A Good Dental Hygiene Routine

A Good Dental Hygiene Routine

Your mouth goes through a lot day in, day out. You are talking, chewing, tasting, biting and smiling. If you neglect your teeth and gums you will inevitably regret it. You will develop tooth decay and gum disease. This can only lead to pain and discomfort. Therefore, you need to be keeping things very clean on a regular basis.

You should get into a good brushing routine that should take a minimum of 2 minutes to clean all the surfaces of your teeth thoroughly. Then it is vital to clean in between the teeth by flossing. The number of people that don’t floss is huge. If you don’t floss you leave bacteria and food in between your teeth. This leads to bad breath, bleeding gums (gingivitis) and decay. If you don’t floss for a few days, next time you floss smell it – it wont smell good!

It’s also important to brush your tongue to remove the bacteria that contribute to bad breath. You can then also use a mouthwash to aid the cleansing of your mouth. This isn’t vital but does help.

Make sure you use a toothpaste and mouthwash that contains fluoride. Fluoride is the active ingredient that will help prevent tooth decay. It also goes a long way in trying to reverse tooth decay in its early stages.

So in the morning after breakfast and just before you go to bed, spend 5 or 6 minutes cleaning your teeth. It’s also not a bad idea to give them a clean after each meal. For some great tutorials and videos on tooth brushing I could not recommend YouTube enough.

David Hurst BDS (Lon)

WHAT IS AND WHY DO I NEED A CROWN??

WHAT IS AND WHY DO I NEED A CROWN??

A dental crown or cap is a covering that is made to protect and strengthen a tooth. If your tooth is weakened by having a large filling in place, a crack or has had previous root canal treatment then a crown may be indicated to strengthen the tooth and prevent it from cracking or breaking, often beyond repair.

A crown is most often made of ceramic or sometimes gold. These materials offer the best resistance to the everyday forces involved in speaking and eating that teeth are exposed to. We will use ceramic, tooth coloured materials where possible so that they blend in naturally with the rest of your teeth.

The procedure takes two visits. Once your dentist has decided that your tooth requires and is suitable for a crown they will firstly prepare the tooth into the right shape so it can have a crown placed over it. This involves trimming the outer layer of the tooth down by approximately 2mm all the way around it. Once it is in the right shape a mould is taken of this and sent away to a dental laboratory. Your dentist will place a temporary covering, or crown over your tooth whilst you wait, normally 1-2 weeks for your crown to return from the laboratory.

Once the crown is returned from the lab it is usually a simple matter of cementing this in place over your natural tooth. This prevents the crown from coming off the tooth. If a crown is looked after and has been made to a high standard then it should last you a minimum of 8 to 10 years.

INTRODUCTION

I have decided to write a series of blogs to give people an accurate insight into what is involved with different types of dental treatments, what to expect and what their options maybe. I will try to explain things in layman’s terms, free from jargon and science, making it easier to understand.

I qualified from King’s College London dental school in 2004. After several years working in the UK I finally settled with my young family in Perth, Western Australia in 2007. I work solely in the private sector as a general dentist. I have had further training in endodontics (root canal therapy), orthodontics and implantology.

Dentistry is a much misunderstood profession and the goal of my articles is to try and give more clarity and understanding to some treatments and experiences involved in going to the dentist. I will also probably add some non-dental blogs along the way!

If there is anything you want further information on please do not hesitate to contact me either by responding to the blog itself or by emailing my at docotrdavidhurst1980@gmail.com

Regards

David Hurst BDS (Lon)

How often should I go to the Dentist?

How often should I go to the Dentist?

Recent studies and surveys shows that, in Australia, a large percentage of Australians do not regularly attend the dentist. The reasons for this will be vast and varied but will usually stem down to cost, fear or not seeing the importance of it. The next statistic that is alarming is that a great number of people who attend the dentist usually only do because they are in pain or have a problem.

