Clean Teeth: How to Clean Your Teeth for a Healthy Mouth

The best way to keep your teeth, gums, and mouth in good health is through regular and effective teeth cleaning. In addition to your regular oral hygiene routine, most dental professionals recommend professional teeth cleaning. Not only will good teeth cleaning keep you in good oral health and hygiene, it will also help keep your mouth feeling fresh, prevent bad breath, and can help keep your teeth white and bright.

Brushing for Clean Teeth

Brushing your teeth is the most important and effective method for teeth cleaning. Most dentists recommend you brush at least twice a day, but brushing after every meal is even better. Whether you choose electric or manual, select a toothbrush that allows you to easily clean all surfaces and in hard to reach areas. And don't forget to replace your toothbrush every 3-4 months.

• Picking a Toothbrush: Make sure your toothbrush fits your mouth. It’s easier to achieve clean teeth if you aren’t using a brush that’s too big. If you have a small mouth, you may find it easier to clean teeth by using a toothbrush with a compact head instead of a full-sized head. Some people find that electric toothbrushes make it easier to spend the dentist-recommended two minutes on teeth cleaning. Oral-B Vitality Toothbrushes provide thorough teeth cleaning and help to remove plaque and surface stains.
• Picking a Toothpaste: Crest Pro-Health Toothpaste is available in several varieties (Clean Mint, Smooth Peppermint, Whitening Power, Sensitive & Enamel Shield). All types of Crest Toothpaste help protect against tooth sensitivity and help fight cavities, tartar, plaque, gingivitis, stains and bad breath.
• Proper Brushing Technique: You can maximize clean teeth by using the most effective techniques for teeth brushing. Hold your toothbrush at approximately a 45-degree angle to the teeth you are brushing. Use small strokes and brush your teeth in sections. Don’t forget to go all the way behind your last tooth on each side. Use small, tooth-sized strokes to brush the surface of each tooth, rather than large, sweeping strokes. Cleaning teeth includes cleaning all three sides—front, back, and top of the chewing surface.

Flossing for Clean Teeth

• Picking Floss: A thorough teeth cleaning routine includes daily flossing. Oral-B Glide Deep Clean Floss, slides easily between the teeth to remove food particles and reduce the daily buildup of plaque and bacteria on the teeth.
• Proper Flossing Technique: Flossing is an essential part of teeth cleaning. You should floss regularly to remove food particles from in between your teeth. This can help reduce plaque and tartar build-up between teeth. If you have trouble sliding floss between your teeth, try waxed floss or wide floss. The American Dental Association recommends using about 18 inches of floss, so you have a clean piece of floss to use on each tooth in the cleaning teeth process. Curve the floss into a C-shape as you slide it up and down along the side of each tooth. Don’t forget to floss the back sides of your back teeth on both the left and right of the upper and lower teeth. 

Rinsing for Clean Teeth

• Picking a Mouthwash: Crest Pro-Health Multi-Protection Mouthwash boosts your teeth cleaning routine with additional germ-killing and plaque-preventing properties.
• Proper Rinsing Technique: Mouthwash is a great method for teeth cleaning and also leaves your mouth feeling fresh and clean. If you don’t like the burning sensation you get from alcohol-based rinses, look for formulas that are made without alcohol.

Get a Professional Teeth Cleaning

The happy, healthy mouth feeling you get after a good teeth cleaning is invaluable. Visiting a dental professional at least twice a year is an important part of your oral hygiene regimen. Professional teeth cleaning removes the tartar you just can’t get to at home, and regular exams will ensure your teeth and mouth are in good health. After cleaning teeth, a dentist will examine your mouth for signs of problems including:

• Tooth loss: Cleaning teeth professionally helps keep them in good condition to promote better chewing and swallowing.
• Gum disease: Gum disease can be avoided or caught early if a dentist sees problems while cleaning teeth.
• Dental damage: You may not notice if you have broken fillings or damaged crowns, but a regular dental visit can identify these problems and fix them before they become serious enough to require surgery or tooth removal.
• Oral cancer: Mouth cancer is usually treatable if diagnosed early, and a dentist can screen for oral cancer during a visit for cleaning teeth. 

