1.How often should I have a dental exam and cleaning?
Regular dental exams and cleaning visits are essential in preventing dental problems and also maintaining the health of your teeth and gums. First we check all tooth surfaces for decay with special dental instruments. Taking a X ray is essential for detection of decay, tumors, cysts and bone loss, also for examination of existing restorations. We check current fillings, crowns and checking the lips, tongue, throat, soft tissues and gums for any signs of inflammation and oral cancer. The second part of the check ups is to remove plaque and calculus. Plague is sticky, almost invisible film that forms on the teeth. It is the colony of living bacteria, food debris and saliva. The bacteria produse toxins that inflame the gums. This inflammation is the start of peridontal disease. Calculus is hardened plaque that has been left on the teeth and it forms above and below the gumline, it can be removed with special instruments.
Check ups are also important for oral hygiene recommendations and to review dietary habits and letting us know new medications, that all influence oral health.
2.How often should I brush and floss?
Brushing and flossing help to control the plaque and amount of bacteria that cause dental disease. Plaque formation and growth is continuous and can only controlled with regular brushing and flossing and use of other dental aids if necessary. Brush your teeth at least twice a day, especially before going to bed at night. Brush should have soft bristle and toothpaste with fluoride.
- Brush at a 45 degree angle to the gums, gently using a small, circular motion, ensure that you always feel the bristles on the gums.
- Brush the outer, inner and occlusal biting surface of each tooth.
- Use the tip of the brush to clean the inside front teeth.
- At last brush your tonque to remove bacteria and freshen your breath.
- Apropriate brushing time should be 3 minutes with regluar brush and 4 minutes with electric toohtbrush.
Daily flossing is the best way to clean spaces between the teeth and under the gumline. Flossing not only helps clean these spaces, it also disrupts plaque colonies from building up, preventing damage for the gum and teeth.
- Take appr 40 cm dental floss and wrap it around your middle fingers, leaving about 2 inches of floss between the hands.
- Using your thumbs and forfingers to guide the floss, gently insert the floss between teeth using a sawing motion.
- Curve the floss into C shape around each tooth and under gumline. Gently move the floss up and down, cleaning the side of each tooth.
And for the last, we like to say to our patients, you have to clean only those teeth that you need in your life 😉 the others you may forget!
3. Why is it important to use dental floss?
The answer is that, the plaque is very sticky and the toothbrush cant move it from the spaces between the teeth. The brushing removes only 40 procent of the plaque, the rest of it should be removed with flossing or by dental sticks. Flossing is the best way and must be done daily. Also is important to know that composite filling last longer, if they can be without bacteria and plaque and calculus.
4.What should I do if I have bad breath?
Bad breath is an unpleasant condition. Many of us may not realize that we have bad breath, but everyone has it from time to time, especially in the morning, because the saliva flow almost stops while sleeping and that condition allows bacteria to grow. There are various reasons one may have bad breath, but in healthy people, the major reasons is due to microbial deposits on the tongue, especially the back of the tongue. Some studies show that brushing the tongue reduce bad breath by as much as 70 percent.
Causes of the bad breath are:
- Certain food: garlic, onions, foods containing odor-causing compounds enter the blood stream and they are transferred to the lungs, where they are exhaled. Also when the brushing isnt good enough after eating garlic, the remains may breath badly.
- Poor oral hygiene habits: food particles remaining in the mouth promote bacterial growth.
- Periodontal disease: colonies of bacteria and food debris residing under inflamed gums.
- Improperly fitted dental appliances: also contribute to bad breath.
- Dry mouth: may be caused by certain medications, salivary gland problems.
- Tobacco products: causing bad breath.
- Dieting: certain chemials called ketones are released in the breath as the body burns fat.
- Dehydration, missed meal and anger: they all decrease saliva flow and let bacteria to grow.
- Certain medical conditions and illnesses: diabetes, liver and kidney problems, chronic nasal sinus infections, bronhitis and othe inflammation conditions that may contribute to bad breath.
Drinking water is also important and chewing dental friendly chewing gum, so it can flow the saliva and it helps to keep the mouth cleaner. Proper cleaning is the most important althoug, to have good fresh breath.
5. Why does caries develop? What should I do to prevent cavities?
Dental caries is caused by microbes that live in our mouth, to be more exact, they live in plaque. Plaque is a thin biofilm on the tooth surface, it contains of microbes, salivary components, food particles, it is like little environment. Every time we eat, we provide the sugar to microbes and bacterial metabolism produces acidification, when it happens very often, then calculus ions start to flow away from tooth enamel and it gets weeker and weeker, as the process is going on, we see the decay. As it is happening already in the layer beyond enamel, the cavities start to grow very quickly. Thats why dentistst kindly ask you to do regular check ups, to find those cavities as soon as possibly.
In order to prevent caries, it is required to shorten those acid attacks and to decrease the times you eat, also to eat less sugarful meals and to avoid snacks. Different studies show that human enamel can deal with maximum 5 eatingtimes per day, if you have snacks and sweeties in your mouth too often, then it increases the risk to get caries. The other aspect is to clean teeth properly, so there are little mass of bacteria to feed.
