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  A link to more information on Oral heath and frequently asked questions.
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Your Oral Health

How can I keep my teeth & gums healthy?

A bit of advice on what you eat and drink: Your body is like a motor vehicle. For smooth running, a motor vehicle needs a good quality fuel to generate power, needs regular maintenance, and periodic servicing by experts.

Even for your body, the same principle applies. You need:

• A good healthy diet to produce energy and repair the wear & tear
• Stick to good practices of personal hygiene, and
• Needs regular check-ups by doctors to detect & treat abnormalities at early stages.

So when we consider the health of teeth and gums, the same principles applies. What you need to do is:

• Have a balanced diet rich in nutrients and restrict sugars & in-between snacking
• Brush your teeth & gums well at least twice a day using a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoridated toothpaste
• Visit your dentist for regular checkups

Have a balanced diet

Your diet may contain variety of items. But to get a maximum nutritious value of your diet, it should have six basic elements of nutrition in correct proportions. These are: Starch, Proteins, Fat, Minerals, Vitamins and Water.

However, a single food item does not contain all essential elements in correct proportions. Some foods are rich in starch; some are rich in fats and so on. So when you eat, you have to mix food items appropriately to get the correct balance. The diet that contains correct proportions of those elements is called as a 'balanced diet'.

If you do not get a balanced diet, you may fill the stomach but you may not get the adequate nutrition that is needed for your body and as a result, your health can go down. For example, if your gums do not get good nutrition, resistance to disease diseases will be lower and may contribute to periodontal (gum) disease. Similarly if your teeth do not get a good nutrition during the period of tooth development, it can affect the teeth adversely and such teeth can decay easier than normal teeth.

It is also important to remember that taking excess of one element more than the required can sometimes cause ill health. For example people who eat a lot of 'fatty' foods tend to develop heart diseases. Therefore, eating patterns and food choices among people are very important.

Form the oral health point of view, the following are some poor dietary practices that can harm your teeth & gums.

• Eating lot of sugars of any kind, (for example: toffees, chocolates, biscuits, sweetened soft drinks, pastries, buns etc) can cause tooth decay.
• Frequent snacking makes food particles to stick in the mouth for longer time and that might leads to tooth decay.
• Getting used to carbonated drinks be able to dissolve teeth (tooth erosion).
• Use of tobacco of any kind (like betel-chewing, smoking), use of areca-nut, taking alcohol, may cause cancer to develop in your mouth.

So here are some dietary tips that you can practice to keep good oral health.

• Have a balanced diet with variety of natural food items like vegetables & fruits that are rich in nutrients.
• Restrict sugars and processed foods whenever possible.
• Stick to main meals whenever possible and try to limit the number of snacks that you take. When you need a snack, choose nutritious foods, such as cheese, raw vegetables, plain yogurt, or a piece of fruit.
• Do not get addicted to harmful habits like smoking, betel-chewing and drinking alcohol.

Brush your teeth & gums

There are a few things you should consider when brushing your teeth... The device, ingredients, method, duration and frequency.

What device should I use for tooth brushing?

For tooth brushing always use a toothbrush.

Choosing a toothbrush

To select a good toothbrush you need look for only two features.

• Small head (to move the brush inside the mouth without much difficulty)
• Soft bristles (to remove the soft plaque without damaging the gums).

The other features of a toothbrush, that is the shape of the head, angle of the neck, shape of the surface of bristles are not that much important and it all depend on your personal choice.

When you buy a toothbrush for a child of 2-3 years, buy a one with small head and thick handle to grip it easily.

Electric toothbrushes can also be useful, particularly for people who find difficult to practice correct brushing techniques.

What ingredient should I use for tooth brushing?

For tooth brushing always use toothpaste. Tooth powders are not suggested as most tooth powders contain ‘larger abrasives particles’ and that will remove the outer portion of teeth gradually resulting tooth wear (tooth abrasions)

Selecting good toothpaste

The best toothpaste is one that contains recommended amount of fluorides, manufactured and endorsed by a reputed company /organization. Therefore when you want to buy a toothpaste look for its fluoride content displayed on the carton. Accepted amount is 0.1% (or 900 -1000ppm) of fluoride.

What technique should I use?

There are so many techniques of tooth brushing. However, application of all techniques will depend on the individual skill. Therefore, a technique suit for an adult may not be suitable for a child because their manual skills are not fully developed as adults.
 
The following is a technique that is easy to practice for an average adult.

• Place your toothbrush at a 45-degree angle to your teeth, pointing the bristles toward the gum- line. The joint between the teeth and the gum is a nice place for bacteria and plaque to accumulate, so it is important to clean to this area.
• Then brush one or two teeth at a time by jiggling the brush gently back and forward.
• Do not be excessively vigorous – it might damage your gum. Also do not be too mild because the area will not get cleaned.
• Once you finish the gum-lines of teeth, brush the biting surfaces by simple scrubbing or by circular movements.
• Be systematic when brushing. Brush teeth in order, inside, outside and biting surface of a tooth, without missing out a single tooth surface.
• Once you finish brushing teeth remember to brush the tongue.
• If you have a crowded teeth take extra time to brush these teeth as normal brushing may not clean these areas effectively.
•  You really should do it in front of a mirror so you can see what you are doing.

For children below 2-3 years, parents need to brush the kid's teeth. With the growth of the child, gradually encourage them to brush their own teeth with simple technique (simple scrubbing) under parental supervision.

How often should I brush?

Brush at least two times a day. Best times are once in the morning and then in the night before go to sleep.

If you are at high risk for tooth decay, (for example, during pregnancy, wearing braces) you need to brush more than two times a day, at least after every main meal.

How long should I brush?

This will depend on your skill. For an average person it will take about 2-3 minutes. But if you are new to the brushing technique or you have less manual skill (like children) it will take longer time. Remember, all it needed is to brush the teeth thoroughly without missing out a single tooth.

How do I know my brushing is satisfactory?

This is a simple test that you can check your brushing. After brushing, move the tip of the tongue all over the tooth surfaces. You feel ‘smoothness’ when the tip of the tongue passing through cleaned tooth surfaces. If you feel ‘roughness’ at any tooth surface, that indicate inadequate brushing.

There are some teeth that people tend to missed out during brushing. These are inner surfaces of front teeth, crowded teeth and corner-most teeth in the mouth. Therefore make special attention to brush these teeth.

Visit your dentist regularly for check-ups

Most of the time, the early signs of dental diseases are ‘painless’. So you cannot detect these all alone by yourself and you may need an expert to detect them. If you visit a dentist regularly, the dentist will check your mouth to detect any early signs of diseases and will tell you what you should do.

Remember, most dental diseases are reversible at the early stage. So when detect early, by just following simple instructions by dental professionals, you can get rid of them without having complex & expensive treatments.