How to Maintain Clean Teeth

In addition to following a complete oral care routine, you can support your cleaning teeth efforts by avoiding cigarettes and other tobacco products, eating healthy, and visiting a dental professional regularly. Keep these other tips in mind to maintain clean teeth:

• Rinse away stains: if you can’t brush your teeth after consuming food or beverages that may stain your teeth, preserve clean teeth by rinsing your mouth with water or a mouthwash.
• Quit smoking: Smoking is one of the top factors that undermines clean teeth. You can go a long way toward having a healthy mouth if you avoid tobacco products. That includes not only cigarettes, but cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco (chew/dip). If you use tobacco products, it’s not too late to have a healthy mouth if you quit, or at least cut back. Studies have shown that smoking may contribute to gum disease by getting in the way when normal gum tissue cells try to do their job of maintaining a healthy mouth.
• Eat right: Eating a balanced diet helps promote a healthy mouth, healthy teeth, and healthy gums. The American Dental Association recommends keeping between-meal snacks to a minimum to promote a healthy mouth. If you do need a snack, some healthy mouth choices include raw veggies, plain yogurt, cheese, or a piece of fruit, such as an apple or pear.

Benefits of Good Oral Health

Keeping a healthy smile is one of many benefits associated with teeth cleaning. If you keep your teeth and mouth healthy, you are sure to appreciate the following important benefits.

• Good Oral Health: Regular teeth cleaning will keep your mouth and body healthy. Good oral hygiene can prevent plaque build-up, which can lead to gum disease. Numerous studies have suggested a correlation between poor oral hygiene, gum disease, and heart disease, so teeth cleaning is an important way to keep your entire body healthy.
• Better Breath: Want to get a little closer? Regular teeth cleaning with any fluoride toothpaste can help freshen your breath. For a better breath bonus, choose mint toothpaste, and don’t forget to brush your tongue.
• Brighter Smile: No one likes to have yellow teeth and an unsightly smile. Removing surface stains with daily teeth cleaning helps your teeth look brighter. Having a whiter smile helps improve your overall appearance, especially since your smile is an important part of making a good first impression.
• Confidence: When you look great, you feel great. Flashing a bright, white smile after a good teeth cleaning will give you a new sense of self-confidence that is sure to show. Studies have shown that a bright, healthy smile gives you more confidence in both personal and professional settings.
• Save Money: Following a regular teeth cleaning routine can eventually help you avoid costly dental visits to manage severe gum disease or tooth decay.

So, the next time you consider putting off your regular teeth cleaning for another month, remember all of this important information and think again before picking up the phone. You’ll be glad to have a happier mouth and smile once you’ve had a good teeth cleaning.

 

The above article is from crest.com

Dentist North Little Rock AR
Springhill Dental, PLLC
3401 Springhill Drive, Suite 285
North Little Rock, AR 72117
Telephone: (501) 955-0155

Why Toothpaste Makes Everything Else Taste Bad (and How to Fix It)

Ever brush your teeth, then take a swig of orange juice only to curse yourself for drinking such a vile combination? Magazine and weblog Mental_Floss explains why this happens, and how to avoid it. The strong minty flavor is probably part of the problem, as you’d expect, but   Mental_Floss notes that it goes deeper than that. Most toothpastes contain sodium laureth sulfate (and its counterparts, sodium lauryl ether sulfate and sodium lauryl sulfate), which is responsible for making the  toothpaste foam up in your mouth. Its also responsible for everything tasting bad afterward:

While surfactants make brushing our teeth a lot easier, they do more than make foam. Both SLES and SLS mess with our taste buds in two ways. One, they suppress the receptors on our taste buds that perceive sweetness, inhibiting our ability to pick up the sweet notes of food and drink. And, as if that wasn’t enough, they break up the phospholipids on our tongue. These fatty molecules inhibit our receptors for bitterness and keep bitter tastes from overwhelming us, but when they’re broken down by the surfactants in toothpaste, bitter tastes get enhanced.