The importance of attending your dentist on a regular basis is huge. Regular check ups and cleans will help to pick up on dental and mouth problems before they escalate into something major. Further tests, such as x-rays, can also highlight problems you may not have been aware of. Just because you don’t feel you have any problems doesn’t mean you don’t have any!

A dental examination will screen not for only dental decay but also for possible periodontal (gum) disease, oral cancers, possible damaging habits such as tooth grinding and many other factors. These issues can go undetected for a long period of time before symptoms arise, at which point they may be far harder to treat and lead to far more treatment and cost involved.

As a rule of thumb you should visit your dentist every 6 months for an examination. Your dentist will then assess your case and decide whether or not you need to be routinely seen more or less often then 6 months. They will also decide the frequency with which dental x-rays should be taken; the norm for this is every 2 years.

Don’t leave it too long before you have your next dental examination. If you’re already overdue book today!

The Basics of Teeth Whitening

The Basics of Teeth Whitening

Teeth whitening is probably the most sort after of all dental cosmetic procedures. This blog outlines all you need to know about tooth whitening without confusing you with unnecessary science or jargon.

There are typically two ways that a dentist will offer teeth whitening, home whitening or in-chair/in-office whitening. Both methods should, in theory, achieve the same results as long as everyone follows the instructions to the letter.

(It is important to note that prior to having any tooth whitening procedure you should have a full dental examination, scale and clean and relevant x-rays. This is to check that you do not have any cavities, active gum disease or other pathology with your teeth. Teeth whitening can worsen these issues and they should be addressed prior to any tooth whitening procedure.)

Lets start with home whitening. This method beings by having some impressions, or moulds taken of your upper and lower teeth. These will be used by the laboratory to fabricate some teeth whitening trays. Once these come back, your dentist will check that these fit properly. You will then be given some teeth whitening gels, which will be a certain concentration of either hydrogen or carbamide peroxide. This is the active ingredient which will whiten your teeth.

(NB: The concentration or strength is not as important as you think. Bleach is bleach is bleach! The stronger the concentration the faster it may work but with it will come more sensitivity. Chat with your dentist to decide which concentration is best for you.)

These should be used every evening, after you have eaten and brushed and flossed your teeth. You place a small blob of the whitening gel (about 2-3mm in diameter – a little goes a long way!) into each tooth reservoir on the inside of your whitening trays. Pop the trays in your mouth and have a look in the mirror. If there is any over spill of the gel onto your gums, take a dry piece of tissue paper and wipe it away. You should wear the trays for approximately 60 minutes. If you have quite marked sensitivity the following day, place some sensitive specialist toothpaste in your trays and wear them for 30 minutes. The next day reduce the whitening time by 10-15 minutes so that the sensitivity is less. Continue to reduce the time until you find an adequate amount of time that does not give rise to marked sensitivity. If you find that the gums have been irritated by the gels, don’t panic, this will usually be gone in hours.

You will need to wear your trays every night for 3 weeks. This part is extremely important. If you skip nights you will not get the results. The effect is cumulative and requires nightly application for it to work properly.

The other system is what we call in-chair or in-office whitening. It again begins with taking moulds (or impressions) for the whitening trays but prior to sending you away with the whitening gels, your dentist will give you a head start. They will apply some very high concentration whitening gel to your teeth in a controlled manner in the dental chair, often with the use of a whitening light or laser. The role of the light is to heat up the gel slightly, increasing its whitening effect. Once this procedure is completed, usually after 90 minutes, your dentist will give you the take home trays and whitening gels. The same instructions as above apply but you need only whiten your teeth for 3 days instead of 3 weeks.

Another thing to consider is that you must avoid all heavily staining food and drink such as tea, coffee, red wine and foods of high colorant, for example Indian food. These will hinder the whitening process. With this in mind, often people are put off by the thought of home whitening for 3 whole weeks and often choose to opt for the faster in office system, despite it more often than not being more expensive.

