Electrical or Manual toothbrush, which is best?
9May

This has been an ongoing debate for years.  However, after some major studies, it has been found that an electric toothbrush does outperform a manual toothbrush in just about every case.  This is because they can cover more ground easily.  The oscillation and vibration of an electric toothbrush will get back plaque better than a manual one.  It will also help loosen stuck-on food.  

While the electric toothbrush is superior to the manual toothbrush, it is also more expensive.  Some can be very expensive.  Which means some people cannot afford them.  Not to worry, using a manual toothbrush is still better than using your finger or a cloth.  Brushing your teeth is vital to your oral health as well as your overall health.  Oral bacteria can make you very sick.  If you find getting an electric toothbrush out of your financial reach, no worries.  

When you start to shop for an electric toothbrush you will probably notice there are toothbrushes that do all sorts of things.  Some come with timers and pressure sensors.  Some oscillate and some vibrate while others do both.  This can be very confusing and frustrating depending on which would be best for you.  We would recommend asking Dentist Boronia what they think.  After all, they know your teeth well. Some of us have deep pits in our teeth naturally and will need a toothbrush that is good for that.  While others of us might have a gingivitis issue or infection in our gums that need a better cleaning around the gum area. 

These different oral problems will be the driving force on which electric toothbrush would be best for you.  Also, what features would you like to see on your toothbrush, there are lots, so go prepared when shopping for an electric toothbrush.

Some of these electric toothbrush options include:

  • Multiple brush heads so you can determine what bristles you like best.  Some come with soft and some are more firm, for example.
  • Tracking capabilities to ensure that you are covering your entire mouth.
  • Bluetooth tracking so you can use an app to study your brushing habits and show your dentist as well.
  • Sonic, Oscillating/pulsating or Oscillation, and rotation are some of the various styles of electric toothbrushes.
  • Digital reminders that it is time for a replacement.
  • Timers built-in so that you can time how long you have brushed overall or for each quadrant.  
  • Pressure sensors to ensure you are not brushing too hard and damaging the enamel.
  • Various brushing modes are included.  

Many manufacturers make various styles and types of electric toothbrushes.  Your budget should also be taken into account.  Sure you have the initial purchase of the electric toothbrush, but you also have to remember that you will need to replace the head from time to time.  Check the cost of head replacement so that you aren’t in sticker shock later on.  

Proper oral hygiene will ensure that you will have a beautiful smile for years to come.  

FAQ

Is it bad to use an electric toothbrush every day?

Some people might think that it is bad to use an electric toothbrush every day as it will harm your enamel.  However, that is certainly not the case.  It has been proven that electric toothbrushes are safe for everyday use.

Should I leave my electric toothbrush on the charger all the time?

You don’t want to ruin the battery, so no, do not leave it on the charger the entire time.  Instead, when you first get it, charge it for about 16 hours. Then, use it as you would normally until it needs to go back on the charger again. This will allow your batteries to perform better and last far longer.

What is the life expectancy of an electric toothbrush?

You should plan to have your electric toothbrush last 3-5 years.  It will really depend on the batteries.  If you can change the batteries, then you might get a longer life span. However, most have on board and built in batteries that you will recharge over and over again.

How often should I replace my toothbrush?
9May

While we typically all get a new toothbrush from the dentist Boronia on our 6-month cleaning, is that when you are supposed to change out your toothbrush?  We thought it was time to let everyone know how often and why you would change out your toothbrush.

Your toothbrush is used to get plaque and food out and around your teeth.  If you think about it, it can get kind of gross.  If your toothbrush ends up really gross, change it then, of course, these are simply guides.  Some people will want to change more often, which is fine.  The point is that you actually change out the toothbrush and don’t use the same one for a year or years in some cases.  

How often will also depend on how often you brush your teeth.  While some people only brush their teeth once or twice a day, others will brush after each and every meal. If you are a person that brushes several times a day, your toothbrush will wear out more quickly.  You will have to change out your toothbrush every 12-16 weeks, in this case.  The bristles will eventually start to fray and when that happens the fibers aren’t strong enough to clean your teeth properly. 

Follow your electric toothbrush’s recommendations

If you use an electric toothbrush, you should follow the instructions of that particular manufacturer.  Of course, you will need to use the guide of how often and a little common sense.  Usually, though, the electric toothbrushes will have color on their bristles.  When the color is worn off, it is time for a new head. This will wear off more quickly for those that are using their toothbrush more.  