Basically, they enhance bitter tastes and inhibit sweet ones, making everything taste bad. There are lots of theories out there, but this is currently the most widely accepted one.

The solution? You could brush your teeth after breakfast, but many dental professionals say it’s better to brush beforehand. So, the better option is to search for an SLS-free toothpaste the next time you’re shopping. Speaking from experience, an SLS-free toothpaste changes everything—I used one for a little while and never had the “disgusting orange juice” debacle in the morning. Generally it doesn’t matter what kind of toothpaste you buy, but if you must brush your teeth before breakfast, buying one without SLS is a good idea. Of course, you could always brush your teeth in the shower, too.

By Whitson Gordon
Article appeared on www.Floss.com

Dentist North Little Rock AR

Springhill Dental, PLLC

3401 Springhill Drive, Suite 285

North Little Rock, AR 72117

Telephone: (501) 955-0155

Learn more about toothpaste

What is toothpaste

• Abrasives Detergent (1-2 per cent)
• Binding agents (1 per cent)
• Humectants (10-30 per cent)
• Flavouring, sweetening and colouring agents (1-5 per cent)
• Preservatives (0.05-0.5 per cent)
• Water

Toothpastes are the most widely used oral health care product and there is considerable choice available to the consumer. Toothpaste types range from family anti-decay/anti-plaque types to the specific formulations for smokers, for sensitive teeth, special children's formulations and the recently introduced tooth whitening pastes which are the fastest growing sector of the toothpaste market.

Toothpaste ingredients are usually shown on packs w/w' - that is weight for weight, or grams per 100 grams. Under new European cosmetics legislation, toothpastes are required to list all ingredients. In addition to water and therapeutic agents such as fluoride, antibacterial, desensitising and anti-tartar agents, toothpaste will normally contain the following basic ingredients:

• Abrasives
  These cleaning and polishing agents account for about a third of toothpaste by weight. Most of the abrasives used are chalk or silica based. Examples are dicalcium phosphate, sodium metaphosphate, calcium carbonate, silica, zirconium silicate or calcium pyrophosphate. Abrasives differ; an international standard defines a test paste against which toothpaste abrasivity can be assessed, but there is no system for ensuring that all toothpastes sold in the Republic of Ireland are at or below this abrasivity level.
• Detergent (1-2 per cent)
  This makes toothpaste foam, as well as helping to distribute it round the mouth to lower surface tension and loosen plaque and other debris from the tooth surface. Examples are Sodium Lauryl Sulphate and Sodium M Lauryl Sarcosinate
• Binding agents (1 per cent)
  These agents prevent separation of solid and liquid ingredients during storage. These are usually derived from cellulose, sodium carboxy-methyl cellulose being the most commonly used. Carrageenans (seaweed derived), xantham gums and alginates are also used.
• Humectants (10-30 per cent)
  These agents retain moisture and prevent the toothpaste hardening on exposure to air. Glycerol, sorbitol and propylene glycol are commonly used, glycerol and sorbitol also sweeten the toothpaste, though this is not their main function.
• Flavouring, sweetening and colouring agents (1-5 per cent)
  Peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon, wintergreen and menthol are among many, flavourings used. Mucosal irritations from toothpaste are rare and are usually linked to flavourings or preservatives. They can take the form of ulceration, gingivitis, angular cheilitis or perioral dermatitis. Flavourless toothpastes are not available commercially so the only solution is to change brand. For people who react to mint, some children's formulations are mint free - for example homeopathic toothpastes tend to avoid mint because of interactions with other homeopathic remedies, but they may also leave out fluoride.
• Preservatives (0.05-0.5 per cent)
  Alcohols, benzoates, formaldehyde and dichlorinated phenols are added to prevent bacterial growth on the organic binders and humectants.

Above article from DentalHealth.ie

Dentist North Little Rock AR

Springhill Dental, PLLC

3401 Springhill Drive, Suite 285

North Little Rock, AR 72117

Telephone: (501) 955-0155