We all brush our teeth everyday. It’s something that is instilled into us from a young age, but not nearly so many of us floss. Some people see it as an extra hassle, something that should really be done but doesn’t matter a great deal if it’s not. This could be a very dangerous attitude as dentists are urging all of us to realise how important flossing is for our oral health.

Brushing removes plaque and bacteria that build up on the flat surfaces of the teeth. This helps to prevent tooth decay that causes dental cavities. Brushing also stimulates the gums helping to remove bacteria that stop the dangerous and unfortunately common gum disease. But there are many areas of the teeth and gums that cannot be reached with a toothbrush. The bristles of a standard toothbrush are too wide to fit in the gaps between teeth where food particles and bacteria can accumulate. This allows plaque to take a foothold and start eroding the protective tooth enamel. Flossing allows you to clean these narrow areas between the teeth and also around their base.

In addition, flossing also helps to prevent inflamed gum tissue around the base of the teeth causing further problems. This is because inflamed tissue creates small pockets between the gums and the teeth, which can act as shelters for plaque and bacteria. By flossing, this tissue is cleaned and subsides to a more natural level making cleaning easier. For more information and techniques of how to floss most effectively, make an appointment to se a London dentist.

Most cases of bad breath, as many as 90 per cent in fact, are caused by poor standards of oral hygiene allowing bacteria and food debris to build up in gaps in the teeth and on the tongue. This bacteria then starts to dissolve releasing sulphurous odours into the mouth that are carried out on the breath.

Many products promise an end to this odour by killing the bacteria using an antiseptic. While this undoubtedly kills the bacteria it is also likely to cause side effects like dry mouth and dehydration. This can lead to an underproduction of saliva, the body’s natural defence against bacteria and bad breath. This means that when the bacteria return it may be more of a problem.

The only sure fire way to beat bad breath is to avoid using outside help and improve your standards of oral hygiene to give your own defences the best chance of beating the bacteria. Millions of bacteria live in the mouth, some good, some bad, but effective brushing and flossing helps to remove the bad bacteria that cause the smell. Other tools such as a tongue scraper or inter-dental brush can help to remove trapped food and bacteria form difficult to reach places in the teeth and mouth.

By simply controlling the bacteria and not prohibiting the production of saliva you can get rid of bad breath without using nasty chemicals or mouthwashes. A London dentist can offer instruction about the most effective ways to clean teeth and which utensils will be best for your mouth.

The terms scaling and polishing can sound scary especially when you know it’s happening at the dentist. In a recent survey, over 90 per cent of people in Britain admitted to having some fear of the dentist. The reality is however, that scaling and polishing are relatively painless procedures and could prevent years of dental health problems in the future that really will be painful.

Scaling is the process of using hand tools to remove built up plaque that has hardened into tartar and calculus. This usually takes place near the gum line and on the back-side of teeth which are areas often overlooked during tooth brushing. The procedure can hardly be called a pleasant one, but it should not involve any pain if performed correctly by a Central London dentist. For many patients it is the noise and sensation that are slightly unpleasant rather than any feeling of pain. However scaling is one of the most important procedures in dental hygiene and can prevent cavities even at a late stage of plaque build up.

Polishing is the process of using an electronic, rubber-tipped tool to polish teeth once all cleaning work has been done. This is a painless procedure and only involves some mild tickling sensations. Polishing and scaling can leave your teeth feeling extremely clean and fresh. It prevents discolouration and cavities occurring to damage the appearance of your teeth and makes your teeth look cleaner, whiter and healthier.

Your oral hygiene may be more than just an indicator of your dental health, as links have been proven between periodontal disease and a heightened risk or cardiovascular disease.

These links have always been suspected but a new study seems to conclusively prove the relationship. The study showed that adults who had lost more than ten teeth were much more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. This happens because bacterial infection affecting the teeth and gums can start a chain reaction of chemicals that causes inflammation throughout the whole body. Inflammation of the arteries causes a narrowing of the arteries, which can be the main cause of a heart attack.

The study followed 711 people over the age of 57 and found that those who had lost teeth due to decay and periodontal infection correlated with those most likely to suffer some form of cardiac disease. The study is particularly shocking because periodontal disease and tooth decay are so preventable with improved oral hygiene. More effective and regular brushing and flossing can reduce the amount of plaque in the mouth and severely cut the risk of infection. This in turn would keep the arteries free form the effects or inflammation helping to keep the heart and other major organs healthy.