Electric toothbrush heads can be a little expensive.  However, if you try to stretch it you are not doing your teeth any favors. They are made to vibrate and rotate rapidly, which means that they will most likely wear rather quickly.  Electric toothbrushes can certainly be an effective tool, however, when used properly.  

While some people think they should get rid of their toothbrushes after being sick, this simply isn’t true.  Yes, your toothbrush will house germs.  However, they are germs that your body has built up antibodies to.  This means that you will not reinfect yourself should you use it.  However, if you house your toothbrush with your families, you could infect them.  Try to keep your toothbrushes from touching.  

How to clean your toothbrush of germs.

Also, you can rinse your toothbrush with some mouthwash to clean it well, then run it underwater.  The alcohol in the mouthwash will disinfect the toothbrush, should you feel it necessary.  

Make sure the bristles on your toothbrush remain stiff and springy.  As you use it the bristles will wear down and become softer overtime.  This is a good sign that it is time to invest in a new toothbrush.  Also, check between the bristles.  Over time gunk can build up at the base of the bristle.  This gunk can be a breeding ground for bacteria. If you have gunk, it is time for a new toothbrush ASAP.  

We do recommend that you purchase a new toothbrush and always have one on hand.  After all, you never know when you might notice that it’s time for a replacement.  It is better to be prepared than not. 

FAQ

How often should I brush my teeth?

While twice a day is the best, we want to see you brush at least once a day. If you only do it once a day, try to do it before bedtime.  Otherwise, the morning and night are the best time. While some people like to brush after each meal, this isn’t necessary.

What toothbrush should I use?

A little overwhelmed in the toothbrush aisle?  We understand, there are so many.  But, really it comes down to personal preference.  Just pick one that you like the feel of and don’t be shy to try something different.

How should I store my toothbrush?

In a nice clean and dry area where it can dry out and not harbor bacteria growth.

Teeth Staining
9May

There have been countless studies that show there is actually a connection between oral health and a stroke.  In fact, these two are connected in more than one way.  

When a person has a stroke, they lose blood flow to certain parts of the brain.  This can cause memory loss and paralysis of the face. When you are having a hard time medically, it is hard to continue to remember to brush your teeth, which can lead to oral problems.  However, the drooping face can also cause oral issues as food is more easily trapped between the cheeks and gums.  Brushing your teeth after a stroke is important.  Or the food build-up will turn to plaque and cause other diseases.  

A stroke can also affect memory, causing one to forget that they need to brush their teeth.  A good caregiver will assist the patient with proper oral care.  However, many people don’t always go home to a good caregiver.  This then leads to bad oral hygiene and care. 

Periodontal disease and stroke.

It has also been shown the periodontal disease increases your chances of having a stroke.  Periodontal disease or gingivitis both are bacterial infections in the mouth.  Studies have shown that 75% of most people have some sort of form of gum disease.  But, only 3% seek out treatment for this sort of disease.  This is somewhat of a problem.  

This plaque and bacteria in the mouth can go uncared for years.  However, this bacteria can eventually enter the bloodstream.  This is when health problems start to occur. It was found that many people that have a stroke, have a blood clot that has oral bacteria in it.  It is believed this bacteria affects the valves, lining, and muscle of the heart as well and can lead to heart disease.  There have also been studies that bad oral care can also lead to plaque build-up on the lining of the arteries. This plaque can get loose and shoot to the brain, causing a stroke or it could cause a heart attack or blood clot on the lung too.  These are all deadly and very serious but they all lead back to poor oral health.  

Good oral hygiene will give you good overall health.

While keeping a pretty smile, you are also maintaining good circulatory health.  The two go hand in hand and are directly related in so many ways.  This is why it is so important that you visit your dentist Boronia often to ensure that your teeth are, in fact, clean and healthy.  If you haven’t been to your dentist in a while, pick up the phone and make an appointment. You might not be just saving your teeth, you could be saving your life.

Talk to your loved ones about the newfound knowledge you have.  Many people don’t know that poor teeth directly affect poor circulatory systems.  You should see your dentist twice a year to have your teeth properly cleaned and cared for.  Also, make sure that you are brushing often and regularly to keep your teeth free of plaque and debris.  

FAQ

Does poor oral hygiene lead to poor health?

Yes, poor oral hygiene will lead to poor health, it simply is a matter of time.  Be sure that you brush at least once a day, more would be better, and floss as needed.  Take time to see your dentist as well as your doctor.

How can I prevent my oral health from deteriorating?

You can visit your dentist at least twice a year for regular cleaning.  Should you have periodontal disease or other problems, your local dentist might recommend seeing them more often.  You need to brush your teeth once a day, more if possible.  Floss regularly or use a Waterpik and eat well.  Try to quit smoking when possible and limit soda intake.

