Home Care

A beautiful, healthy smile that lasts a lifetime is our ultimate goal when treating patients.  Your personal home care plays an important role in achieving that goal.  Your personal home care starts by eating balanced meals, reducing the number of snacks you eat, and correctly using the various dental aids that help control the plaque and bacteria that cause dental disease.

Tooth Brushing

Brush your teeth at least twice a day (especially before going to bed at night) with an ADA approved soft bristle brush and toothpaste.

• Place the brush at a 45 degree angle to the gums and gently brush using a small, circular motion ensuring that you always feel the bristles on the gums.
• Brush the outer, inner and biting surfaces of each tooth.
• Use the tip of the brush to clean the inside of the front teeth.
• Brush your tongue to remove bacteria and freshen your breath.

Flossing

Daily flossing is the best way to clean between the teeth and under the gum line. Flossing not only helps clean these spaces, it disrupts plaque colonies from building up, preventing damage to the gums, teeth and bone.

Rinsing

It is important to rinse your mouth with water after brushing, and also after meals if you are unable to brush.

Healthy Diet

Minimizing the amount of daily sugar intake can greatly reduce your risk of tooth decay.  Bacteria in your mouth feed on simple sugars and give off an acidic by-product when metabolizing those sugars.  That acid causes the breakdown of healthy tooth structure and leads to tooth decay.

Common sources of sugar in your diet may include, but are not limited to, soda (both diet and regular), Gatorade, coffee sweeteners, candy, antacids (such as tums and Rolaids), breath mints.  When looking at a food label, sugar can be listed as glucose, sucrose, and fructose.  Limiting your sugar intake can greatly reduce the amount of tooth decay in your mouth.