Oral Hygiene Maintenance- Everything you need to know

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Oral Hygiene Maintenance- Everything you need to know

A healthy mouth is a gateway to a healthy body. This fact is not an unknown one. Keeping your mouth healthy on a regular basis becomes mandatory, not only for aesthetic but also for social reasons. An unaesthetic smile and a bad smelling mouth are a big social repulsion.

Maintaining a good mouth is not an easy job. One has to invest time on a regular basis in order to maintain teeth and gums in a healthy state.

Tooth brushing is performed by generally all and is considered to be the best method for cleaning the teeth. Brushing the teeth twice daily is recommended by all dentists around the globe. Use of an ultra soft tooth brush is what dentists recommend for proper tooth brushing. An ultra soft tooth-brush has bristles that reach the minor corners around the tooth and beneath the gum line giving maximum cleanliness. Also, since the bristles are soft, they do not damage the gum line by traumatizing the gingiva. A hard bristle tooth-brush on the other hand can easily cause trauma to the gingiva by lacerating the soft tissues. A tooth brush is never used alone. A tooth paste also known as a dentifrice is used along with the brush. A tooth paste contains cleaning agents that help the brush to clean the tooth surface well. It also contains flavouring agents which render a fresh breath to the mouth.

Most of the population uses just tooth brushing as a means of cleaning the teeth. However, along with tooth brushing, use of a mouth wash and an interdental cleaning aid is advisable.

Interdental aids are prescribed to patients based on their needs.

There are different aids available and can be prescribed based on the amount of gap between teeth. For tight contacts, a dental floss is used. Floss is route of a thread which can be slipped in between two teeth to clean their proximal surfaces. For patients having wider inter dental spaces, an interproximal tooth brush is prescribed. This is a small brush which has small sized bristles over it. These can easily slip in between the teeth surfaces and clean the areas. Use of tooth picks is generally not advised for cleaning the inter dental spaces since their regular use can increase the gaps between teeth. Hence interdental aids prescribed by the dentist should be used, since they are prescribed according to a patients clinical condition and they do not cause any further damage to the tissues.

Mouth washes contain antibiotic agents which help fight bacteria found in the oral cavity. They inhibit bacteria already present in the mouth and also stop new bacteria from colonizing the tooth as well as other intra oral surfaces. Mouth washes also render a fresh breath along with the mentioned actions. Regular use of a mouth wash helps maintain the teeth and gums in a healthy state. A gap of about 10 mins between the use of tooth paste with a brush and the user of mouth wash is advisable. The chemicals present in the mouth wash react with the chemicals present in the tooth brush, thus reducing the effectiveness of the mouth wash. Giving a gap of 10 mins ensures both the medicaments provide maximum benefit and do not interact with each other.

For more info on how to maintain a good oral hygiene and for getting your oral hygiene checked, visit us at Dr Saurabh’s Dental Clinic and Implant Centre, Shop no-2, Vinayak residency, Keshav Nagar, University road, Udaipur- 313001. Contact no- 9982269698.

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