We all, hopefully, brush our teeth twice a day already with a fluoride-containing toothpaste. If you don’t, please start today! But what about floss?
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and our mandate to stay home and social distance to protect the greater population and flatten the curve, I thought we should discuss one way to help prevent cavities from forming during this time. Flossing!
Flossing gets a bad wrap because people don’t want to do it but it is so important to your oral health! When you don’t floss, you miss cleaning 35% of your tooth surface area. This allows bacteria to sit between your teeth and grow. As they grow, they start to release acids which weaken the enamel of your teeth causing cavities. It also irritates your gum tissue which over time causes your gums and bones around your teeth to shrink away causing periodontal (gum) disease. The simple solution? Start flossing tonight!
How do you floss properly?
First of all, the best time of day to floss is before you go to sleep. This allows you to remove all of the plaque that built up during the day so that your teeth are clean while you sleep. If that doesn’t work for you, just try to do it once every day to take the plaque off. Anytime of day is better than not at all.
Does the type of floss matter? Yes, to a certain extent. String floss is the best option because you can adapt it to your teeth the best. But, again, any flossing is better than nothing so do you best with what works for you. We can help improve your technique if you ask us at your next appointment.
Now for the technique. Wrap a metre long piece of string floss around your two middle fingers. This lets you use your index fingers and thumbs to maneuver the floss. When you slide the floss between two of your teeth, make sure you are gentle. Once you are through the contact area, you want to hug one of the teeth in a C-shape and slide the floss up and down in a shoe-shine motion, making sure you go below the gums as far as it will go.
Then hug the other tooth in the contact area and repeat.
Pull back through the contact area and switch to a new section of floss. Continue doing this for all of your teeth. And make sure you floss the backside of your farthest back teeth even though they don’t have a contact. Plaque still builds up there and needs to be removed. When you have finished, ball the floss up and throw it in the garbage. Do not flush floss! It is not good for your plumbing.
Let us know how you are doing with your flossing at your next visit. Are you struggling with the technique? Ask us to show you!
Let’s be honest.No one really wants to have a filling or root canal done.We get it!But it happens to the best of us. Whether it is because you haven’t seen a dentist for 5 years, you love candy or you got hit in the face by a hockey puck, life happens and sometimes things happen to your teeth that need to be treated.Either way, we understand that you would rather not have this done, today or any other day.
So what can you do to help yourself avoid having these treatments done?We are going to explore that over our next few blog posts in a series we are calling Prevention is Key.Stay tuned as we explore different avenues to prevent some dental issues.
As this is the first post about prevention, let’s start at the beginning with the most basic of all the prevention techniques:
Routine examinations by your dentist
Why is this important?If we are going to prevent something from happening, we need to be at least one step ahead of it and identify factors that put you at risk for something happening.Once we can identify the risks, we can do things to either avoid them or to help manage the risks.But if we don’t know the risks are there and we let them continue unchecked, it is more likely that something negative will happen.
What do we mean by this?
Let’s take a toddler who likes to go to bed with a bottle for an example.If no one has told his new parents that milk has natural sugars in it that can cause cavities to form on his teeth, they may put milk in his bottle because milk is his favourite.As he sips on the milk before he falls asleep, the sugars in the milk feed the bacteria that cause the cavities.Since he is doing this after he went to bed, the milk is not brushed off his teeth.After months and months of this, he develops cavities on his baby teeth that now need to be filled.But, if they had brought him to the dentist for an exam before this happened, we could have helped educate them on how milk in bottles at night can cause cavities.The parents then could have chosen to put water in his bottle instead and lowered the chances of their little boy having early childhood decay.I am sure that you would agree with me that in this scenario, knowledge would empower the parents to make the best decision for their child.No judgement here, just illustrating a particular situation that happens sometimes when parents aren’t aware.
And what about the father who likes to play recreational hockey with his buddies?They are just playing for fun on Tuesday nights and celebrate with beer and chicken wings afterwards.No one wears a sports guard or full face shield as it is just for fun.But then someone’s shot goes awry and dad gets a puck to the mouth and breaks 3 of his front teeth.No beer for dad tonight – he’s off to a see a dentist for an emergency visit and may lose some teeth!But if he had discussed his love for playing hockey with his dentist, they could have made him a fun coloured sports guard to wear when he is playing or discussed getting a full face shield for his helmet to protect his teeth from stray pucks. And who knows, he may have even told his friends to do the same!
There are many risk factors your dentist can identify during exams that help prevent dental issues down the road.Do they see wear on your teeth?You may be grinding your teeth and a night guard would help protect your teeth when you sleep.Is plaque forming on a specific tooth?They can point this out for you and help you find a way to clean it better to prevent a cavity.Are your gums red and swollen?They can identify issues causing this and help you correct them to avoid gum disease.
