If you spend a few minutes each day brushing and flossing away plaque, you will be taking the most important single step towards oral health. If you spend a few minutes each day brushing and flossing away plaque, you will be taking the most important single step towards oral health.
Source:Stay Healthy Blog
Brushing and flossing are the basic tools of plaque control. Brushing after every meal is best. But, if this is not possible, clean your teeth at least after breakfast and after the evening meal.
The plaque between your teeth and below the gum line is very difficult - if not impossible - to reach with a toothbrush. The best way to remove it is with a piece of dental floss, used at least once a day. This is especially important in preventing gum disease.
Another useful aid in your mouth care kit is a bottle of disclosing fluid or a packet of disclosing tablets. These are made from harmless vegetable dyes, temporarily color the plaque red and the stained areas tell you where you are not removing plaque.
Brushing: Dentists usually suggest using a small-headed toothbrush with lots of soft nylon bristles trimmed evenly. Hard toothbrushes can damage your teeth and gums.
There are a number of ways to brush teeth. Here are basics of one method:
Hold the brush against the teeth and gums. Brush the upper teeth down ward towards the biting edge. This way, the gums get massaged, food between gum and tooth is brushed out and the teeth get polished on the way. Similarly, brush the lower teeth upward towards the biting edge.
Brush the inside of the teeth the same way. Brush the chewing surfaces with a backward-and-forward scrubbing motion.
Establish a routine to make sure that no area of the teeth and gums is left unbrushed.
Brush your tongue.
Dental floss can be tricky to use at first, but it is essential for proper care. It is the only way to clean below the gum margin and between teeth.
Each time, you need a piece of floss about 30 centimeters long. It removes food from between teeth - you notice that when you use it. But you also need to wrap the floss around the tooth near the gum line and pull it back and forth to remove the plaque, which is impossible to see there.
Flossing is a skill which can be developed with a little practice. It can be done any time - while you are reading or watching television, for example. But flossing at bedtime is best. It means a clean mouth through the night hours.
You can buy disclosing fluid or tablets from the chemist with the dental floss. Put a few drops of liquid or a tablet in your mouth and swish around for about 30 seconds. Rinse lightly with water and look at your teeth in the mirror. Where stains remain is where the plaque is.
Children on their second birthday should be introduced to using a toothbrush themselves - because it is a good habit to develop, but few children have the skill to do it properly until they are between 7 and 10 years old. Until then, it is the parents' job to keep their children's mouths clean.
In a child's mouth, there are four spots which need regular flossing - between the back molars on the upper and lower jaws. Again, you have to do it until your child can do it alone.
Disclosing fluid and tablets are a good teeth-care teaching aid with children. Children like experimenting and these aids get them interested in their teeth as an essential part of a healthy life.
Plaque, like piranha
Like piranha fish devouring a dead animal, millions of bugs are growing in plaque on your teeth.
Plaque is a film which builds up on teeth 24 hours a day - the stuff you can scrape off your teeth with your fingernail.
When we eat certain foods, especially those containing sugar, the bacteria in plaque react with this sugar, producing an acid which attacks a tooth.
Next, there is a hole; decay reaches the soft inner part of the tooth and the destructive process speeds up: FOOD plus PLAQUE becomes ACID, which eventually becomes DECAY.
We all have plaque continuously in our mouths. Bacteria are feeding on food and debris in your mouth right now. Fortunately, plaque is easy to remove from most areas of your gums and teeth before it has a chance to cause permanent damage.
Sugar is a recognized decay-promoter. So colas and sweetened syrup drinks are good decay starters if left on the teeth. Sticky foods containing sugars - jams, jellies and cake icings - and refined carbohydrates - biscuits and sugared breakfast cereals - are the worst offenders. They stick to the teeth and allow the bugs to build up under the line where the gums meet the teeth.
It is easy to see why "snacking" is so destructive. After breakfast, the acid level rises; but if nothing is eaten, it will drop by lunch time. Eat, say, three biscuits during the morning and the acid level rises three times. The message is clear. Snacks are poison to healthy teeth.
Plaque is invisible, but a special disclosing dye available from chemists stains it, so you can see where you are missing with your toothbrush or floss. (The dye can be obtained in liquid or tablet form.)
Proper brushing and use of dental floss will keep plaque down. Another way is to cut down on sweet foods, especially between meals.
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