Tuesday, October 3, 2017

New Season, New Toothbrush

October brings fall leaves, pumpkins - and National Dental Hygiene Month. As you change your summer clothes for a fall wardrobe, it may also be time to change your toothbrush for a new one. The American Dental Association (ADA) recommends replacing your toothbrush every three to four months. If that sounds like a lot, just think: This small but very important tool gets a lot of use!

If you brush your teeth twice a day for two minutes each time as recommended by the ADA, that’s two hours of brushing action in one month. Three to four months of twice-daily brushing makes for six to eight hours of brushing time, or a couple hundred uses. This is all an average toothbrush can take before it stops doing its job effectively.

Toothbrush bristles are manufactured to have the right amount of give, tapering, and end-rounding for optimal cleaning. When new, a toothbrush can work its way around corners and between teeth to remove dental plaque. Old bristles, however, lose the flexibility needed to reach into nooks and crannies for a thorough cleaning. Worn bristles may curl, fray or break - and can scratch your gums or tooth enamel. A toothbrush with stiff, curled bristles does not leave your mouth feeling as clean. This may lead to brushing too often or too hard, which is bad for your gums.

A good rule of thumb is to replace your toothbrush every season - unless you see signs that you need a new one sooner. For example, if you wear braces, you may have to replace your toothbrush more frequently since brushing around braces puts more wear and tear on the brush.

For healthy teeth and gums, make sure your primary oral hygiene tool is in tip-top shape. Taking care of the little things now can avoid inconvenient and expensive dental problems later. Don’t forget to schedule regular professional dental cleanings, and be sure to ask if you have any questions about your dental hygiene routine at home. To learn more about the importance of good oral hygiene, please visit our website at www.myparkdental.com, or contact us here, or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading "Daily Oral Hygiene: Easy Habits for Maintaining Oral Health" and "Dental Hygiene Visit: A True Value in Dental Healthcare" in Dear Doctor magazine.

Mayim Bialik's "Halloween Fairy" Helps Keep Her Kids' Teeth Cavity-Free

Halloween is great fun for kids... but maybe not so much fun for their teeth. Is there a way for this much-anticipated holiday to be less stressful to oral health? Actress Mayim Bialik of The Big Bang Theory thinks so! In an interview with Dear Doctor magazine, the mother of two young sons said, "We don't do candy for Halloween. We have a Halloween fairy who takes it all away, and they get to choose a small LEGO toy in its place."

Though this may not work for every family, it’s definitely an idea worth considering. After all, depending on how much candy your kids take in from trick-or-treating, they may have a supply that lasts for days or even weeks - and a steady diet of sticky sweets is just what their teeth don’t need.

Why is candy so bad for teeth? Disease-causing oral bacteria feed on the sugars in the candy. In the process of breaking down the sugar, the bacteria produce acids that start to break down the protective enamel covering of teeth - forming small holes, or cavities. This allows the bacteria to get deeper inside the tooth, increasing the size of the cavity. While this can happen with any food that contains sugar, the stickiness of many candies make them harder to clean off the teeth - essentially giving the bacteria more time to do their damage.

Is there anything that can be done - short of the candy exchange Mayim Bialik has managed to implement in her house? Nothing that would be as effective as eliminating candy altogether as Mayim has done, but there are a few ways to reduce the potential for harm. For example, you can try to weed out the stickiest candies, like taffy, and hard candies that stay in the mouth a long time. You can make sure your kids eat them only as a dessert at mealtime, and not throughout the day. And you can pay extra attention to how good a job your kids are doing with their daily oral hygiene. They should be brushing twice a day and flossing at least once each day. Drinking some water after eating a piece of candy can also be helpful.

It’s also important to keep up a regular schedule of routine dental visits. So if it’s been a while since your kids have been in for a checkup and cleaning, please visit our website at www.myparkdental.com, or contact us here, or schedule an appointment for a consultation. You can also learn more about this topic by reading the Dear Doctor magazine article "Dentistry and Oral Health for Children." And Dear Doctor’s full interview with Mayim Bialik is available here.