It is hard to go into detail here without going on forever about all the possible scenarios your dentist is looking for and thinking of at your visit.We will try to go into more detail about common ones over the next few blogs in this series for you.But basically, when you are in for an exam with your dentist, he or she is looking for:
the overall health of the tissues and bones that form your head and neck
lumps and bumps – these could be a sign of an infection, a cyst or oral cancer
broken or decayed teeth
early signs of cavities
gum health and signs of gum disease
the condition of the dental work you have in your mouth – crowns, fillings, dentures, retainers, etc.
how your teeth fit together
signs of grinding or clenching
the function of your TMJ (temporomandibular joint) – your jaw joint
anything else that doesn’t look right
We can’t prevent or avoid everything but the more we try, the healthier your mouth will be.So do what you can at home to help protect your mouth and visit your dentist regularly to identify risks and early signs of issues.And follow along as we go through as many prevention tips and strategies as we can for you over the next few posts!
Fissure sealants are a great way to help prevent cavities from forming in the deep grooves of your teeth. Specifically molars and premolars, as they more commonly have these deeper grooves. Usually, we do these on children’s teeth as they are most likely to get cavities in these locations, but they can be done at any age.
A fissure sealant is a resin-based coating painted into the grooves of the teeth that helps prevent bacteria from getting in the grooves and helps prevent cavities. They are simple, easy to do and do not hurt so kids don’t mind having them done either!
Let’s quickly run through the process of a fissure sealant being placed:
1 – The deep groove susceptible to a cavity is identified.
2 – The groove is cleaned and the tooth enamel is prepared for the fissure sealant to be placed.
3 – The tooth is dried and the fissure sealant is applied to the prepared enamel surface. Don’t worry, it goes on pink but cures into a white material.
4 – The fissure sealant material is hardened with a blue curing light.
5 – The tooth’s deep grooves have now been fissure sealed to protect them from the bacteria that cause decay.
Filling these deep grooves in with fissure sealants helps prevent bacteria from getting into these grooves and also makes it easier to clean the tooth with your toothbrush. Fissure sealants are a great preventative measure you can take for your teeth or your children’s teeth.
Talk to us today to see if fissure sealants would work for you.
At Kelowna Family Dental, we love working with kids. So much so that we started Kids Club to help encourage and reward our young patients to take care of their teeth!
What is Kids Club?
Kids Club is a draw that we run for our younger patients. When they have a check up exam and cleaning with Dr. Robyn and have no cavities, we enter their name into the draw. As long as they are 15 years old and younger, and had a cavity-free check up, they are entered.
We hope that this helps to motivate all of our young patients to work hard on their brushing and flossing to keep their mouths and teeth healthy. Learning these important life skills at a young age can set them up for a lifetime of healthy teeth.
What can I win?
The winner of each Kids Club draw gets to choose a prize:
a $25 gift card from Toys’ R’ Us, or,
a $25 gift card from Orchard Park Shopping Centre
How do I win?
Book a check up exam and cleaning for your child aged 15 years or younger
Your child earns a clean bill of dental health from Dr. Robyn
Your child puts his or her name in the draw and hopefully wins the draw
Best of luck to all of our cavity-free kids in Kids Club!
Did you wake up with a toothache, or break a tooth? Do you have swelling in your mouth? No matter the dental emergency, the next question is “Now what?”
First things first, take a deep breath and call our office at 250-762-2223. If we are not open, our voicemail has instructions for who to call in the case of a dental emergency. Even if we are closed for holidays or a long weekend, we always have emergency coverage for our patients because you never know when a dental emergency will happen. Call us so we can help.
What will happen in the case of a dental emergency?
Well first, if we are open, our receptionists will schedule you an appointment with Dr. Moreau as soon as possible to assess the situation. She will diagnose your problem and help you come to a decision as to how to treat it. Depending on the dental emergency you are having, this could mean anything from a filling being needed to repair a cavity or broken tooth, a root canal to treat an infected tooth or an extraction to remove a non-salvageable tooth. There are many possible dental emergencies and the treatment options for each are unique to each situation. Depending on the severity of the emergency, sometimes a prescription or a referral to a specialist may be necessary. The most important step for us though is getting you out of pain and treating infection. So the sooner we are able to see you, the better.
If we are not open, please call our emergency number listed on our answering machine. Most likely, you will be calling Dr. Moreau at home. If not, it will be one of her trusted colleagues here in town covering for her while we are away. Either way, the dentist you reach will do their best to help you over the phone. Often, simply answering your questions and scheduling you an appointment for the next business day is all it takes. In the case of a more serious emergency, Dr. Moreau may meet you at the office for treatment as necessary. The best thing you can do when dealing with a dental emergency is phone us so we can help.
This child broke her tooth during a soccer tournament. Dr. Moreau was able to ensure there was no severe damage to the tooth from the x-ray and exam, and was even able to fix it with a filling at the same appointment!
This lets you use your index fingers and thumbs to maneuver the floss. When you slide the floss between two of your teeth, make sure you are gentle. Once you are through the contact area, you want to hug one of the teeth in a C-shape and slide the floss up and down in a shoe-shine motion, making sure you go below the gums as far as it will go.
Let’s take a toddler who likes to go to bed with a bottle for an example.
And what about the father who likes to play recreational hockey with his buddies?
A fissure sealant is a resin-based coating painted into the grooves of the teeth that helps prevent bacteria from getting in the grooves and helps prevent cavities. They are simple, easy to do and do not hurt so kids don’t mind having them done either!
What can I win?
