‘Tis the season to over indulge, celebrate and be merry, but amongst the Christmas feasting we must remember to keep our oral health in check…
At City Smiles in Melbourne we understand that the festive season is a time to load up on treats, but this year we want to ensure that our patients are paying extra special attention to their oral hygiene too. With correct brushing and flossing techniques, followed up with your regular check- up at our Melbourne clinic you can help ensure your oral health is maintained.
The importance of having good oral health….
Maintaining your oral health helps ensure you’re maintaining good overall health too. Apart from functioning to enable us to eat, speak, laugh and smile our teeth and gums should be free from infection, which can cause dental caries, inflammation of gums, tooth loss and bad breath. Such conditions can lead to even more serious health and dental problems that may lead to pain, discomfort and in severe cases, surgery. By applying a regular and effective oral health routine you are not only eliminating the risk of dental disease, but you are helping to prevent it. Below are some techniques that should be used every day and especially over the holiday season to ensure you are maintaining that sparkling smile.
Brush with care and accuracy…
Everyone will have slightly different brushing techniques, however there are some basic rules that should be followed to ensure you are getting all the hard to reach places in your mouth. Remember brushing takes at least two minutes, most people do not take enough time to brush their teeth, with only 120 seconds needed to correctly clean your teeth, surely that’s a task we can all handle! If you’re following proper techniques and cleaning your whole mouth the two minutes will be up in no time. Some important things to remember when brushing your teeth are as follows:
- Brush the inner and outer surfaces of your upper and lower teeth
- Ensure you are brushing the outer surfaces of your upper teeth, then your lower teeth
- Clean the chewing surfaces of your teeth
- Brush your tongue for extra fresh breath
When properly brushing your teeth, try to use short, gentle strokes, paying extra attention to your gumline, the hard-to-reach back teeth and areas around your fillings, crowns or other restorations.
Floss daily and effectively…
Flossing your teeth can help prevent gum disease which can lead to tooth loss and other more severe dental problems. Gingivitis is a gum disease that causes inflammation, redness and discomfort to your gums which, if left untreated, can progress into periodontal disease. By flossing your teeth daily you are not completely preventing these diseases from happening but you are taking the correct steps to ensure you are actively keeping on top of your oral health. Here at City Smiles, we recommend using a decent size of floss (approximately 40 cm), while holding the floss between your thumbs and index fingers, follow the curves of your teeth and slide the floss gently up-and-down between your teeth. Try to smoothly clean beneath your gumline, while avoiding snapping the floss on the gums.
See City Smiles for a check-up regularly…
At City Smiles we recommend our patients visit us every six months for a regular check-up and cleaning. However, if you are concerned about any dental discomfort in the interim we recommend seeing you as soon as pain sets in. This Christmas season it’s important to keep your teeth properly maintained and after the over indulgence we will be happy to see you at City Smiles for an early cleaning and check-up. You don’t want to start the New Year off with poor oral health, so these festive seasons try to be conscious about your dental hygiene and stick to regular and effective dental techniques.
