There are two key ways of preventing dental injuries, depending on your sport. Sports involving speed and impact, including hockey, cycling and skating, should require you to wear a helmet. However, sometimes it might be inappropriate (or even disallowed) to wear a helmet. Mouth guards are a discreet and effective alternative – and should usually be worn in addition to helmets by cyclists, skaters, and other high-impact sports players.

While mouth guards can be purchases in many sports shops, it’s a better idea to visit your dentist and have a custom-fit mouth guard prepared. This will be both more comfortable and more effective in protecting your teeth from knocks and pressure.

If you still suffer from a dental injury during sport, see your dentist immediately. What many people don’t know is that even if a tooth is knocked out during high-impact sports, they can often be saved if you see your dentist quickly. Dentists can also fix cracks and chips using tooth-coloured materials, so the damage isn’t always visible.

It’s a good idea to protect your teeth during sports, as often damage permanent or costly. If you engage in high-impact or contact sports, visit your London dentist for advice and information on prevention methods you can take to save yourself from unnecessary dental injuries.

To prevent plaque developing into tartar, it’s best to brush your teeth twice daily and floss a few times a week. If tartar, or dental calculus, is allowed to remain on the teeth, it can cause chronic infection and inflammation, both of which are painful and damaging to your dental health. It’s also one of the leading causes of tooth decay, which can lead to tooth-aches and, potentially, tooth removal. Tartar that develops above the gum line can also lead to serious cases of gum disease.

The only way to remove dental calculus from your teeth is to see your dentist about treatment. Your dentist will clean your teeth through a method known as a scale and polish, which will remove built-up plaque and tartar from your teeth. In more serious cases, your dentist may employ an ultrasonic cleaning device to clear away large amounts of calculus build-up.

Having your teeth cleared of plaque and calculus will not only prevent the destructive effects of these damaging bacteria, but will also make it harder for plaque and calculus to accumulate again. The rough surface of dental calculus is the ideal environment for the formation of further bacteria, meaning that without treatment, you can quickly be caught up in a downward spiral.

Even while maintaining good oral hygiene, having your teeth cleaned professionally on a semi-regular basis will help you to keep damaging bacteria at bay. Ask your City of London dentist for more advice and information about dental calculus on your next check-up.

However, if you feel more comfortable using denture adhesive, there is no reason not to. There are two kinds of denture adhesives currently available.

The first type is the powdered adhesives, which you apply simply by applying a thin layer of powder onto the inside of your denture before you put the denture in place. These are easier to clean off than other types of adhesives, and they don’t affect your bite. If you opt for a powdered adhesive, you’ll have to remember to clean your denture rather than simply rinse it with water.

The second kind of denture adhesive is paste adhesives. You apply these moderately onto the tissue surface of a clean, dry denture, before placing it in position. This is less convenient than the powdered denture for a couple of reasons: if you apply too much, it might ooze out and alter the structure of your bite. It’s also much harder to clean off thoroughly.

Your denture adhesive should keep your dentures in place for a good amount of time, though it’s dependent upon a variety of factors. Upper dentures tend to stay in for longer, because they do not have to deal with the movements and friction that lower dentures get from your tongue, cheeks and mouth.

People with dentures should still see their dentists for check-ups twice annually. If you think you might need a denture adhesive, ask your London dentist for advice and information on what kind will suit you best.

Caused by a build-up plaque on the teeth, which can result from not brushing or flossing often enough, gum disease can be a serious problem for many people. If it develops into periodontitis, it can even result in the loss of a tooth.

You can start to protect yourself from gum disease now, by maintaining good oral hygiene. Brush your teeth at least twice a day, floss a few times a week, use mouthwash where possible, and see your dentist regularly.

However, if your gum disease is more advanced, your dentist may want to provide treatment. This might be a scale and polish, to clear tartar and plaque from your teeth using special instruments, or could involve root planning, where your dentist will clear bacteria from the roots of your teeth. Antibiotics are also a common course of treatment for cases of gum disease.

Severe gum disease, including periodontitis, could require surgery to remove an infected tooth and stop the problem worsening. This is why it’s a good idea to have your dentist take a look at your gums as soon as you spot anything amiss – early gum disease is easy to treat, and even easier to prevent.

If your gums are sore, swollen or red, or if they bleed when you brush, see your London dentist as soon as possible about gum disease treatment.

Invisible braces offer the same results as traditional braces, but without any unsightly consequences. With invisible braces, life goes on as normal – you needn’t lose any self-confidence. They work very similarly to the way traditional braces work, by applying constant pressure to the teeth in order to re-align them. However, invisible braces do away with the metal bars, and instead achieve this through a small, invisible tray.

The benefits of invisible braces go above and beyond just the aesthetic reasons, too. They are far more accurate than traditional metal braces when it comes to re-aligning your teeth, allowing your dentist to plan exactly what your smile will look like at the end of the process.

Invisible braces are also quicker and more convenient than metal braces. You can easily take them out to eat, brush your teeth and floss, and as they can otherwise be left in almost constantly, the re-alignment process takes just months – in comparison to the years usually required by metal braces.

