The most important aspects of maintaining excellent dental health are of course how you take care of your teeth. Brushing and flossing are the main components of this and have a major impact in terms of the removal of plaque so that dental decay and gum disease are avoided. But there are other things to be taken into consideration also, such as what your diet consists of.
Plaque is the substance that causes most of the possible problems in mouths. Removal is of course crucial, but it can help if you are avoiding the foods which cause plaque to occur in the first place. The main things to remember are that plaque is produced in the greatest profusion when you eat sugary or starchy food.
To this end, it is best to keep sugary and starchy foods to a minimum. Things like boiled sweets are especially bad in terms of plaque production and the same can be said of sugary soft drinks. What many people don’t know is that things like potato crisps can produce high levels of plaque also. It is always worth considering the physical aspects of the foods that you eat. Crisps for example, tend to stick to the teeth and can easily get lodges in between teeth too. Fruit and fruit juice are high in natural sugar but they do not stick as easily to teeth.
If you want to eat foods like sweets and crisps, keep them to a minimum but also consider giving your teeth a brush and floss afterwards to get rid of the plaque that has formed. Chew some chewing gum if brushing is not possible. Dentists in Swindon have access to a great store of advice when it comes to dental health and dietary considerations.
Clifton Dental Studio, Bristol found itself the star of the show last week, when the practice was used in the filming of Channel 5’s Gadget Show. The clinic’s principal dentist, Dr. Neil Gerrard got to meet the lovely Suzy Perry, who had nothing but praise for the practice.
The Gadget Show is a popular programme that centres on the latest and greatest technology, with bizarre and extravagant challenges played out amongst its presenters guaranteed every programme. Thankfully, it was a nice and relaxed filming when The Gadget Show team strolled into our practice.
The segment filmed at Clifton Dental Studio’s Bristol dental practice featured a number of today’s best electric toothbrushes, which were tested and reviewed to find the champion of teeth cleaning!
Electric toothbrushes have for many years been hailed as the better alternative to manual brushes and are noted for the increased level of dental health they bring through their continual use. The movement of the brush is said to dislodge more plaque and massage gums and the smaller precision brush is able to reach difficult places, stopping the pile up of food debris and bacteria, which can cause decay.
The outcome of the review is still a top secret, but it may be well worth your time to tune in to the programme’s regular 8pm Monday slot and find the very best toothbrush for excellent oral health.
There are so many things to fit in in the modern world with all of its pressures. If its not getting to work on time or picking the kids up from school then you’ll be preoccupied with visiting family or cleaning the car. As such, some of the things which are necessary for your health can be neglected. This is true of visiting the dentist as much as anything and too many people will find that they simply forget to book that appointment, sometimes for years.
But having check ups with your local dentist is a crucial part of maintaining great standards of oral hygiene and ensuring that you won’t require invasive, time consuming and painful procedures. Usually dental check ups take little more than half an hour and they only need be undertaken every six months so that‘s hardly a huge chunk of time in your yearly schedule.
The benefits of going to see your dentist on a regular basis are manifold. Having been through intensive training, not to mention experience on the job, dentists are able to spot the signs of problems with oral health before they become a problem. Dentists can offer, for example, scaling and polishing which is the only way to remove plaque that has hardened in tartar from your teeth.
If your gums are becoming inflamed then your dentist will be able to spot the signs and offer you advice about how to curb this trend and restore your mouth to health. Serious conditions like oral cancer can also be noticed by your Bristol dentist during an appointment, giving you the best chance of early diagnosis, treatment and recovery.
Having a set of healthy teeth is easily taken for granted but it is crucial in allowing us to do those everyday activities such as eating, drinking and talking without pain and discomfort. Your teeth are under constant threat from an acidic substance known as plaque which is formed when you eat certain foods which contain a lot of sugar or starch. Find out how to ensure that plaque does not cause your teeth to decay.
Teeth decay when plaque begins to erode the protective layer of enamel which coats them. This enamel is a tough substance but it cannot withstand prolonged exposure to embedded plaque and will begin to break down after a certain period. Greater sensitivity is the result as the nerves inside your teeth become exposed. These holes in your enamel will need to be filled up so that the tooth does not break down and become useless.
