Oral hygiene - everything seems to be said?

In order to ensure the long-term preservation of teeth without caries, the absence of tooth cavities, healthy gums and a beautiful smile, it is necessary to constantly and cleverly take care of your teeth and oral cavity.

Every person is unique and their body is unique, so we have to trust our dentist to take care of our oral hygiene (we have not acquired our knowledge of alma mater for four years and then practiced in a private or public clinic). The doctor helps each person to establish a hygiene regime that meets their own individual needs, which also takes into consideration the peculiarities of their oral cavity, the condition of their teeth and gums, and the general condition of the body. The doctor will draw up a general plan of the hygiene measures to be used and will monitor (provided that the patient also does so) compliance with the plan.

Oral hygiene methods can be divided into two groups:

1. professional

2. personal

Professional dental cleaning

Mechanical cleaning of teeth involves the removal of plaque on the teeth by a dentist. The doctor performs professional cleaning with instruments and special ultrasonic and air flow devices (we have written about this several times, for example here). This allows you to more carefully remove the calculus from the teeth and polish the enamel surface.

At the same time, the doctor also performs antiseptic treatment of the periodontal pockets, which helps to preserve the teeth. Such a procedure should be performed at least once or twice a year, and in some cases more frequently. However, it is not only the work of a doctor that is enough to ensure the good condition of the oral cavity, it is also very important to brush your teeth yourself, and by doing this correctly, you will also ensure that you avoid developing dental diseases.

Personal hygiene

In this article, I would like to focus specifically on personal hygiene. You need to consult a dentist to start brushing your teeth properly. Depending on the condition of the hard tissues of the teeth, the gums, the use of prostheses, it may be necessary to choose one or another method of cleaning the teeth. In cooperation with the dentist, the necessary rigidity of the toothbrush bristles and additional measures to clean your teeth must also be established.

Here are two examples (they are quite simple but show the difference in the necessary hygiene procedures well).

• The patient's teeth are healthy and close to each-other, the gums are healthy.

In this situation, we want to use a stronger brush. The brush should be placed at a 45-degree angle to the gum. Sweeping (so-called) movements must be made from the top teeth downwards and from the bottom teeth upwards from the lower teeth. Such movements must be repeated both on the "front" surface of the teeth and behind the teeth. To clean the front teeth, it is better to keep the toothbrush in a horizontal position rather than vertical.

• Teeth are located farther apart (there are gaps), enamel defects can be observed, tooth necks can be seen. There are no gum diseases.

In this case, we recommend using a medium-hard toothbrush. The toothbrush should be placed at a 45-degree angle, but not on the gum, but on the border between the gum and the tooth. In the previous case, we recommended brushing from top to bottom (from tooth to gum), now we should move the brush from gum to tooth. By lightly pressing the toothbrush, the brushes are guided between the teeth, then several rotational movements must be made horizontally from the molars to the front teeth. Clean all the gaps from the molars to the front teeth one after the other, alternatively you can move along the upper and lower teeth from the outside and then from the inside. The front teeth are brushed with vertical movements of the toothbrush from top to bottom for the upper teeth and from bottom to top for the lower teeth. A similar method allows you to clean the gaps well without damaging the gingival tissue and without removing the enamel from the tooth neck.

As can be seen in comparison with brushing techniques, in order to best preserve teeth, one must brush one's technique according to the condition of the teeth, for example in the case of periodontal disease, brushing teeth as if completely healthy leads to early disease development.

Over time, it is possible to change the brushing habits that have occurred (this should be done) according to the clinical condition of the teeth.

Of course, caring for your teeth is not limited to using a toothbrush. In addition to using a toothbrush, it is good to use dental floss, mouthwash and a mouthwash.

At first glance, everything is clear on how to use mouthwash after brushing, rinsing and spitting it out, but you can also use dental floss correctly and incorrectly. I will not delve into these details here, because it's much better to see with your own eyes (on YouTube, for example), because one picture says more than a thousand words.

A mouthwash is a very useful device for dental care. Despite the fact that the first device was developed as early as the 1960s, it is far from being used as much as it could be. The mouthwash is a device that allows you to direct the duct to the desired location under pressure, thus making it much easier to remove plaque and food debris, even in hard-to-reach places that are not accessible with a toothbrush - especially if you use braces. In addition to brushing teeth, mouthwash offers gum massage, which is an effective therapy for bleeding gums and gingivitis. In addition, as a practicing prosthetist and implantologist, I recommend that anyone with orthopedic supplements in their mouths use a mouthwash. This is necessary, among other things, to prevent bacteria from accumulating in the gum pockets between the tooth and the crown, which in turn can negatively affect the health of your teeth and even lead to tooth loss. Statistics show that most implantation problems are related to poor oral hygiene - a mouthwash helps to solve this problem.

Of course, you have already heard most of these suggestions but dentistry, like nothing else, does not stand still and on your next visit to the dentist, ask him what has been done in dentistry, or can he give you useful advice.