Your mouth is a finely tuned composite of different parts which are meant to work in tandem, allowing you to eat, drink and talk free from discomfort. Visiting your local dental professional every six months for a thorough check up is of course very important in keeping your mouth healthy but good oral hygiene begins at home and how you take care of your teeth there. By looking after your teeth effectively you will be avoiding nasty oral diseases and the need for invasive treatment.
A good start is to make sure that you are brushing and flossing in the correct fashion. Brushing should take place at least twice a day to remove plaque from the teeth so that it cannot begin to attack your enamel. You should be brushing for around three minutes and take in the whole mouth. Floss as well as plaque and debris can easily be missed as it lurks between the teeth.
Your diet is also important for your oral hygiene. Eating too many sugary and starchy foods produces more plaque for your mouth to deal with and you may find that cavities begin to develop. Smoking tobacco decreases the production of saliva – a natural defence against plaque – so is best avoided. The same can be said of excess alcohol consumption as it can lead to oral cancer.
Be vigilant about your mouth and look out for warning signs such as extra sensitivity when you are eating, reddening and bleeding gums, bad breath and odd tastes in the mouth. These can all be signs that there is a problem in your mouth and they are worth reporting to your dentist. Speak to your Swindon dentist next time you see them to get more expert advice on your daily dental hygiene routine.
It is considered that a quarter of people in Bath suffer from dry mouths, and it gets more prevalent with age and it’s caused by a myriad of things. Certain medications can affect the salivary gland, reducing the amount of saliva produced. Radiotherapy too can damage these glands. Bad diet, smoking, blocked sinuses, anxiety and dehydration can also reduce saliva in the mouth leaving it extremely vulnerable to other problems. Saliva is important to the health of the mouth. It breaks down the acids in foods and fights the bacteria that forms plaque and if a dry mouth is allowed to continue and go untreated, the plaque build up can lead to gum disease and invariably, dental decay, cavities and eventually tooth loss and decay can be expensive to treat. A dry mouth will also affect speech and lead to bad breath. Regular check-ups become important with a dry mouth, to monitor any growth in gum disease or tooth decay and to get advice on ways of tackling the problem. Dental hygiene and diet are the important factors in this. Drinking lots of water, avoiding caffeine based drinks, sucking sugar free sweets and ice cubes all aid the problem as does avoiding smoking and heavy smoking.
Dental check ups are possibly the most important way of looking after the health of your teeth. Although brushing and flossing are the frontline defence against dental problems, it is only with the expert eye of a dentist that you can truly be safe from nasty dental complications.
Swindon dentists recommend that you have a dental check up every six months. By keeping this up, you will significantly reduce your chances of suffering from gum disease or dental decay. Even those who brush and floss every day for the required amount of time can still suffer from these conditions and without the opinion and expertise of a dentist you never know when your teeth are under threat.
When it comes to dental disease, the earlier the problem is assessed and diagnosed the easier it is to treat. This means that catching gum disease in its early stage is ten times easier to treat than if the condition has set in and spread. Successful dental care is all about prevention rather than cure and remember, teeth cannot heel themselves so once they are damaged they may need costly and at times rather unpleasant treatment to protect them from further damage.
One of the other key reasons why it is so important to see a Swindon dentist every six months is so that they can carry out an oral cancer check. This is again a disease that can be treated effectively in its early stages, but leaving it too long and the consequences are far more severe than a lost tooth or a filling. Oral cancer is a particularly nasty form of the disease and is fatal in almost all cases not treated early enough. This alone should be a reason to make an appointment as soon as possible.
If you were told that by taking just two or three minutes of your time every six months you could save your life, you would almost certainly do it. This is the deal we are offered when it comes to checking for oral cancer yet so many of us are too busy or forgetful to go to the dentist for a check up every six months. As well as checking the health of your teeth, your Bristol dentist will also carry out a small oral cancer examination. This involves checking all the soft tissue areas in the mouth such as the lips, cheek lining, tongue and throat for signs and symptoms of the disease. This is one of the most sure-fire ways of catching oral cancer in its early stages, which could make all the difference in the world.
Oral cancer is a very nasty form of the disease. About 300,000 people are diagnosed with oral cancer every year across the world, with one person dying every hour from the disease in the US alone. If not caught sufficiently early, oral cancer can be deadly. However, if caught in its early stages, oral cancer is very treatable with patients having a greater than 80 per cent chance of beating the disease.
There are several high risk factors that affect your chances of contracting oral cancer. Smokers and drinkers are at a much greater risk, especially if they do both simultaneously. Men are also more at risk than women, especially men over the age of fifty. Although it is important to remember that you are still at risk form oral cancer even if none of the risk factors apply to you and should still always get checked regularly.
If you show any of the signs of oral cancer such as small red or white sores in the mouth, unexplained bleeding in the mouth or sudden weight loss then make an appointment to see a Bristol dentist immediately, and even if you show no signs of the disease, remember how important a check up could be for you.
