Blog

Most children enjoy sweets, and Halloween is the perfect time to indulge that sweet tooth. However, eating too many sugary treats increases the risk of cavities and toothache. So we’ve put together some ideas for alternative tooth-friendly treats.

Sugar-Free Gum

Sugar-free gum is great for teeth because it helps promote saliva flow. A good flow of saliva helps to wash away harmful bacteria and leftover food particles. Saliva is also essential for helping the mouth to maintain a more neutral and healthier pH level. If you can, look for a brand containing xylitol, a natural sweetener that disrupts the action of harmful bacteria in the mouth, preventing them from thriving.

Choose Chocolate over Sticky Toffee

Chocolate is preferable to sticky and hard sweets because it melts easily and is washed away more quickly by saliva. In contrast, sticky toffee or hard sweets can hang around teeth for much longer.

Inedible Treats

As an alternative to traditional Halloween sweets, why not hand out inedible treats such as small toys like vampire teeth or bouncy balls. Glow sticks are great for increasing the visibility of little trick-or-treaters. When given a choice, many children will prefer a toy to sweets.

Your mouth is host to hundreds of different strains of bacteria. While most are harmless, others can cause disease, especially as your mouth is the entrance to your respiratory and digestive tracts.

Usually, if you follow a good oral care routine, these bacteria are kept under control. However, suppose you are a little lax about brushing and flossing your teeth regularly. In that case, harmful bacteria can soon build up to such levels that they cause infections, including tooth decay and gum disease. Another health risk is dry mouth, a condition where insufficient saliva is produced. A good saliva flow is essential for helping to neutralise the acids produced by bacteria, and without it, the risk of oral disease increases substantially.

Over the past few years, there has been substantial research into the connection between oral health and overall health. Studies suggest that poor oral health, specifically gum disease, an inflammatory infection, could be linked to other serious health problems. These include cardiovascular disease, pneumonia and other respiratory diseases, diabetes and dementia.

Luckily, it is relatively easy to maintain good oral health with regular visits to our dental practice for checkups and cleanings. In addition, when we can detect gum disease early, it is entirely reversible.

Seeing your infant get their very first tooth is a significant milestone, and they come through in five distinct stages.

1. Children are born with a complete set of 20 teeth underneath their gums, ready to come through when the time is right.
2. Typically, a child’s baby teeth or primary teeth begin pushing through the gums around six months. The upper and lower front teeth are the first teeth to push through, followed by the lateral incisors.
3. From 10 months to 14 months, your child’s first primary molars begin to erupt.
4. When your child is aged 16 months to 22 months, their canine teeth begin to erupt. These are the teeth that come through between the incisors and molars.
5. At age 25 to 33 months, your child gets their large second molars that come in just behind the first molars.

As soon as your child gets their first teeth, you need to start brushing them carefully. It’s also a great time to book their very first dental visit, just so we can check your child’s teeth are erupting as expected, and we can give you plenty of information on how to care for those precious first teeth.

Over the past few years, it has become commonplace for everyone to sport a white and seemingly healthy-looking smile, and there are a plethora of products available over-the-counter or online. However, please don’t forget that teeth whitening is a dental treatment and is best carried out under the supervision of a dental professional.

The products you can buy are quite different from the professional strength products we use. Also, these over the counter products have the potential to harm your teeth when overused or used incorrectly and can harm your dental health if you have untreated issues like cavities or gum disease. Everyone’s teeth will whiten slightly differently, and if you have dental restorations like crowns, bridges or veneers, or white fillings, these will not change colour.

When you come to see us for a teeth whitening treatment, we carefully check your mouth, ensuring you are suitable for this procedure. If you have any dental problems, we can provide suitable treatment beforehand, and we can also advise you on the type of results you can reasonably expect from teeth whitening. The products we use are extremely high quality, designed to minimise undesirable side-effects like tooth sensitivity, and they contain ingredients that can help protect your teeth, like fluoride.

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that helps to protect and strengthen your tooth enamel and is extremely effective when used correctly. Dental fluorosis is a condition that occurs when teeth are exposed to too much fluoride while still developing, resulting in lacy white flecks or even brown stains discolouring tooth enamel. Usually, dental fluorosis is completely harmless, leaving only white spots or lacy flecks over teeth, and it may require no treatment whatsoever. However, if dental fluorosis has caused unsightly stains on teeth, several treatments can help to improve the appearance of these teeth cosmetically.

Possible treatments include teeth whitening, although this may not always be very effective for more severe staining. Another option is to have teeth bonded, where we coat the tooth surface with composite resin in a shade that blends in beautifully with your natural teeth. Dental bonding usually lasts for several years before the composite resin begins to discolour. The rate of discolouration depends on your lifestyle habits. If you want something more long-lasting, we can provide porcelain veneers. A veneer is a thin porcelain shell custom-made to fit over the tooth and bonded onto the surface. It typically lasts ten years or more with proper care.

Springtime is when many people start to suffer from allergies. If you are affected, do you know how it can impact your oral health? Allergies can cause several oral problems, including sore throats, dry mouth, and toothache.

