse your mouth properly:

1. Use antiseptic or antibacterial mouthwash to rinse your mouth daily. This will help kill the bacteria causing plaque, and prevent bad breath and early gum disease.
2. You can use mouthwashes that contain both fluoride and antibacterial ingredients. Mouthwash that contains fluoride strengthens tooth enamel and helps to prevent tooth decay.
3. Move the rinse around in your mouth for about 30 seconds.
4. Use a mouthwash either before or after you have brushed or flossed

• Eat right to maintain good dental health

You should ensure you have good dental health by eating healthy food. Eat balanced diet and avoid food containing starches and sugars which generate the most acids in the mouth.

Remember that the longer starches and sugars stay in the mouth, the more they will damage your teeth. Note that candies, cakes, pie and cookies stay a long time in the mouth and therefore harmful to your teeth.

4 simple steps to eating and drinking right

1. Most people do not brush after snaking. Therefore, do not snack on sugary foods because doing so can lead to tooth decay.
2. Snacks such as potato chips stick to the teeth and should be avoided. Make sure you do not snack on: candies, cakes, pie, cookies, crackers, chips, breadsticks, sugary gum, raisins and dried fruits.
3. Do not take sweetened drinks. Doing so will increase your risk of tooth cavities. But if you do eat or drink sweets, do not forget to brush your teeth soon after.
4. Do not smoke because smokers develop more teeth and gum problems than non-smokers.

Get examined in a dentist office

• Finally, Visit Your Dentist Regularly

Make sure you visit your dentist at least once every six months to have regular check-ups and professional teeth cleanings. Also, when you have toothache or mouth pain or bleeding, visit your dentist.

You can ask your dentist about dental sealant which is a material used to coat the top chewing surfaces of the back teeth. Dental sealants last a long time and protect the teeth from decay.

The dentist will help you clean your teeth and remove plaque that formed despite careful brushing and flossing. The dentist gets to the areas of your teeth that you could not reach while cleaning your teeth.

Your dentist will do for you what is called scaling and polishing, a procedure that uses instruments to remove deposits from your teeth.

Your dentist can detect problems early and fix them, so they will not become serious and expensive to treat. You may have to do routine exams including dental x-rays

Ask your dentist the type of toothbrush that suits your teeth and how to brush your teeth well. Ask if you can use an electric brush.

Electric toothbrushes clean the teeth better than the manual toothbrushes and they have a timer to tell when 2-minute mark of brushing has been reached.

Ask your dentist how you can properly floss your teeth as improper or overly vigorous flossing may injure your gums. Ask about the use of tools such as water irrigation to supplement brushing and flossing.

Ask if there are particular mouth rinses or toothpastes that you can use. Depending on your health condition, some rinses and pastes may not be good for you.

You need an attention from your dentist when you have symptoms of tooth cavities such as pain in the tooth occurring when eating or after eating food, beverages or when brushing or flossing.

Call your dentist when a tooth or more of yours is sensitive to hot or cold foods and drinks. Get prompt treatment for gum disease.

The symptoms of gum disease requiring the attention of your dentist include red or swollen gums, bad breath, drifting teeth, bleeding in the gums when you brush your teeth and loose teeth.

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