The Importance of Oral Care

The Importance of Oral Care

The general public isn’t as educated about oral health as they should be. In general, approximately 30% of people that are seen in a dental office come in knowing how to properly take care of their teeth. Out of that 30% only about half of them are willing to take the time to properly care for their teeth. Once a patient asked, “What do I have to do on a daily basis to care for my teeth?” When she was told her response was, “I don’t have time for that, I’d rather let them fall out”. It really doesn’t take that much time to properly care for your teeth. If people had more education on oral health, they would see how important it really is.
The most important step to good oral health is maintaining your teeth at home. The best thing for your teeth is to stay clean for as long as possible. The best time to do this is at night while you are asleep. Chances are during the day you will eat or drink something within a few hours, whereas at night you can brush, floss and rinse with fluoride before bed and let your teeth sit for 6 to 8 hours while you sleep. It is also important to know the proper way to brush and floss. Although surveys say that between 20% and 40% of people floss daily, the statistics don’t match up. According to “Oral health statistics”, “52% of men between the ages of 35-44 years
old have gum disease and 45% of women in the same age group have gum disease. This study shows that regardless of what people will admit in a survey, most people do not floss on a daily basis. Some that do are not doing it properly and can actually cause more harm by doing so. Floss is used to clean the interproximal surface of the tooth (or surfaces in between your teeth) and the toothbrush cleans the other 3 surfaces. The bristles of your toothbrush can not get in between the teeth, where the two teeth meet. Basically if you’re not flossing it’s the same as not brushing a surface of the tooth. Food and debris will pack between the teeth and cause decay. Interproximal decay is harder to detect, because it is not always visible by just looking in the mouth. If you are not seeing a dentist on a regular basis the decay could easily progress into a large cavity and the nerve could become involved without you ever seeing decay in the mouth. Once decay is in the nerve the tooth must have either have a root canal or be extracted. To be used properly floss should be used like a blade against the tooth, sliding about 2-3mm under the gum tissue to clean the surface of the tooth. The toothbrush should be held at an angle so that it points down into the gum tissue getting everything out from under the flap of gum tissue that surrounds each tooth. Each tooth has a pocket or flap of gum tissue about 3mm deep around each tooth where food and debris will pack. If you have gum disease the pockets can be even deeper. Although it’s important to make sure you’re getting under that gum tissue, if you are too aggressive with the floss or poking the tissue between the teeth you could end up damaging the gingiva. This can cause the gingiva to recede away from the tooth and create what is known as a black triangle. This is where it looks like there is a black triangle between the teeth where the pink of the gingiva is supposed to be.
Maintaining regular cleanings is very important to your oral health. Many people say that cleanings are not needed if they are taking good care of their teeth at home, this is not true. Calculus or otherwise known as tarter, builds up on the teeth forming a hard rock like build up irritating the bone and gum tissue. Tarter will not come off with a toothbrush. A hygienist will use a blade to scrape it off or a tip that vibrates at high speeds and vibrate it off. Without removing this build up the bone and gum will start to recede away from the build up that is irritating it, resulting in periodontal disease. Over time the pockets around the teeth will become deeper and pack more food and debris, causing infection. Sometimes the tooth even becomes loose and falls out. It can become very expensive to treat periodontal disease.
When you come in for your cleanings the dentist should do an exam of the mouth. This allows the dentist to make sure everything is in good health and treat what is not. Oral cancer is very deadly and usually by the time it is caught it is too late. Exams can catch oral cancer in early stages. There are several quick tests that can be done in the office and sent out to a lab to find out if the patient needs to be referred to a specialist. If a patient has Diabetes it is very important to see a dentist regularly. Schwartz says, “People with diabetes have more sugar in the mouth which provides a more hospitable environment for hostile bacteria. This makes all forms of periodontal disease more likely.” She also says, “Gum infections can impact insulin needs.” A patient with Diabetes needs regular exams and cleanings not just for oral health but for overall health. Decay, Bruxism, and acid wear are also some things that are also looked for during an exam.
Bruxism is when a patient grinds their teeth on a regular basis. A lot of people grind their teeth due to stress. Bruxism can result in periodontal disease because of the constant irritation to the bone surrounding the tooth. Bruxism can also cause cervical fractures. This is where the tooth has an indentation by the gum line where the tooth has actually fractured due to the stress caused by clenching and grinding. Bruxism cannot be stopped, however you can prevent further damage by wearing an occlusal guard at night. An occlusal guard is an acrylic guard that is made to perfectly fit your teeth. It is usually worn at night on either the upper or lower teeth. The guard simulates the perfect bite, which is suppose to cut down on the grinding and it lets you wear away at the guard opposed to your own tooth structure.
Acid wear is another big concern with oral health. It seems that soda pop is a regular part of most people’s daily diet. Soda along with orange juice, lemonade, fruit juices and any other acidic drink is awful for your teeth. The acid and sugar together will melt away your tooth structure and cause sensitivity. Dr. Peterson says, “People who drink 3 or more sugary sodas daily have 62% more dental decay, fillings and tooth loss.” Acid wear starts off as white lines on the teeth, this is known as decalcification. It is usually along the gum line, where the acid and sugar have sat and ate away at the enamel. These lines will slowly turn brown and become soft. Sometimes if left uncared for the teeth will turn black. Once the tooth structure is soft it is decayed and needs to be filled. Acid wear will continue to progress even after you stop drinking acidic drinks regularly. The decalcified tooth structure will continue to soften until it becomes decayed. It is an ongoing process until all of the tooth structure that has been affected by the acid wear is restored. Fluoride can help slow down and sometimes stop the decalcified areas from becoming soft.
Acid wear, aggressive brushing or anything abrasive to the tooth structure will make the tooth structure more porous. Fluoride works like putty filling in the little holes where enamel has became porous. The fluoride is rinsed and brushed away with what we eat and drink and daily brushing. It needs to be used on a daily basis to work properly. There is a fluoride rinse that can be used as well as toothpaste that has extra fluoride in it. When children’s teeth are forming it is important to have fluoride in their diet to ensure that they have strong teeth later on in life. City water has fluoride in it, however well water does not. Children that grow up with well water without a fluoride supplement often have brittle teeth as adults. Adults do not need the fluoride supplement because their teeth are already formed however a fluoride rinse is good to use for adults and children, just for every day wear on your teeth.
Good oral hygiene is important to your health as well as your way of life. There are people who avoid smiling or learn to smile with their lips covering their teeth because they are unhappy with their smile. Some people get dentures because they feel that it would be easier or cheaper than fixing all the problems that they have with their teeth, however learning to wear dentures can take years. Some people can’t get use to them and then just go without teeth, which basically mean they cannot eat anything that needs to be chewed. If you’re seeing a dentist on a regular basis, before you have any problems, your only cost will be preventive dentistry which turns out to be a lot cheaper than treating a disease or infection and there’s no pain involved.

