Preventative Care Advice

Tip 1 – Brush twice daily with a fluoride toothpaste for at least two minutes.

When finished we would encourage that you spit but do not rinse with water or mouthwash. The minerals within most toothpastes drastically strengthen teeth which helps to prevent future cavities. We would encourage most patients to avoid the use of daily mouthwashes unless you are advised their use by your dentist.

Tip 2 – Bleeding gums.

This is a sign that they are inflamed and need to be cleaned correctly and, rather than the widely-held belief that this is a bad sign, it actually means that our immune system is fighting plaque bacteria. We would encourage that you consider your daily cleaning not as ‘toothbrushing’ but rather as tooth and gum brushing. If you are not used to brushing your gums or in between your teeth you may see some bleeding at first but this will quickly improve as your gums become healthier.

Do not worry about making your gums bleed when cleaning them properly but please remember that you can always ask your dentist or hygienist for more information.

Here are a few quick cleaning tips that can help keep your teeth and gums healthy

• Brush your teeth with small round circles gently massaging the gums
• When flossing, remember to scrape up and down both sides of the teeth
• Gently draw very small round circles with interdental brushes to help position them between the teeth. Try not to push too hard or you may bend the brush. Once in place, scrub both surfaces with a back and forth action. The brushes are colour coded so you will need to use a size that fits well in between the teeth

Top Tip

Smear a small amount of toothpaste across your sink and dip the small interdental brushes or floss to help introduce fluoride from the toothpaste in between your teeth.

Limit your sugar intake

There is good evidence to show that how frequently you eat sugary foods is linked with tooth decay a s well a s the amount you eat. We are not suggesting that it is practical to ban any foods or drinks, moderation is important. At Hills Road Dental Practice we suggest:

• Confine consumption of fruit to mealtimes, where possible
• Limiting the number of snacks in between meals and making them sugar free
• Try to reserve sweets. chocolates sugary snacks and drinks for special occasions rather than daily consumption
• Avoid sugar in tea and coffee – this can be challenging at first. But in our opinion can have a significant effect on reducing tooth decay especially if you have more than one cup of tea or coffee a day.
• Limit your intake of sugary fizzy drinks

Our dentists have seen many patients with severe dental problems as a result of frequent consumption of sugary fizzy drinks. Whilst it might be tempting to go for the sugar free options. many of these can also be very acidic and damaging to teeth so our advice is simple – please try to avoid these or limit them to special occasions.