You can avoid suffering from dental decay in the first place by taking certain preventative steps. Choosing the right foods is crucial in this respect and you should limit the amount of sugary substances you consume. It can be helpful to brush your teeth after eating these types of food so that plaque cannot take hold.
In any case brushing should be done at least twice a day, usually first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Flossing ought to be carried out too because it removes plaque from between the teeth where brushing often cannot reach. Dentists in Bristol are a great source of advice and help if you are worried about the causes and the effects of dental decay.
So you’ve decided to start a family in Weston-super-mare and you’ve had the kids- now the real hard work starts because you have to look after their health until they are old enough and capable enough to make their own informed decisions; this is especially true of their teeth. Getting your child’s teeth right from the beginning can reflect on their mouths for the rest of their lives. From a baby, the teeth are starting to grow, but it’s important to be ready for when they break through the gums. Diet and cleaning the teeth play an important factor here as the teeth are very prone to tooth decay. This is the time to get a good pediatric dentist on board to help during this tricky time. As your child starts to grow, what you feed them and how you teach them to clean their teeth, again, is vital, for the next big thing is when the secondary teeth start to evolve in the mouth. Essentially, it all boils down to you, how you educate them into looking after themselves and their teeth, and keeping them away from sugary or starchy foods until you are sure the message has got through. Sticking with the same dentist around this time is useful for building up not only a rapport and trust between them and your child, but also to get a good overall historical picture of your child’s oral health.
With the hectic pace of modern life it can often seem like an impossible act to fit in everything that you know you need to do. One thing that you should definitely not miss out on is regular check ups with your dentist. The importance of these appointments cannot be over stated. Your mouth is a hardy set of organs and is very resilient but problems can occur which might suddenly leave you with a painful malaise that is difficult to sort out.
Many dental problems are actually pretty straight forward to sort out but they have to be diagnosed in the first place. Take gum disease as an example: if your dentist spots the early signs of it in your mouth then you will probably just be told to brush your teeth and floss more effectively. If you don’t get it diagnosed then it can ultimately lead to the pain, indignity and inconvenience of tooth loss.
Oral cancer as well can be spotted by your dentist who will be trained to notice all the signs of such insidious conditions. You only really need to see your dentist every six months unless advised otherwise. In fact it is quite common for dentists to say to patients that they don’t need another check up for twelve months if their teeth and gums are in excellent health. Usually an appointment will take little more than half an hour which is not a lot of time to factor in every six months for the sake of your health.
Don’t be embarrassed if it has been a while, turn over a new leaf by booking an appointment with your local Bristol dentist for a check up.
All parents want to give their children the best possible start in life; it’s a natural instinct of parenthood. You want to send your child to the best school, ensure they have the right group of friends and are pursuing the hobbies which interest them. Making sure that their health is good is a priority too and, from a young age, you ought to be doing your best to make sure that your children’s teeth are in the best of conditions too.
The sad fact is that children will have to live with the consequences of any lapses in dental health for the rest of their lives. Make sure that from a young age you build up a rapport with your Weston-Super-Mare dentist and allow your child to feel comfortable in going to the surgery; it is something that they should be doing for the rest of their lives after all.
Children can be very insistent in their desires for sweet treats. But you ought to make sure that they are kept to a minimum and that brushing occurs afterwards. This is so that cavities do not ensue as a result of plaque building up. Getting children to brush their teeth can be a battle in itself but don’t give in. Give them incentives like offering rewards for proper brushing. You can draw up a fun and colourful wall chart that they can fill in themselves, thus giving them ownership of the health of their teeth. Child psychologists regard this as crucial.
Over the age of about eighteen months, it is quite safe for children to use tooth paste containing fluoride and dentists recommend it so that their teeth can reap the benefits of being strengthened as a result.