what a rip off!

This past weekend my family and I went to the carnival. Just to get there and find out that now not only are they going to charge $20 for an armband but they are going to split the day into sessions. 11-5 or 5-11. Not knowing this I show up at 2:30 or so thinking we would have the whole afternoon to hang out there. So then I have to decide do I pay $20 per person for 2 and a half hrs come back at 5 when its packed with teenagers, or skip the carnival because its such a rip off. Well of course I couldn't skip the carnival because I would have made the kids cry, and I didn't want to let them go on a couple of rides and then tell them we had to leave because our session was over because again I would have crying kids, so I decided to come back at 5. This also made the kids cry because they didn't understand why we had to leave. It's a no win situation. Two out of the three kids were too short for any of the adult rides so there was like 5 rides they could go on. I was so furious with the stupid carnival by the end of it. I will not go back to that carnival ever again. Last year they charged $20 per day for arm bands and I had already felt that was a rip off, but a year later the price is doubled for the day. I have no clue how much it cost to run a carnival, however I'm going to guess that someone is making a huge profit. It would have cost just as much to spend the day at Michigan adventure thats including the water park. I guess I should have checked into the prices without the kids. Next time I wont waste my money.

Social Issue

Bottled water is one of the worst ideas ever. Even though I am guilty of buying it myself, mostly because of convenience, it really is ridiculous. Not only are we wasting money but we are polluting the planet. The water is treated with chemicals, put into plastic bottles, wrapped in plastic, then it is shipped across the country in a huge truck. Think of how much pollution has came from that one shippment of bottled water. What a waste, and to think of how much easier, greener and cheaper it would be to buy a reusable water bottle and take the water from our own tap.

Bp oil spill

The bp oil spill has been such a tragic event. Several people have unnessisarly died. The animals are covered in oil. Who knows what kind of effect this will have on seafood for years to come, and tons of people are out of work. I have to wonder if maybe the situation was taken more serious from day one, weather or not it would have gone this far. For instance it took 41 days for them to try using remote control robots to fit a cap on the well. I cant help but thinking, maybe this took so long to do because they were being cheap. With technology and all of the people working on this crisis, I find it hard to believe that the resources werent available to put this cap on within the first week or two of this happening.