It’s very easy sometimes to think that you can miss a couple of dental check ups because your teeth feel fine and you’re really busy. But whatever the excuse, missing a dental check up or not going every six months as dentists recommend could be putting your oral health at risk. Alongside good oral hygiene, a six-month check up is the most important way of ensuring your teeth and gums are healthy and free of disease.
With tooth decay being on the increase again and three quarters of adults in the UK suffering with gum disease at some point in their lives, it is more important than ever to look after your teeth. A dental check up will take no longer than half an hour and the more often you go, the less likely there is to be any problem.
Decay and gum disease can appear very quickly but are easily treated in their early stages. Your dentist will be able to thoroughly examine your mouth and make sure that your teeth and gums are not at risk. They will also perform a routine check for oral cancer and other nasty oral diseases as part of your check up. This could make a very important difference to your life, especially when it comes to oral cancer, which is treatable if caught in its early stages.
Brushing and flossing at home are obviously very important but even the most diligent oral hygiene routine can be at risk to the combined threat of gum disease and tooth decay. After all, if you think about it, it is most likely to be the spots you are missing where the problem starts. Dentists in Weston-super-Mare will also be able to design an oral hygiene routine to focus on the areas that may need most attention and are trained to help you keep your mouth in the best possible condition.
One in three of us will develop cancer at some point in out lives so it is important that we are all aware of the signs and symptoms to enable early treatment. When it comes to cancer, the best hope you really have of overcoming the disease is catching it as early as possible. This is especially true of oral cancer, which has an eighty per cent survival rate when caught and treated in its early stages. If the disease is not detected early enough it may well be fatal.
Oral cancer includes any cancer of the lips, tongue, cheek lining and throat. It manifests itself as small red, white or blotchy patches, which are sore but don’t disappear naturally after a couple of weeks. There are a number of other symptoms, which include unexplained bleeding in the mouth, pain in the neck, face and shoulders and a sudden weight loss.
One of the best ways to beat oral cancer is to have your mouth regularly examined by a Bristol dentist. Dental check up appointments are advised every six months as routine but if you are in one of the high risk groups it may be advisable to pay more regular visits. The high risk factors include being male and over fifty, with smokers and drinkers (especially both in tandem) being very susceptible.
If you think you are at a high risk of oral cancer or are experiencing any unusual activity in your mouth then make an appointment to see a Bristol dentist as soon as possible. It might just be the best decision you ever make.
From an early age we are always taught that if we look after our teeth then they will look after us. Our parents teach us the importance of brushing and flossing and that if we do that correctly we can avoid much unnecessary dental treatment in the future. It seems like such a simple deal to make; clean your teeth and they will stay healthy. Yet it seems by the increase in cases of tooth decay and the fact that 90 per cent of adults in this country will suffer gum disease at some point in their life, that we are perhaps forgetting the valuable childhood lessons.
Effective oral hygiene takes place mostly at home but should also include a six-monthly visit to a Weston-super-Mare dentist for a check up. They can make sure that your teeth are in good condition and outline any action you need to take to clean them more effectively.
A good oral hygiene routine includes brushing twice a day for three minutes. This should ideally be done with a soft-bristled brush angled at forty-five degrees to the gums. If possible, you should brush your teeth after every meal for the best chance of removing plaque and bacteria but this may not always be feasible. Flossing should be performed carefully once a day. This will help to remove bacteria from the tiny spaces between the teeth and also stimulate the gums around the base of the teeth. Your dentist may also advise you to use a tongue scraper or other dental implement such as an inter-dental brush.
Looking after your teeth well should only take you a couple of extra minutes a day. By following the few simple rules laid out for you by a dentist you will hopefully have to see a lot less of them in the future, only stopping in once every six-months for a quick check and a chat.
Dental check ups are one of the most effective ways of keeping your teeth clean and healthy and avoiding unwanted dental complications such as decay and disease. Although the majority of oral hygiene is carried out at home with brushing and flossing it is very important that you give your Bath dentist the opportunity to examine your teeth on a six-monthly basis to check for the telltale signs of dental disease.
Brushing and flossing will remove the majority of plaque and bacteria from your teeth and gums if performed correctly but all too often patients miss small spaces between the teeth and around the base near the gums. It is the areas that are hard to reach that your dentist will be able to examine and check for the onset of enamel erosion and tartar. Even the most effective dental hygiene routine can fall foul of decay in the harder to access parts of the mouth. Your dentist will be able to clean these areas and also give advice on how best to look after your teeth in the future.
Dental check ups serve a number of other purposes. Oral cancer is on the increase in the UK. This is a very unpleasant disease that can be treated effectively as long as it is caught early. Early treatment of oral cancer will give you a greater than 80 per cent chance of beating the disease, which otherwise could be fatal. Your dentist will check your mouth for the symptoms of oral cancer as part of a routine check up.
A dental check up should take little more than half an hour, which every six-months is hardly a lot of time. This half an hour could really make the difference to the health of your teeth and prevent the need for plenty more hours in the treatment chair repairing decayed teeth.
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