- Brush your teeth daily twice using fluoride containing toothpaste.
- Floss your teeth daily to eliminate plaque from the spaces brush cant reach.
- Eat sugarless food and avoid snacks and sugafull drinks between meals.
- Drinking pure water between meals helps saliva to clean the mouth.
- When you have massive caries attacks, ask your doctor about extra fluoride intake and dietary consultation
- Visit your dentist regulary for oral health check ups and for professional dental cleaning
6. Is the electric toothbrush better than the regular one?
Starting usage of any tool, is important to know how to use it. Regular toothbrush is easy to clean, when the brush is moving back and forward, it cleans several teeth on the same time. It is important to remember to brush all surfaces, inner, outer and biting surface. Using electrical tooth brush, it cleans one tooth in time, that´s why the total cleaning time is longer. The adventage of an electrical toothbrush is its high brushing frequancy that is useful for removing dental plaque from areas that is difficult to access. Electrical toohtbrush is also first choice for elderly and people whose manual capabilities may be too limited to use regular one. Any brushing is better than brushing not at all, but it is important to use right technique, strong brushing may damage gums and dental neck areas, causing hypersensitivity. For children is better to start with regular brush and it should be done under parents supervisior till they get 7 years old or till they are able to brush all the teeth properly. You may controll it with palque coloring tablets.
7. Why do I have to extract my wisdom tooth?
Many times, wisdom teeth- the third molars in the very back of your mouth don´t have enouhg space to grow properly and can cause problems. The wisdom teeth erupt in various ways and angles in the jaw, sometimes even horizontally. Sometimes they only partially emerge through the gums, other times wisdom teeth remain completely hidden. Wisdom teeth that aren´t able to emerge normally become impacted or trapped within your jaw. If the wisdom tooth emerge partially, the microbial passageway is created, which can cause problems, and because the area is hard to see and clean, it can become good place for bacteria that cause soft tissue inflammation, gum disease and oral infection. Some doctors recommend removing those teeth if they don´t fully emerge, it is believed it´s better to remove wisdom tooth before the roots are fully formed in the younger age, when recovering from surgery is faster and better, also the bone is more elastic for quicker removal.
According to ADA, wisdom teeth removal may be nesessary if you have such problems in the area:
- repeated infection of soft tisuue behind the lower last tooth
- damage to nearby teeth
- gum disease
- extensive tooth decay
Wisdom teeth may not need to be removed if they are: healthy, fully erupted, positioned correctly and biting properly with their opposite teeth and are well cleaned.
The desicion to remove wisdom teeth isn´t clear, talk to your dentist or an oral surgeon about the position and health of your wisdom teeth and make the desicion together.
8. What can I do about stained or discolored teeth?
As we age, the outer layer of the tooth enamel wears away, eventually revealing a darker or yellow shade. The color of our teeth also comes from the inside of the tooth, which mau become darker over time. Smoking, drinking tea or coffee and red wine also contribute to tooth discoloration, making our teeth yellow and dull. Some medication, for example tetracycline can cause discoloration, also excessive fluoridation during tooth development can also cause teeth to became discolered. Since teeth whitening only works on natural tooth enamel, it is very important to evaluate all the fillings, crowns before whitening plan. The dentist will then decide, weather you are good candidate for bleaching. After the bleaching the dentist can match the new restorations to the shade of the newly whitened teeth. Sometimes the bleaching isn´t the best way to archive the bright smile, for example tetracycline colored teeth need veneers or crowns for best result.
Since teeth whitening is not permanent, a repeat may be needed every year to keep your smile looking bright.
Whitening systems are used by dentist or at home products. For at home whitening complex dentist makes custom-fitted mouthguard and laboratoty will make a tray. The trays are filled with whitening gel and are worn twice a day for 30 minutes or overnight while you sleep. It usually takes several times to achieve the desired results depending on the degree of staining and the desired level of whitening.
Some patients may experience tooth sensitivity after having their teeth whitened, it is temporary and subsides shortly after you complete the bleaching process, usually within one week.
9. What are porcelain veneers and how they can improve my smile?
Veneers are very thin shells of tooth-shaped porcelains that are individually crafted to cover the fronts of teeth. They are very strong and durable and will not stain, making them a very popular solution for those seeking to restore or enhance the beauty of their smile. Getting veneers usually requires two visits. With anesthesia, teeth are prepared by lightly buffing and shaping the front surface of the teeth to allow for the small thickness of veneers. When the preparation is done, we make impressions of your teeth and we will send it to the labaratory. On the second visit veneers are carefully fitted and bonded onto the tooth surface with special cement. Veneers may be used to restore or correct the following dental conditions:
- severly discolored or stained teeth
- unwanted or uneven spaces
- worn or chipped teeth
- slight tooth crowding
- misshapen teeth
- teeth that are too small or large
Veneers and also crowns are an excellent dental treatment that can dramatically improve your teeth and give you a natural and beautiful smile.