Approximately 20,000 million bacteria live in our mouths and every day that passes without us brushing our teeth, millions of new bacteria appear, willing to make important changes in our teeth.
 
Here at Parkwood Green Medical, we introduce nine practical recommendations so that you do not have to visit the dentist ahead of time:
 
1. Diets are more important than brushing to prevent tooth decay
According to many experts and dentistry specialists, diets have a more important weight than the habit of brushing of the teeth itself when looking to prevent tooth decay. Brushing your teeth is excellent and it is essential to avoid tooth decay, however, the key factor here is having a healthy diet without lots of sugar that may produce cavities. Brushing your teeth cannot make it up or reverse the adverse effects of a bad diet.
 
2. When to eat is as important as what you eat
If you have not eaten or drunk for a while, your mouth is essentially “at rest” and your teeth are safe. But right after eating, saliva becomes acidic, creating an environment in which your teeth begin to dissolve. According to experts, it takes about 40 minutes for the mouth to return to its safe levels of acidity.
 
So the more you peck between meals, the more periods of acidity there will be in your mouth- The general advice for caring for your teeth is to avoid eating between meals and eating sweets after meals.
 
3. How to “eat well” between hours
In case you cannot resist pecking in between hours, experts recommend to “drink water, chew gum without sugar or even eat some cheese to help teeth return to that safe level of acidity. Brushing alone cannot reverse the effects of a bad diet.
 
4. Sugar, teeth’s biggest enemy
Depending on how long and how frequently you expose your teeth to sugar, you will have cavities developed in your teeth in a greater or smaller amount. Most experts recommend taking care with seemingly innocent foods but that they have hidden sugar, such as fruit juices, cereals or some precooked meals.
 
“There are sugars hidden in foods that you would never expect,” say researchers. It is better to eat an orange than to drink a bottled orange juice. Milk is another of the foods that can betray people’s toothcare, particularly in children: although its calcium content makes it advisable for teeth, it also contains sugar. Some children fall asleep with the bottle in their mouths or do not brush their teeth after drinking milk and this also contributes to the formation of cavities.
 
5. Acid, another enemy
Most people leave some parts of the teeth surface unbrushed. That’s partly because we brush them in a random way. If you have drunk an acidic beverage, such as a fruit juice or tea, it is best to drink a glass of water afterwards to rinse your mouth and dilute the acid.
 
But it is not advisable to brush your teeth during the hour after drinking an acidic drink, because acid softens teeth enamel and while brushing you can damage that protective dental layer.
 
6. So when is it better to brush your teeth?
Brushing immediately after eating, and especially after eating something acidic (like an orange juice), can harm teeth enamel. The ideal thing to do is to brush them after each meal but letting time pass, approximately 40 minutes.
 
7. A method to brush your teeth well
According to the specialist in dentistry Serpil Djemal, it is very difficult to brush teeth well because most learn by watching their mom and tend to repeat what they see and grab habits from a very young age. That is why most people leave some parts of the tooth surface unbrushed. That’s partly because we brush them in a random way.
 
Djemal recommends having a method: start in one corner of the mouth and go brushing slowly and one by one each tooth, “like tickling them”, until you reach the other corner. It is also important to brush them for two minutes, twice a day, and finally do not rinse your mouth at the end, just spit. Thus, fluoride stays in the teeth and keeps them healthy.
 
8. Vegetables against bad breath
In general, you should avoid eating between meals. Sweets are preferable to be eaten eat after meals.
The difference between a clean mouth and a mouth with bad breath is comparable to that of a river of running, crystalline water and a lagoon of stagnant water. Ideally, saliva should flow through the mouth and take away the bacteria that causes bad smell, but if your mouth dries up for some reason, because you’re nervous, or because of alcohol, or because you’ve been sleeping, your mouth looks like more to a pond of standing water.
 
To get rid of that bad smell you first need to drink water, which will wash the sulphur compounds that are generated in the oral cavity and that cause bad breath or halitosis. Then you can consume fibrous vegetables with a high-water content, such as cucumber, celery or carrot.
 
Its water content cleans the mouth and chew them, its fibrous texture makes you generate more saliva. These vegetables are like a combination of a natural toothpaste and mouthwash, provided by Mother Nature, and they also taste good and are cheap.
 
9. How to know what toothpaste to buy
Deep cleaning, cavity protection, advanced cleaning, refreshing, special for children, for sensitive teeth. There are thousands of dental hygiene products, from pastes and rinses to brushes, which make all kinds of promises … but how do you know if they work?
 
If you have a good manual toothbrush, a paste with fluoride and you brush your teeth for two minutes twice a day, covering the entire surface of your teeth and gums well, you are doing everything necessary. The rest of the products that many of us have in the closet, is not that we think they do not work, but that we do not really know if they work or not, and even if they worked they probably would not add any great benefit. Speak to one of our friendly team members at Parkwood Green Dental today to discover more about our services and handy tips.