Tips for your dental Health
It is up to you, to take care of your dental health! The most important dental health tips to pay attention to are:
- The correct way of brushing your teeth and the correct oral hygiene
- Dental friendly nutrition
- Strengthening of enamel through fluoride
- Regular check-up by a dentist, starting at early childhood
- Regular professional tooth cleaning (preferably twice a year)
You can find more tips for healthy teeth and gums below.
What to do in case of a dental accident?
In any dental accident, especially in case of a fracture, a dentist should be consulted immediately.
A knocked-out tooth can be re-implanted, but time is crucial in this case. Since the cells at the root canal dry very quick within 30 Minutes, it is important to store the tooth in a moist way. Never touch the tooth at the root - always touch it at the crown! Don’t clean the tooth!
Ideally you transport the tooth in a tooth rescue box which you can purchase at any pharmacy. Due to the cell nutrition within the box, the tooth may stay alive up to 24 hours. If there is no professional tooth rescue box available, store the tooth in cold milk.
What is the cause of tooth pain?
If you experience tooth pain, the reason is most of the time serious. Therefore, we recommend to always see immediately a dentist, in order to prevent serious long-term damage and to get a proper analysis of what caused your tooth pain. The reason can vary from cavities, root canal to wisdom tooth pain.
Swiss smile offers you “Walk-in-appointments” at the same day at the following clinics: Zürich Hauptbahnhof Shopville, Zürich Bellevue, Zürich Europaallee, Zug.
What is fluoride?
Fluoride is natural element, that is also found in drinking water. Fluoride can strengthen the enamel and in the early stage of caries, it might even be able to recover the tooth.
For a certain time, there were bias opinions on fluoride. About 300.000 studies worldwide however proofed, that fluoride can protect your teeth and is not harmful, if the recommend daily dose is followed.
How can fluoride protect your teeth: Toothpaste, chewing gum, drinking water or salt with fluoride and fluoride-gel take care of the daily consumption of fluoride.
Is chewing gum good for your teeth?
Chewing gum stimulates the salivary production in your mouth. Salivary flow helps to dilute existing acidity in the mouth, at the same time minerals that live in the saliva are being stored in the dental enamel. This way, little damages caused by acids can be repaired. To ensure. That chewing gum is good for you teeth make sure, that the chewing gum is sugar free. Sugar free chewing gum is marked with the little “Tooth-man” symbol on the packaging. However, chewing gum cannot replace a daily tooth cleaning.
What is meant by dental beneficial nutrition?
A healthy and balanced diet, starting in childhood is the basis for dental and general health of your kids. Regular meals are the most important element of a healthy died. Especially kids need snacks during the day after which they rarely brush their teeth. This way, acids can easily develop and soften up the tooth which leads to vulnerability to caries and tooth decay. Therefore, it is very important to ensure healthy snacks. Sweets as a reward are not advisable.
Inman food products, carbs that can harm your teeth are hidden – for example white bread, pizza, ketchup, drinks but also cold cuts. One single can of coke for example contains 12 pieces of lump sugar, orange juice even more – even if it says, “no added sugar”.
Sour food products such as citrus fruits, very sour apples or pickles are doing the same thing as bacteria: they attack the teeth directly and thereby allow bacteria to destroy teeth even faster. But also, bananas (the most activating natural food for caries), pretzel sticks and chips contain many enhancers for caries.
Sweets that do not contain sugar (saccharose) may be called sugar free. However, they may contain other carbs that are being transferred to disruptive acids rapidly by dental plaque.
The description “tooth friendly” may only be used for sweets, that do not trigger an essential acid development within the dental plaque.
In which case should mouth rinse be used?
In order to ensure oral health, optimal plaque control is the prerequisite. A mouth rinse offers an additional chemical way of plaque control in case the mechanical oral health and regular teeth brushing are not sufficient.
This might be the case for people wearing braces, people with a limited ability for oral health or patients suffering from gingivitis (gum disease or gum bleeding). Mouth rinse however must not be mistaken for mouthwash.
What is mouthwash good for?
Mouthwash is only there for refreshment and has no medical or preventive effect. Supplements of herbal essences may at the most have a positive effect on the gingiva.
How important is dental floss?
Dental floss is good for you, as it is the second most important tool after the toothbrush in order to prevent caries. Flossing can clean interdental spaces which cannot be reached with a regular toothbrush. The interdental spaces should be cleaned once a day with dental floss in order to stop caries causing bacteria from spreading.
How to use dental floss:
Wrap the dental floss around both middle fingers. For the upper row of teeth, make a fist and use both thumbs to span the floss. For the lower row of teeth, wrap the floss again around both middle fingers and make a fist, but use your index fingers to put pressure from above. The floss can be run through the dental spaces with slow sawing movements. Be careful not to use too much pressure so that the gum is not hurt. Pull the floss a couple of times forth and back at the inner area of both teeth. Do not be discouraged, with a little training, there will be less gum bleeding and the cleaning result will get much better.
How to clean your teeth properly?
Brushing your teeth should take a least two minute (check the watch – your sense of time might trick you) and if possible, should be carried out after every meal. Dental chewing gum are no replacement for brushing your teeth. After toothbrushing, the mouth should be rinsed with only little water. This way, the toothpaste fluoride can stay within the mouth for a longer time – fluoride is an effective protection against caries. Wrong way of cleaning your teeth: back and forth scrubbing your teeth. How to clean your teeth properly: small, circle movements from the gum to the tooth crown (from red to white).
- Outside surface: The tooth outside is being brushed from red to white, tooth by tooth. Take care of the interdental spaces and don’t push too hard.
- Outside surface front: Put incisors edge on edge, then brush from right to left, first top and then bottom with small up and down movements.
- Inside surface upper part: The inner surface has to be brushed tooth by tooth from red to white as well. Important: don’t brush too hard!
- Inside surface lower part: same as inner surface in the upper part. It might help to set the toothbrush upwards.
- Occlusal surface: When cleaning the occlusal surface, you can brush a little bit stronger.
Electrical toothbrushes are good, but they don’t reduce the time needed to clean your teeth properly.
And always remember, that dental floss is good to complete your oral care.
What to do in case of gum bleeding while brushing your teeth?
Excessive gum bleeding when brushing teeth can be a signal for gingivitis. If you thoroughly clean the plaque at least once a day, the inflammation and bleeding should get better within a couple of days. If this is not the case, it is recommended to get a professional tooth cleaning from a dental hygienist as a teeth gum bleeding treatment.
What is the best toothbrush?
A good toothbrush has nylon bristles which ends are rounded down. A small head makes brushing the back molars easier. Teeth and teeth ridge can be harmed if the bristles are too hard.
Do sweets poison teeth?
It is recommended to limit the consumption of sweets to a minimum. Sweetened drinks should not be consumed sip by sip over a longer period of time, but rather should be finished within a short time period.
After consumption of acid food, salads, fruits, sour or isotonic drinks etc. wait at least 30 minutes until brushing your teeth again.