Another important aspect of maintaining good standards of oral hygiene is by making regular visits to a Central London dentist for a check up. They can spot and treat the first signs of decay and infection, helping to keep your mouth and heart healthy. For the sake of a few extra minutes cleaning a day you could help to minimise the risk of heart disease, one of the biggest killers in the UK.

Having healthy teeth isn’t a gift, it isn’t a lucky thing either, it is a by-product of having a healthy attitude to oral care. That attitude is best taught when someone is a child; eating habits and dental hygiene are an important part of our education. We teach our children the rights and wrongs of life, so if we exclude dental care we aren’t doing our jobs properly as parents. There’s an old saying that goes “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life”, what great wisdom there is in that saying. If we take the literacy of that and apply it to dental and oral care, we will be doing our children a great service. Not only will they have their teeth longer, but we won’t have to sit outside the dentist room so often, while they get treatment that could be avoided with a little common sense. Eating the right food isn’t only good for our diet, but it is also good for our teeth. When we eat food we chew it first, and in this process we produce saliva that helps us swallow and break down the food into energy. However, this process also produces bad bacteria that damage our teeth, often beyond repair. Teeth aren’t only just for childhood; they can be for life if we use a little common sense, and an early learnt routine of oral care. Oral care isn’t just about brushing, flossing and mouth washes, it is also about healthy eating and keeping bad bacteria to a minimum. Fish, fresh fruit and vegetables as well as sugarless drinks will help us to keep tooth decay to a minimum, as well as those expensive dental bills as adults.

Good oral hygiene can be determined by a few obvious signs. A healthy mouth is a mouth that looks good and smells clean. More specifically, this means a mouth where the teeth are clean and free of debris, where gums are pink and healthy and are not irritable or caused to bleed when brushing. And obviously bad breath is a sign that all is not well in the oral cavity.

If you are experiencing any of these problems you will need to change your oral hygiene regime. Your City of London dentist or dental hygienist can advise you of the best and most effective ways to clean your teeth and gums and recommend products best suited to your teeth.

Effective cleaning can usually be attained by correct brushing and flossing. Dentists recommend brushing the teeth twice a day for three minutes holding the brush at a forty-five degree angle to the surface of the teeth. It is important to use a brush with suitable bristles for your teeth and gums and to use a toothpaste with suitable fluoride levels.

Flossing helps to remove food and plaque that is caught between the teeth and cannot be removed with a regular tooth brush. Decaying food matter between the teeth is the cause of over 90 per cent of cases of bad breath. Other cleaning tools that can benefit oral hygiene include interdental brushes to clean between teeth and tongue scrapers to remove some of the 6 million bacteria that live in the moist grooves on the tongue.

Not only will good oral hygiene keep your mouth looking and feeling healthy but it helps to protect teeth from decay and gums from disease. A healthy mouth can also be indicative of a more general well-being.

Maintaining a good standard of oral hygiene is crucial in the war against tooth decay and gum disease. Just a few minutes of brushing and flossing each day could save you a lifetime of costly and painful dental treatment.

When it comes to oral hygiene, prevention really is better than cure. Dental problems are very easy to prevent but often very difficult to cure. Dentists recommend that patients brush their teeth twice a day for three minutes using an appropriate brush and toothpaste. This helps to prevent the build up of plaque on the tooth enamel. Plaque is a filmy substance made up of bacteria, decaying food particles and other debris. It breaks down the enamel causing cavities to develop, which if left unchecked will eventually penetrate to the root of the tooth causing toothache, abscesses and even tooth loss.

Flossing helps to remove plaque from between the teeth which is very hard for regular toothbrushes to reach. It allows you to clean below the gum line which is also hard to clean with a normal brush. This can be significant in the prevention of gingivitis, or gum disease as it is more commonly known.

Brushing and flossing are the front line defence against all forms of dental decay and disease and their importance cannot be underestimated. However, it is important, no matter how much of a fervent brusher you are, to keep up six-monthly check-ups with the dentist. Even patients with good standards of cleaning are susceptible to tooth decay, and a dentist will be able to spot the first signs of any problems.

Keeping teeth and gums clean can also have the added advantage of keeping your breath fresh. Flossing removes trapped food particles from between the teeth which are the cause for over 90 per cent of all cases of halitosis. Using tongue cleaners and inter-dental brushes can also help to keep your mouth free of bacteria. A London dentist will be able to offer you advice on which brushes are most suitable for your teeth and give further instruction on the best methods of maintaining good oral hygiene.