Possible side effects of whitening are usually limited to sensitivity only. Whitening causes no damage to healthy teeth. If your teeth are naturally quite sensitive then whitening will often make this slightly worse but can managed through the use of sensitive specialist toothpaste as previously mentioned.

How long will your teeth stay whiter for? Depends on how much wine and coffee you drink, how many cigars you smoke, etc. Everyday diet will always introduce staining factors to your teeth (unless you live off rice and water!). So keep hold of your whitening trays and when you feel that your teeth are starting to discolor then go to your dentist and by yourself some extra whitening gels to spruce them up again.

The last thing to consider is your expectations. Do you want dramatically whiter teeth? If so then you may be disappointed or your expectations may not be met. Tooth whitening usually will whiten your teeth a few shades giving them a far more subtle and attractive appearance rather than a dramatic change. But the truth be told, everyone’s teeth react differently to whitening so its very important to realize that there is no predicting just how white they will go.

Everyone’s case and everyone’s teeth are different. So to find which method will be best for you, discuss your teeth whitening needs with your dentist.

Do you hate the dentist?

Do you hate the dentist?

Throughout my career I have found that the greatest battle for patients is overcoming their fear or anxiety of the dentist. “I hate the dentist!” is often how I am greeted, most often shortly followed by “no offence!”. None taken, we’ve just met so I seriously hope that it is not personal otherwise I may need to take a long hard look in the mirror.

It’s the dental treatment you hate, not the dentist. This usually stems from historical treatment that was either painful or pretty uncomfortable. This can sometimes be accompanied by a grumpy and uncaring dentist making the whole experience fairly poor. Dentistry as a profession has come on leaps on bounds in the last few decades and it continues to advance at a huge rate thanks to increased research and development along with technological advances. Dentistry, and us Dentists, are more than aware that a visit to the dentist can fill you with dread but we also know that the experience should be painless and not cause nightmares or sleepless nights.

The most common fears will be the expectation of pain, needle phobia, the noises, the sensations of a dental drill and the fear still lingering from a previous “bad visit”. The advances mentioned before can greatly help to reduce your fears and hopefully make them vanish in time. For example, modern dental anesthetics should be highly effective and thus eradicate any feeling of pain during a dental procedure. Even the administering of the anesthetic should be relatively pain free with the use of topical anesthetic gel, something your dentist may refer to as numbing gel. Some dentists may own a device that will self administer the anesthetic in a very slow controlled manner so that it is highly effective to the single tooth you are having treated but more importantly can barely be felt. This will go a long way to help you overcome your needle phobia.

The fact will then follow that if you have adequate numbness of the area you should feel no pain and nothing to fear. But the noise is horrible? Sounds like nails down a blackboard? Modern dental drills are becoming more and more quiet making them more tolerable but even then you should take along your music MP3 player and listen to this to help relax you and take away the noise.

These are all wonderful ideas and will most definitely help but the main thing for you to find is a dentist you trust and one you feel comfortable with. This should go without saying but dentists are only human and we all cant like everyone. It important to do some research not only online but more importantly from word of mouth speak to friends and relatives to ask if they have a dentist who they use and recommend. It will go a long way to making you feel happier about your visit in the chair.

There are no treatments in dentistry that should be associated with pain, including root canal therapy and wisdom teeth extractions, although post operatively these may bring some discomfort, your visit to the dentist should be pretty much without pain. If a patient comes to me initially petrified of what is to come, I see that as a challenge to prove them that it is not only not as bad as they expect but actually nothing to worry about at all. It can take several visits before this can be achieved but usually it is. If all else fails and someone is just too phobic then you can always request treatment under sedation so, under a controlled environment, you take the appropriate medications to help relax you. This though should be a last resort.

It is well known that nearly half of Australians do not visit the dentist. This is a staggering fact and one that profession has a duty to put right. I hope that with time, greater care and education people will no longer fears us as they have. We go through extensive training to get where we are and we have a professional obligation to continue our training throughout our careers. Remember we are only there to help you.

David Hurst BDS (Lon)