Can you reverse gingivitis?

Gingivitis is what is caused by poor oral hygiene.  Most adults have some form of it as many don’t see the dentist as they should.  It can be reversed with some extra care.  Ask your dentist what you can do to help reverse the effects of gingivitis.

How to Handle Good Dental Hygiene
5Mar

If someone has told you that you have beautiful shining teeth, it means you have taken good care of them every day for good dental hygiene. To prevent the teeth from disease and pain people not only use cleaning and hygiene products but their mindful habits do play a partial role in oral hygiene procedures.

It is true people do take tooth care for granted, good oral hygiene speaks for itself apart from keeping your mouth ‘’disease and cavity-free’’ it improves your personality, impression, and confidence. Specialists have always recommended at least two visits to your dentist per year meanwhile it is a daily routine process you need to address with priority.

Causes of Tooth Pain

Tooth pain is caused by many reasons mostly the pains are generated gradually in weeks due to minor negligence that causes growth of bacteria, taking excess sugar, chewing hard and unhealthy foods. Researchers have found late-night snacking after brushing provides fuel to the bacteria remaining on your teeth.

4 Tips to Handle Good Dental Hygiene

There are few recommended tips for healthy teeth and gums for both adult and children: –

1. Brushing

The most common and most important treatment of your teeth is brushing twice a day. It has been taught to us since childhood and brushing is the most effective cure to remove bacteria and plaque. But there is a proper way of brushing your teeth.

  • Change your brush when the ends turn frayed or after 3 months.
  • Don’t brush too hard it may damage your teeth or gums.
  • Do brush for about two minutes and avoid doing after a meal.
  • Your tongue is house to millions of bacteria. Clean it with a brush or tongue scraper.
  • Use fluoride toothpaste for better treatment of your teeth.
  • Last but not least keep your brush clean and wash it after every usage.

2. Flossing

Your teeth and gums are aligned many times and the brush cannot reach the tight spaces that’s why the dentist Boronia advised flossing. Using floss is easy but be gentle as you don’t want to harm your gums. Use floss once a day before or after you brush the teeth for a good oral hygiene routine.

3. Mouthwash

Oral Health Tips

To promote oral health, you must consider keeping a mouthwash in your cabinet. Keeping in mind mouthwash is not a substitute for brushing or flossing, it’s the fluoride liquid that kills bacteria efficiently and helps you with bad breath problems.

4. Avoid Unnecessary Habits

It is better to suppress the pain in the first place and avoid unnecessary habits that are unsafe for your teeth, gums, and mouth. Try to take the minimum amount of sugar in your daily intake, sugar converts into acid which leads to cavities in the first place.

Who cannot agree that tobacco consumption is bad for health, gum tissues, converting teeth and tongue into yellow? Adults need to take care of these habits and watch out for the children as well.

Time of Action!

It’s the right time to set an appointment and visit the dentist who can check you for oral disease and prescribe your better dental hygiene products. The Smile Clinic’s impeccable dental care services are on standby. Book your appointment today!

Habits That Degrade Your Teeth
4Mar

Your smile shows your confidence, you can only smile in public if your teeth are perfectly shining and you don’t breathe badly. Although visiting a dentist Boronia is important and you should schedule it but you should assist the unhealthy habits harming your teeth.

Let’s get into your eating habits that become the reason for your unhealthy teeth.

Seven Practices That Harm Your Dental Health

After conducting profound testing, we have come up with the 7 most common habits that degrade your teeth and you do them in your daily life.

1: Chewing and Biting

Do you chew with your front teeth; No, I am not talking about food. Chewing pen, pencil, cap, and other items is not only an annoying habit but it can cause you micro-fractures that will finally lead to major problems. Teeth are for chewing tasty food; don’t treat them as bottle openers or package openers. Biting crunching items like ice or nail-biting can cause regular toothache.

2: Flossing with Actual Floss

You might not want to brush after every snack or meal and it is not even suggested by the dentist. Quickly brushing your teeth after the meal has a negative impact so flossing would be a good option but you should use actual floss for the purpose.

People tend to use any unusual item, even fingernails to remove leftovers from teeth, the unsanitary items introduce more bacteria in your mouth.

3: Brushing too Hard

How you brush is more important than doing brush, you may be damaging your teeth and gum with a hard brush or heavy hand rubbing. Either you are using your brush for too long or not knowing about the perfect size bristle for your teeth. The adequate amount of pressure and softened bristle go easy on your teeth and does the job.