Nowhere is it more true that prevention is better than cure, than when it comes to dental health. Unlike the rest of the body where disease and illness can affect you regardless of your lifestyle, your dental health depends more or less entirely on your standards of oral hygiene. Whilst it may not seem that important to keep your mouth clean, ask any sufferer of gum disease or tooth decay and they will tell you the pain and stress caused by these conditions are a very serious business.

Dentists advise that you brush your teeth twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening before bed, using a brush with appropriate bristles for your teeth. They also advise that patients floss at least once a day. This is crucial to maintaining a good standard of oral hygiene which can help to prevent tooth decay and gum disease.

If teeth are not correctly brushed, a filmy substance called plaque builds up around them. Plaque is full of bacteria, which attack the enamel of the teeth, breaking it down and causing cavities. If a cavity penetrates to the root of the tooth, it will erode the pulp and eventually lead to a painful infection. This can spread to other parts of the mouth and will eventually lead to tooth loss. Bacteria in the mouth can also cause painful gum disease, also know as gingivitis, which is an infection of the gums. This can cause gums to bleed and bacteria to enter the bloodstream and spread to other areas of the body.

The mouth is one of the dirtiest places on the human body, with over 500 million bacteria calling it their home. If it is not properly cleaned this bacteria will thrive in these perfect conditions causing all of the above problems and more.

It is also important to note that nearly 90 per cent of cases of bad breath are caused by poor standards of oral hygiene, particularly a lack of flossing, which helps to remove food particles from between the teeth. If left, these particles break down releasing foul smelling sulphurous compounds which cause bad breath. So not only are good standards of hygiene important for health, but also for your social life. A London dentist will be able to offer advice on how best to maintain good oral hygiene and prevent a whole range of painful and costly dental procedures.

The mouth is generally a breeding ground for bacteria but it is the protein-rich areas of the tongue that are home to over 70 per cent of them. The grooves in the surface of the tongue provide the perfect conditions for bacteria to multiply rapidly and then be transported around the rest of the mouth by saliva. This bacteria contributes widely to the onset of periodontal problems such as gum disease and tooth decay. The foul smelling sulfurous compounds released by decaying bacteria and food matter are also responsible for nearly 90 percent of cases of halitosis, or bad breath.

Tongue cleaning devices have been in use for thousands of years and have always played a part in both Chinese and Indian natural treatments. More contemporary tongue cleaners can help to remove some of the 500 million bacteria that live on the average human tongue. They are also able to remove fungi, such as the thrush causing candida, and the decaying food matter that gets lodge in the grooves of the tongue that can cause bad breath.

A dirty tongue is not just the cause of oral concerns, but it has also been linked to wider systematic health problems which include pneumonia, cardiovascular difficulties, osteoporosis and has links to causing diabetes. Dentists and other health professionals therefore empahsise the importance of having a clean tongue for maintaining not just good oral hygiene but a general sense of well being.

London dentists recommend using a specifically designed tongue cleaner as regular toothbrushes are not suitable for cleaning the spongy surface of the tongue. There are some toothbrushes which come with built in tongue cleaners, usually on the back of the head, but your dentist will be able to recommend which tongue cleaner will work for you. There are many reasons to keep your tongue clean and it really will only take a few extra minutes a day, but the benefits could last you a life time.

A visit to the dentist’s these days may also involve a visit to the dental hygienist, but what exactly does the hygienist do? The main role is to professionally clean the teeth for the patient. They do this by using techniques known as scaling and polishing. This is essentially removing plaque and more specifically tartar, which cannot be removed by brushing.

Perhaps more importantly they can offer advice on preventing dental decay and show the patient the best way to prevent the build up of plaque in the first instance. By working in tandem with your dentist they can develop and dental hygiene plan that will reduce the risk of dental complications in the future.

Dental hygienists are professionally qualified and it is now increasingly common that your dental practice will have its own hygienist. They are often able to spend longer with you than the dentist as it is usually possible to book their services by the hour. Also they aren’t subject to the same caseload as the dentist.

Dental hygienists are also now able to take x-rays which has helped them diagnose problems and suggest possible treatments. They can also apply fluoride treatments to teeth to help keep them healthy and strong. Hygienists are also fully trained to offer advice in smoking cessation. Smoking is very bad for the appearance of teeth and can also be responsible for causing gum disease. The hygienist can offer advice on how best to clean teeth if you smoke and assist you if you are trying to give up.

The dental hygienist can be a crucial weapon in the war against tooth decay and gum disease. They can clean your teeth, advise you on the best way to clean your teeth yourself and assist the dentist to solve any problems that may arise. See if your London dentist has a hygienist and make an appointment today.