A Parent’s Guide To Taking Care Of Teeth And Gums
Taking proper care of teeth and gums by brushing and flossing correctly, along with regular dental checkups at your dentist’s office, can help prevent tooth decay and gum disease. Many people may not even realize there is a correct and incorrect way of taking care of teeth and gums, to then be stunned by their dentist telling them they have several cavities needing treatment.
The most important part of taking care of teeth and gums begins at home. Learning how to properly care for your teeth and gums, and those of your children, helps to prevent tooth decay, expensive dental treatment, and even complete loss of your teeth. The key to better dental care is Prevention.
If you are fearful of going to the dentist, you should know that advancements in dental technology offers virtually painless dentistry. There is no longer valid reason for skipping those regular dental checkups, where the dentist or hygienist can professionally clean and examine your teeth and gums, reaching areas you or your children may have missed at home.
Finding a trustworthy dentist is an important issue for most people, as is knowing what questions to ask regarding treatment, safeguarding children’s teeth and gums, and understanding those often-confusing dental terminologies and dental specialties.
Things you need to know:
You need to know that there is a right and wrong way of brushing and flossing your teeth, and doing so the wrong way will undoubtedly have you in the dentists chair often. Properly brushing your teeth twice a day, and flossing correctly at least once a day is what most dentists recommend. Using the right kind of toothbrush is also very important, as using the wrong kind can do more damage than good. Most dentist’s recommend using the Sonicare Electric Toothbrush, with it’s built-in two-minute timer to help ensure you are brushing long enough.
Not all toothpastes are made the same, so it’s of vital importance to ensure the toothpaste you or your children use contains fluoride, as it is the fluoride in the toothpaste that prevents cavities. Homemade toothpastes, although cheap to make, does not prevent tooth decay and gum disease.
While brushing your teeth correctly is an important aspect of good oral health, daily flossing between teeth and gums is just as important. Brushing alone does not remove the plaque and particles of food between your teeth or under the gumline, making it extremely important to follow up brushing with flossing daily.
Jerry F. Taintor, D.D.S., M.S., and Mary Jane Taintor have authored an excellent book entitled, “The Complete Guide To Dental Care”, with an easy-to-understand format to inform and guide readers in avoiding common dental problems, reduce dental costs, choosing affordable dental care, preserving their overall oral health and that of their children. Readers will find valuable information in regards to:
- Reducing the cost of dental care through optimal home maintenance
- Learning how to choose a trustworthy dentist
- How to safeguard your children’s teeth and gums from infancy through adolescence
- Questions to ask your dentist about dental treatment
- How to choose dental insurance and health care plans that fit your specific needs
- How to reduce dental treatment fear and anxiety - for yourself and your children
- Understanding dental terminologies and dental specialties such as endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics, pediodontics and much more.
Parents should take their children to the dentist regularly, beginning with the first eruption of the first tooth. Taking your young children along with you to your dental checkups helps remove fear and anxiety often learned from their parents.
Further reading-
How To Find A Trustworthy Dentist
“Second Thoughts about Fluoride,” reports Scientific American
“Some recent studies suggest that over-consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland,” reports Scientific American editors (January 2008). “Scientific attitudes toward fluoridation may be starting to shift,” writes author Dan Fagin.
“Fluoride, the most consumed drug in the USA, is deliberately added to 2/3 of public water supplies theoretically to reduce tooth decay, but with no scientifically-valid evidence proving safety or effectiveness,” says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.
Fagin, award-wining environmental reporter and Director of New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program, writes, “There is no universally accepted optimal level for daily intake of fluoride.” Some researchers even wonder whether the 1 mg/L added into drinking water is too much, reports Fagin.
After 3 years of scrutinizing hundreds of studies, a National Research Council (NRC) committee “concluded that fluoride can subtly alter endocrine function, especially in the thyroid – the gland that produces hormones regulating growth and metabolism,” reports Fagin.
Fagin quotes John Doull, professor emeritus of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who chaired the NRC committee thusly, “The thyroid changes do worry me.”
Fluoride in foods, beverages, medicines and dental products can result in fluoride over-consumption, visible in young children as dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth. We can’t normally see fluoride’s effects to the rest of the body.
Reports Fagin, “a series of epidemiological studies in China have associated high fluoride exposures with lower IQ.”
“(E)pidemiological studies and tests on lab animals suggest that high fluoride exposure increases the risk of bone fracture, especially in vulnerable populations such as the elderly and diabetics,” writes Fagin.
Fagin interviewed Steven Levy, director of the Iowa Fluoride Study which tracked about 700 Iowa children for sixteen years. Nine-year-old “Iowa children who lived in communities where the water was fluoridated were 50 percent more likely to have mild fluorosis… than [nine-year-old] children living in nonfluoridated areas of the state,” writes Fagin. Levy will study fluoride’s effects on their bones.
Over 1200 professionals urge Congress to cease water fluoridation and conduct Congressional hearings because scientific evidence indicates fluoridation is ineffective and has serious health risks. Support them; write your representative here:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2477/t/2782/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=21960
(or http://www.FluorideAction.Net )
“(G)enetic, environmental and even cultural factors appear to leave some people much more susceptible to the effects of fluoride,” writes Fagin
“What the [NRC] committee found is that we’ve gone with the status quo regarding fluoride … for too long… and now we need to take a fresh look,” Doull says, “ In the scientific community, people tend to think that its settled… But when we looked at the studies that have been done, we found that many of these questions are unsettled and we have much less information than we should, considering how long this [fluoridation] has been going on. I think that’s why fluoridation is still being challenged so many years after it began, In the face of ignorance, controversy is rampant.”
Professionals need to emphasize the financial benefits of teaching their children good dental hygiene; this is something I’ve found to be very effective! Also, I would add tongue health to the daily methods. I encourage all my young patients to clean their tongues. I like the Dr. Collins tongue scrapers because they’re more kid-friendly (plastic not metal like other harsh ones) .
John, you’re so right. I also recommend cleaning the tongue with tongue scrapers, it’s so important but is often a neglected area of the mouth. The general public doesn’t seem to understand just how much bacteria and “crud” forms on the tongue, and how it also contributes to bad breath. Thanks for your input!