During allergy season, many people begin to experience toothache because mucus builds up in the sinuses, placing pressure on the upper back teeth. Usually, sinuses are designed to drain upwards, but when allergies impact them, this becomes more difficult. However, if you suffer toothache in a different area of your mouth, come and see us just in case you have a tooth infection.

Allergies can also make it more difficult to breathe through your nose, so you tend to breathe through your mouth more often. This can cause dry mouth, where your mouth feels dry and sticky instead of moist and comfortable. When your mouth is drier, it allows harmful bacteria that can cause tooth decay and gum disease to thrive. If you are affected, make sure you drink plenty of water or chew sugar-free gum or sweets.

When your nose is blocked, mucus from the nose drains down the throat and can irritate these tissues. Some people find a soothing hot drink is helpful or suck on sugar-free throat lozenges.

Are you currently considering a smile makeover and wondering what the benefits might be? Most people want smile makeovers because they are unhappy with the appearance of their teeth or perhaps are unable to eat comfortably.

Common reasons for seeking a smile makeover include being embarrassed about crooked or overcrowded teeth, having cracked or chipped teeth, or teeth that are discoloured. In addition, smile makeovers can address other problems such as missing teeth, unsightly gaps between teeth and other issues like loose dentures.

Investing in the appearance of your teeth can affect you in numerous ways, and some treatments can benefit dental health. For example, when you see us for a smile makeover, we assess the look of your teeth and your dental health. Restoring missing teeth not only improves appearance but helps protect your existing teeth and ensures you can eat more comfortably. Likewise, repairing worn and broken teeth protects and preserves them while improving your smile.

Additionally, when you have a healthy and attractive smile, it can boost self-confidence. When you feel great about your teeth, you are more likely to socialise with other people and make friends and build relationships.

We plan each smile makeover extremely carefully, taking the time to listen to you to learn your desires, devising a custom treatment plan to suit your needs.

Everyone knows sugar is bad for teeth, and it is well-known for causing cavities. This is because when you eat sugary foods, the leftover particles feed bacteria found in dental plaque. These bacteria create acid as a byproduct, which in turn weakens tooth enamel. Repeated exposure to these acids eventually wears through the tooth enamel, causing cavities in teeth.

Another risk is gum disease, as the harmful bacteria found in dental plaque thrive on a sugary diet and, in addition to producing acid, produce toxins that infect and inflame the gums. A sugary diet can weaken the immune system, so it is less able to fight infections like gum disease. Consequently, gum disease can worsen and gradually destroy the gums and other structures around teeth, so they eventually loosen. Gum disease is the most common cause of tooth loss. It is also associated with other serious health conditions. For example, gum disease can increase the risk of developing Type II diabetes. Heart disease has been linked with gum disease, some kinds of cancers, and respiratory diseases.

If you are worried you are consuming too much sugar, please ask us for practical help and advice. If necessary, we can review your diet with you and help you make healthier low-sugar choices.

You clean your teeth regularly, but how frequently do you clean your tongue? The answer is never for many people, but your tongue can harbour bacteria and food debris, so cleaning it regularly can help freshen breath and reduce dental plaque buildup. You can clean your tongue with a tongue scraper or with a toothbrush.

Using a Tongue Scraper

To clean your tongue, stick it out as far as possible, placing your tongue scraper right to the back of the tongue. Then, gently move it forwards over the tongue to remove debris. Rinse thoroughly before repeating the process up to five times. Make sure you clean your tongue scraper thoroughly before putting it away.

Using a Toothbrush to Clean Your Tongue

Stick your tongue out as far as you can, and using a soft-bristled brush, gently clean it using back and forth movements. Rinse your toothbrush thoroughly afterwards.

You can clean your tongue as frequently as you brush your teeth, but if you only want to clean it once a day, do so last thing at night. The cleaner your mouth is before you sleep, the better, as you produce less saliva, and any remaining bacteria will thrive in drier conditions overnight.

Common oral diseases like tooth decay and gum disease are preventable with proper dental care. Follow these easy tips to help keep your teeth and gums healthy.

1. Brush regularly but gently, using a soft-bristled toothbrush. Brushing too vigorously can damage your teeth and gums.
2. Use fluoride toothpaste to help protect your teeth against tooth decay. After brushing, don’t rinse as this will leave a thin layer of protective fluoride coating your teeth for longer.
3. Floss daily as your toothbrush cannot clean the contact areas between your teeth. Leaving these areas uncleaned means leaving approximately one-third of your tooth surfaces dirty.
4. Book regular dental exams. Most people need to see us every six months for regular checkups.
5. Don’t smoke or try to quit. Smoking makes it harder for your oral tissues to fight disease, increasing the risk of gum disease. It also gives you bad breath.
6. Use an antibacterial mouthwash if you like to use a mouth rinse, as this will help control dental plaque.
7. Don’t consume too many sugary and starchy foods, especially between meals, as these increase the risk of tooth decay.
8. Drink water instead of fizzy drinks or sweetened fruit juice. Water is also the best way to quench your thirst.