4: Grinding and Clenching

7 Habits That Cause Bad Teeth

If someone tells you that you were grinding your teeth while asleep, you will definitely defer from them but the jaw soreness will be the proof and you may consider why my teeth are in bad shape. You can actually fracture your teeth with this habit without even knowing. This habit is built by anxiety, stress, or sleep disorder while dentists suggest mouth guards for protection.

5: Vaping and Tobacco

We were not over with the tobacco problems and yet we added vaping to our youngster’s life. Vaping has the same effects as tobacco while the addiction can lead to oral cancer the minor effects which you can see in your daily life are teeth stain, bad breath, and loss of jaw bone. Chewing tobacco may be good for your lungs but it constantly reduces blood flow to your gums causing gum disease.

6: Brushing with the Old Brush

Every product has an expiry time, brushes are to be used for 3 months, the bristle loses its stiffness, or when the bristle changes to frayed. These are signs that the brush is ready to be trashed, the old brush is doing more damage to the teeth than removing plaque and food around your tooth.

7: Acidic Food and Drinks

What worse can you do to your teeth! Well, there are more ways than you can imagine. With acidic food and soft drinks, you provide a heaven for the leftover bacteria. The excess amount of sugar leads to cavities and the high-starch food provides feed to the oral bacteria. The acid production by bacteria targets the enamel and causes tooth decay.

Consult A Doctor Today

Why gum is sticking to your teeth or why your gums are in pain to know the root cause of your pain and treatment, book an appointment today and let our dentist in Boronia give you the best ever treatment you deserve.

How to handle toothache (1)
3Mar

You feel pain in or around your tooth, you can’t differentiate it’s the teeth or the jaw and it’s compromising your sleep. You do not need to be frightened; toothache is a common phenomenon caused by a lack of oral hygiene or damage to the jaw and teeth. So, here the question is how to handle toothache?

Tips to Handle Toothache

The best handling of pain is to consult with the expert and not prolong it to a day or two. Here you will have a step by step guide to over your toothache. So, let’s dive in!

Causes of Tooth Pain

Factors that cause tooth pain sometimes can be critical to diagnose, it is also possible the pain is caused by another body part. Hence, we have mentioned few causes to help you out for precise diagnosis at early stages.

  • Tooth decay or cavity is usually the reason you suddenly feel pain. The cavity lingers on your teeth for a long time and becomes infected.
  • Tooths are sensitive and when exposed to extreme hot or cold you feel sudden pain.
  • Redness and swelling of gums are categorized as gum diseases that contribute both to gum and tooth pain.
  • The chipped or broken tooth damaged filling, crown, or wrong implant are some of the common factors

Why Consults Doctor?

Generally, people try to prevent consulting the dentist as much as possible but later on the constant toothache requires them to get it checked by a professional dentist. Dentists are highly qualified experts to point out the root cause of your toothache and recommend you the best treatment.

Your tooth may need to be removed, require a filling, or possibly gums are the one causing the real problem you don’t know. So, it is always better to seek medical advice for emergency toothache relief.

Home Remedies

Teeth Pain: How to Handle it

You may experience some pain in your teeth in day time but you continue to ignore it and now the toothache at night is unbearable. See our dentist Boronia immediately but till morning you should manage your pain in the best possible way. Here are some remedies to overcome toothache at home.

For emergencies, you can take pain medications especially painkillers but only take the recommended dosage and consult the doctor as soon as possible.

  • If your face is swollen, apply a cold pack or frozen ice with a towel on the face side for 20 minutes this will reduce inflammation and allow you to sleep.
  • Saltwater rinse is a home remedy for toothache, the salty water is an antibacterial agent to protect from infection and temporary pain relief. Be careful and don’t swallow any of it.
  • Another hydrogen peroxide rinse used as mouthwash can help in relieving pain, its best for bacteria and healing the bleeding gums but remember not to swallow it.
  • A slightly warm peppermint tea bag can be applied to the affected area to numb the pain and relax sensitive gums.

Habits to Prevent Toothache

The best way to treat your toothache is to prevent it in the first place. Some common habits can help you in reducing the risk of any oral health problem. You are told to brush the teeth twice a day from childhood, it’s a good habit and continuously cleaning our teeth from uninvited sticky food. Avoid chewing ice or hard food items that may cause a fracture in the teeth. Most importantly keep visiting the dentist for regular check-ups.

See Doctor Today

It is always better to make an appointment with a professional dentist before the minor toothache becomes a serious problem for you. Our expert dentists at The Smile Clinic Boronia are just a call away!