Tips on Improving Your Oral Hygiene
by Dr Anthony HuaImproving your oral hygiene not only keeps your pearly whites looking their best, but it can also provide many benefits such as preventing dental decay, gum disease, bad breath and of course – keeping your mouth feeling fresh!
At Burleigh Dental Studio, it is our mission to help create, manage and ensure you can maintain your dream smile. We believe that dental education is key in helping our patients look after their own teeth and have put together some simple and effective oral hygiene tips below that you can implement into your daily routine.
Brush Your Teeth – At Least Twice a Day
The most important tip may seem like the most obvious but brushing your teeth at least twice a day (morning and evening) for two minutes each time is essential in maintaining a healthy smile. This will help ensure you remove any food debris and plaque build-up on your teeth and gums.
The correct brushing technique, known as the Modified Bass Brushing Technique, involves gentle, circular motions with the bristles tilted on a 45-degree angle pointing under the gum line. Be sure to brush the inside, outside and chewing surfaces of each tooth until all surfaces and gum lines are cleaned.
Electric and manual toothbrushes are both effective in cleaning your teeth. Just make sure you choose soft bristles and replace your toothbrush or brush head as soon as the bristles begin to splay or after three months, whichever comes first. Brushing your tongue firmly but gently back to front or using a tongue scraper can help clear even more bacteria out of your mouth and help provide fresher breath.
Flossing Regularly
After brushing, flossing is the next important tip in maintaining your oral health. Flossing is critical to healthy gums and it is never too late to start this beneficial routine. Flossing at least once a day is recommended, or multiple times a day if you tend to get food trapped between your teeth. Interdental brushes can also be used, if preferred over traditional flossing.
Flossing allows the tight spaces between your teeth to be cleaned, as these areas are often missed with brushing alone. Removing food particles and plaque between your teeth, helps reduce inflammation and tooth decay down the track.
Other Cleaning Tools
Oral irrigators (e.g. HyroPik®) are electrical devices that spray water between your teeth and are particularly useful for cleaning deep gum pockets or around dental implants. Mouthwashes and rinses can also be useful in freshening your breath, adding additional fluoride or killing plaque and bacteria that causes gingivitis. Discuss with your dentist if these tools may be beneficial for your oral hygiene routine.
Limit Sugary Drinks
A healthy diet will benefit your oral health as well as the rest of your body. Removing or limiting consumption of soft drinks, energy drinks, sugary juices and acidic drinks will help maintain a balanced diet.
Sugary and acidic drinks consumed often, can cause significant damage to your teeth over time. Sugar is converted into acid in your mouth and as a result these high sugar-containing drinks can increase the acidity of the oral environment leaving your teeth more vulnerable to bacterial acids. This can lead to damaged tooth enamel, discolouration and dental cavities in your teeth.
Professional Dental Hygiene Visits
At Burleigh Dental Studio, we encourage all our patients to attend regular dental hygiene visits with us, at least twice a year, to ensure we can help you maintain healthy teeth and gums.
Professional hygiene appointments involve a comprehensive examination, with clinical photographs and x-rays if required, a professional clean to remove plaque and calculus deposits and a fluoride treatment to assist in remineralisation of your enamel if suitable. We then discuss your oral health; any treatment required and can answer any questions you may have.
Contact Burleigh Dental Studio today, it is our mission to help create, manage and ensure you can maintain your dream smile.
Article by Dr Anthony Hua – Principal Dentist
Article by Dr Anthony Hua – Principal DentistDr Anthony Hua is the Founder & Principal Dentist at Burleigh Dental Studio. His passion, expertise and dedication to the field of dentistry have been recognised by his achievement of Fellowship status with the Australian Society of Implant Dentistry (ASID) and the International Congress of Oral Implantologists (ICOI).
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