What people are saying

C
leaning & Prevention: Home Care Instructions & Aids

Creating a beautiful, healthy smile is our ultimate goal for all our patients. You can help us achieve our goal by maintaining excellent personal oral hygiene with brushing twice a day and flossing daily. Use proper dental aids to help control plaque and bacteria that will cause dental disease. Remember to maintain a balanced and healthy diet, limit snacking, including drinks high in sugar and acids and rinse your mouth water or a drink of water following snacks.

Tooth Brushing

Brush at least twice a day, using an ADA approved soft bristle brush and toothpaste. Brush for at least two minutes and Change your toothbrush regularly. As soon as the bristles begin to splay, the toothbrush loses its ability to clean properly. Throw away your old toothbrush after three months or when the bristles flare, whichever comes first. If you find your bristles flaring much sooner than three months, you may be brushing too hard. Try easing up.

Place your brush at a 45-degree angle where your gums and teeth meet. Gently move the brush in a circular motion several times using small, gentle strokes. Use light pressure while putting the bristles between the teeth, but not so much pressure that your feel any discomfort.
When done cleaning the outside surfaces of all your teeth, follow the same directions while cleaning the inside of the back teeth.
To clean the inside surfaces of the upper and lower front teeth, hold the brush vertically. Make several gentle back and forth strokes over each tooth. Remember to gently brush the surrounding gum tissue.
Next clean the biting surfaces of your teeth. Use short, gently strokes. Change the position of the brush as often as needed to reach and clean all surfaces. Use the mirror while brushing to make sure you clean each surface. After you are done, rinse vigorously to remove any plaque you might have loosened while brushing.
Finally, Brush your Tongue to remove bacteria and freshen your breath.

Flossing

Floss daily, as plaque colonies build up and Gingivitis or Periodontal disease usually appears between the teeth where your toothbrush cannot reach. Flossing is a very effective way to remove plaque from those surfaces. However, it is important to develop the proper technique. The following instructions will help you, but remember with any new habit, it becomes second nature after only three weeks. If you have difficulty, ask our dental team to give you a personal lesson.

Choose your own time

Although most people find that just before bed is an ideal time, floss at any time that is most convenient to ensure that you will continue to floss regularly. Choose a time during the day when you can floss without haste.

How to Floss

Use about 18 inches of floss. Wind the floss around your middle fingers, then pull taut and guide it with your index fingers. You can also wind it around your index fingers and guide with your thumb and middle fingers or simply hold the ends of the floss. You may also use a floss-threading tool. Please ask your dental hygienist to help you if can’t settle on a good method.

Hold the floss so a short segment is ready to work with.
Guide the floss gently between two teeth. If the fit is tight, use a back-and-forth motion to work the floss through the narrow spot. Try not to snap it in between your teeth or you could cut your gums.
Gently move the floss toward the base of the tooth and up into the space between the tooth and gum.
Move the floss up and down with light to firm pressure to skim off plaque in the area. Do not press so hard that you injure your gum.
Repeat for all sides of the tooth, including the outermost side of the last tooth. Advance the floss to a clean segment for each tooth edge.
When you are done, rinse vigorously with water to remove plaque and food particles. Do not be alarmed if during the first week of flossing your gums bleed or are a little sore. If your gums hurt while flossing you could be doing it too hard or pinching the gum. As you floss daily and remove the plaque your gums will heal and the bleeding should stop.

Other Cleaning Tools

Interdental cleaners: For those of us with larger spaces between our teeth, we can use interdental cleaners to remove food particles and bacterial plaque. These can be found at most drugstores or grocery stores and your dental hygienist or dentist can recommend these and show you how to use these cleaners.

Oral Irrigators: These electrical devices pump water out in a slim steady stream or pulsating stream. They are effective at flushing out food and bacteria byproducts in periodontal pockets or that get caught in orthodontic appliances. They are also useful for delivering medication to hard to reach areas that may be prescribed by your dentist.

Mouthwashes and rinses: As with toothpaste, the choice of mouthwash or rinse is guided by our personal mouth care needs. Over the counter rinses are available to freshen the breath, add fluoride or to kill plaque bacteria that cause gingivitis. Some mouthwashes are designed to help loosen plaque before you brush. Ask your dentist or hygienist to recommend the type of rinse that would be best for you.

Electric Toothbrushes: Electronic toothbrushes are safe and effective for the majority of the patients. We see excellent results with electric toothbrushes and recommend discussing this option with you before making a purchase to determine the right brush for you.

Toothpastes: Different types of toothpastes have special ingredients for preventing decay, plaque control, tartar control, whitening, gum care or desensitizing teeth. Most toothpaste on the market today contain fluoride, proven to prevent, stop or even reverse the decay process. Tartar-control toothpastes are useful for people who tend to build up tartar quickly, while someone who gets tooth stains may want a whitening toothpaste. Whitening toothpastes will remove only surface stains, such as those caused by smoking, tea or coffee. To whiten teeth that are stained at a deeper level, let us help you with professional teeth whitening services.

Professional Cleaning

Daily brushing and flossing keeps dental calculus to a minimum, but a professional cleaning will remove calculus in places your brush and floss have missed. Visit your dentist regularly. Keep your teeth for your lifetime.