omaurom
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Tips for Healthier teeth and gums...
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03.15.08 (3 months ago)
#1
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* Get the last scrape out of a tube of toothpaste by cutting the tube across the middle with scissors – you can usually get enough for at least another day.
* Every time you eat sugary foods, bacteria in plaque react to form acids that will attack the enamel of your teeth for up to an hour afterwards. This means it’s better to eat a bag of sweets all in one go than to spread them out over a few hours.
* Chewing sugar-free gum after a meal really does help by producing more saliva that helps to neutralise the ph in the mouth.
* Eating alkaline foods, such as cheese after a meal, also helps neutralise the damaging acids and can help prevent decay.
* Brush before breakfast rather than after. Eating and drinking weaken enamel and brushing straight afterwards can remove tiny pieces of enamel and cumulatively cause damage to the teeth. Leave at least half and hour between eating or drinking and brushing.
* Brushing before bed is particularly important because saliva flow decreases at night.
* Don’t use too much toothpaste. For age seven an over, a pea-sized amount is quite enough. Below the age of seven, just a little dab is sufficient.
* Only floss the teeth you want to keep!
* Floss once a day, every day. It’s no use telling your dentist that you floss if you don’t – we can tell!
* If you suffer from bad breath, try brushing your gums and tongue at the same time as your teeth.
* Bleeding gums is not a reason to stop flossing – on the contrary, it’s a sign that you really need to do it regularly.
* Don’t take fluoride tablets or give them to children without checking with your dentist first.
* Acid in fruit juice and fizzy drinks can erode the enamel on your teeth. To reduce this effect, drink through a straw and don’t brush your teeth for about half an hour after having them.
* If a first tooth is knocked out, leave it. It’ll come out on its own soon anyway.
* If a second tooth is knocked out whole, try and reimplant it immediately, making sure you get it the right way round!
* If you can’t reimplant it, store it in some milk and get to a dentist straight away.
* If no milk is available, tuck it inside your cheek, up next to the gum, and get to a dentist straight away.
* To reduce discomfort from sensitive teeth, try applying some sensitive toothpaste around the base of the tooth and to the gum after brushing, and leave it there.
* If you have a broken tooth and can’t see a dentist straight away, you can minimise scratching to the tongue and inside of the mouth by taking a little piece of wax from an Edam (or similar) cheese, rolling it up and placing on the jagged tooth.
* You can temporarily fix a broken-off crown back in place using sugar-free gum or denture fixative.
* Denture wearers are at greater risk of oral thrush. To avoid infection, leave dentures out at night and eat plenty of live yoghurt.
* If you have toothache, an anti-inflammatory painkiller, such as ibuprofen will give greater pain relief than paracetamol.
* Don’t put crushed aspirin around a sore tooth – it can lead to an ‘aspirin burn’ inside the mouth.
* For abcesses, don’t place a hot water bottle against your face, as it’s likely to lead to more pus build-up.
* If you have an abcess and your face is swollen, hold hot, salty water inside your mouth to encourage the abcess to drain into the mouth. Spit, rinse and repeat.
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