The growth of wisdom teeth in Bristol is an adult form of teething- just as uncomfortable and just as painful as it is for a baby. The only difference being is that you and your dentist should have prepared for the event. It generally happens anywhere onwards from the age of 17, yet combating any pain is similar to how you would treat a baby. If the tooth seems to be growing naturally, and this can be checked with X-rays, then, it’s a matter of grinning and bearing it until it erupts. Painkillers, clove oil and regular chewing of gum should be enough to see you through the event. But life is just not that simple for everyone. Wisdom teeth have a habit of growing in all directions if they don’t have enough room to grow naturally, some will not appear at all, and this can lead to great pain that can only be cured with an extraction. If it reaches this stage, a multiple extraction of all wisdom teeth may be recommended in a single visit to get it over and done with. This has now reached ‘operation’ status and normally performed in a hospital. The stresses involved in such an extraction are immense and dangerous and it’s important to monitor the pain once the operation has been completed. The gums and surrounding teeth are also exposed to serious infection and need to be treated regularly, as well as taking painkillers to soothe the process.
Tooth decay is an ongoing problem to everyone that lives in Bath. From childhood to adulthood, it will affect us all at some point. It’s caused by build up of bacteria in the mouth from starchy foods and sugary drinks which then turns to acid, combined with poor oral hygiene. Once the bacteria sets in, plaque will develop and gnaw away at the tooth’s enamel. In time, cavities will form and then tooth decay will take over. If this is spotted early on normally through an X-ray at the dentists, the tooth and its nerve can be saved with a simple filling at the dentist- dental sealants and fluoride are also used to combat tooth decay in children, preventing bacteria from reaching the natural surface of the tooth. But serious decay may require a root canal. As harsh as it sounds, it’s become a regular procedure for dentists. Once the decay and nerves are removed, the tooth can be capped with a crown to save the tooth. If the decay is extreme, then the tooth will need removing. Fluoride treatments and chewing sugar free gum helps to maintain a high saliva level in the mouth (along with a positive diet), that naturally helps to breakdown bacteria in the mouth. Good oral hygiene with flosses, good brushes and pastes, and mouthwashes also help to fight the bacteria in the mouth and prevent tooth decay.
One of the main causes of dental cavities in Swindon stems from the problem of having a dry mouth, especially in older people. Cavities arise from bacteria being allowed to develop in the mouth, normally from certain starch based foods and drinks or sweets that contain sugar. Combined with poor oral hygiene, the bacteria will form tartar and plaque in the mouth and the acid from these attacks the enamel of the teeth- cavities soon set in and the tooth will suffer decay if left unchecked. The natural fight against the build up of bacteria relies on the mouths saliva, but take away the saliva and the mouth becomes dry, leaving the teeth exposed and vulnerable. Dry mouth can be caused by many things; medication, radiotherapy and poor diet are the main causes of dry mouth. Smoking, anxiety and a poor immune system also contribute to the problem, leading to bad breath and even speech impediment. Dental hygiene is very important in the fight against dry mouth, as is regular contact with the dentist for advice. It’s important that the body is kept constantly hydrated with water during this process to build up the saliva levels; sugar free gum and sweets are also useful for stimulating the production of saliva whilst avoiding any drinks that contain caffeine.
Dr Gerrard is a Bristol based Cosmetic dentist with many years of experience and is one of only a small number of dentists accredited by The British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
Clifton Dental Studio, Bristol found itself the star of the show last week, when the practice was used in the filming of Channel 5’s Gadget Show. The clinic’s principal dentist, Dr. Neil Gerrard got to meet the lovely Suzy Perry, who had nothing but praise for the practice.
The Gadget Show is a popular programme that centres on the latest and greatest technology, with bizarre and extravagant challenges played out amongst its presenters guaranteed every programme. Thankfully, it was a nice and relaxed filming when The Gadget Show team strolled into our practice.
The segment filmed at Clifton Dental Studio’s Bristol dental practice featured a number of today’s best electric toothbrushes, which were tested and reviewed to find the champion of teeth cleaning!
Electric toothbrushes have for many years been hailed as the better alternative to manual brushes and are noted for the increased level of dental health they bring through their continual use. The movement of the brush is said to dislodge more plaque and massage gums and the smaller precision brush is able to reach difficult places, stopping the pile up of food debris and bacteria, which can cause decay.
The outcome of the review is still a top secret, but it may be well worth your time to tune in to the programme’s regular 8pm Monday slot and find the very best toothbrush for excellent oral health.