If you think your teeth aren’t as straight as you’d like them to be, then the process needn’t be as uncomfortable as it once was – and in just a few months you could have a whole new you. Visit your City of London dentist today for advice and information about having invisible braces fitted.

Dental caries can be both extremely visible and extremely well-hidden. On the outside of a tooth, they usually begin as a chalky area and develop into a dark cavitation. However, when dental caries develop in less visible areas of the teeth, your dentist may need to use a radiograph or laser to judge how much damage they’re causing.

Other than the visible symptoms, if any of your teeth start to ache, this might be a sign of dental caries, and you should see your dentist immediately. When left untreated, dental caries can have some unpleasant side effects. Not only will your tooth hurt, but you might lose it, and it could get infected.

Your dentist will either prescribe you with a filling, a crown, or a root canal. Fillings involve blocking the cavity in your tooth with an alloy or resin, whereas crowns are used when damage is more extensive and a tooth needs extra support. A root canal is prescribed when the tooth’s nerve has died, and involves removing the dead material and filling the tooth’s roots with sealing material.

Dental caries, despite being common, are a serious problem for many people. It’s advisable to have them seen to straight away – catching them early can reduce the cost and length of the treatment you’ll need, as well as saving you a lot of pain and stress.

Visit your London dentist for a check-up today.

One of the dangers that affect lots of people in a busy place like the city of London is stress and it can be very damaging to your health, but it also can be destructive to your upper body via your teeth. There are many ways to deal with stress, from anger management to mastering the art of relaxation before you go to bed, otherwise, it can lead to teeth grinding and overtime, lead to some pretty nasty damage around your upper body. Sure, your dentist can prescribe you a gum-shield to stop you damaging your teeth, but if you don’t get your stress under control, you will still be biting your teeth together throughout the night- the obvious signs of this is an aching jaw in the mornings, which will inevitably lead to damage in your jaw joints, and fatigue because you have not slept well; over time, your jaws will start to click, you may suffer from tinnitus and you will be damaging your neck and upper back. Should it ever reach this stage, you may not only require restoration to your teeth in order to protect the mouth’s bite, but you may need surgery to your jaws and neck as well, which doesn’t make pretty reading at all. The remedy is to ask your dentist to help you with the problem if you become aware of that you are suffering from this condition.

Sleep apnoea, like all other apnoeas in a condition that is caused by irregular breathing when you sleep in London caused essentially by the breakdown or blockage in the airways. During our sleep, we rely on the automated services to help us breathe. The brain sends out a message to the lungs to start taking in oxygen and then feed it to the heart, which pumps blood around the body and to the brain to keep the cycle going. Stop the air going into the lungs and the system starts to break down and falter, a bit like your car miss-firing. Your breathing at this point can go from very quick breaths to long pauses between breaths. The heart will come under a lot of stress and start to trip up and if the condition continues, your heart could give out altogether, but whilst this condition is going on, you can also lapse between deep and light sleep and snore ferociously ands the airways try to free themselves, which when you wake can leave you feeling exhausted, irritable and badly fatigued, and though you won’t notice it, you breathing during the day can become equally irregular- again straining the heart. You can seek therapy, medication or even breathing devices from your dentist to help free up your airways, or have physical surgery to clear the passages.

Central apnoea is one of those strange conditions that can inevitably lead to heart failure, but you may be blissfully unaware of having it at all in central London. All apnoeas are the cause of poor or intermittent breathing while you are sleeping, but with central apnoea, it is more common in people who have had problems with their central nervous system; either it has been damaged, you may have suffered from a stroke that has caused some sort of damage to the brain or you may be on heavy medication. Much of your breathing relies on the messages from the brain that are sent through the central nerves to your breathing muscles and if any of these are damaged, your breathing becomes erratic; it may become very shallow and quick but with interference in the messaging, the breathing can stop altogether and cause the heart to fluctuate as it is not getting the regular oxygen it needs to operate efficiently, putting an immense strain on it. This is why people who have had strokes, heart disease or a heart attack are in the high risk category because their hearts are already weakened.

One of the major problems with the mouth is that things can go wrong quickly and get out of control before you know it in the city of London, so you have to be on your guard everyday in order to give yourself a chance of avoiding the horrors that can crop up. This means you have to be on top form with your oral hygiene at least twice a day with your brushing, flossing and rinsing. You must also ensure to maintain regular visits to your dentist because if things do start to go wrong, they can be halted in their tracks before they get to the next level. In the early stages, a dentist can clean your teeth of tartar and if need be, administer a filling. However, if plaque and tartar are allowed to develop, they will each away at the gums and your teeth’s enamel causing gum disease and bad tooth decay. At this stage, the fight becomes more complex for you and your dentist, which may involve complex procedures such as root canal treatment and deep scaling and polishing. At home the way you look after your teeth will need to change as well and your products will require the use of herbal products as well to stop the conditions worsening. If you go beyond this, then you are in the last chance saloon which could involve bone and tissue grafting. It’s a horrible spiral to get yourself into, so you would be advised to get your preventative dentistry right from the beginning.