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Cavity Prevention
"The Big Five"
Anybody can keep their teeth for a lifetime. It starts with the BIG 5.
1.) Sonicare Sonic Toothbrush
What makes this tooth brush unique is it moves at 10,000 cycles per minute. With this toothbrush you do not brush up and down, or side to side, you simply move the toothbrush slowly across the teeth at the gum and tooth interface. The brush pauses to let you know to move to a different quad every 30 seconds. This teaches you how to brush evenly for 2 minutes. This toothbrush will do a better job of cleaning than any other toothbrush on the market.
2.) WaterPik Water Flosser
The Waterpik is the only instrument made special for the gum tissue. The Waterpik stimulates blood flow and nerves in the gums to keep gums nice and healthy. The Waterpik also removes debris from pockets. Pockets are simply where the gum tissues come into contact with the teeth. Our advice for the Waterpik is to use it in the shower. You can fill it up with warm water from the shower head and each charge is good for about 15 uses. You can think of this somewhat like a squirt gun. You will shoot it across the tooth and gum interface, not up into the gums. This will create a suction that will remove any debris inside the pockets. 30 seconds is all you need. The name of the game is consistency, if you do this for a lifetime, you can keep your teeth for a lifetime.
3.) String Floss
We would like for you to think of dental floss as a single stranded broom. The way you use dental floss, you sweep up the side of the tooth, do not just snap down, and snap back up. That is not cleaning your tooth. You need to "arch" the floss against the side of the tooth. Floss bows make this simple. Floss is made to clean the build-up between teeth. Your body sees this build-up as something bad and causes your bones and gums to reject your teeth. What we suggests is to buy 2 or 3 bags at the drugstore or wherever you find them, take them home and put them in a candy dish by the TV. Grab a floss bow while watching your favorite show in the afternoon. You need to floss once a day, it really doesn't matter when.
4.) MI (Mineral) Paste
MI Paste is made to remineralize or strengthen the tooth structure. Think of it as tooth vitamins. Our advice would be; after brushing your teeth at night, take a small amount of MI Paste on the tip of your finger or tooth brush and rub it onto your teeth. Leave this on your teeth while you are sleeping at night. It will strengthen your tooth structure the whole time you are sleeping. You can also do this in the middle of the day as long as you have at least 20 minutes to let it sit. MI Paste is good for the "nooks and crannies" of the teeth, what happens here is decay sets in where your tooth brush cannot clean. It takes the decay getting large enough to see with your eyes or with an x-ray before this decay can be spotted. The MI paste is important because it gets into the nooks and crannies and hardens your tooth structure to keep decay from doing its damage. It also helps keep the decay from spreading to other teeth. Another way of using the MI paste is to place it into professionally made bleach trays that you can purchase in our office. These trays keep the MI past against the tooth structure all night as you sleep.
5.) Tongue Cleaner - BreathRx
Made to remove debris from tongue and to wick bacteria up and out of the mouth. Most people use their toothbrush. The toothbrush does not remove bacteria, it only moves it around. All it takes is 2-3 swipes and your tongue will be nice and dry. It is estimated that 60% of bacteria from inside the mouth lives on the tongue. Bacteria causes bad breath, so using the tongue cleaner will remove around 60% of bad breath.
