General Dental Advice

The Australian Dental Association has 4  recommendations to help maintain good oral health:

1) Brush twice daily (morning and night), with a fluoride toothpaste.*

2) Use dental floss (or an interdental cleaning device) at least once daily.**

3) Reduce sugary drinks and food.***

4) Visit the dentist for regular check-ups.

​

We like to add our own tip number 5 which is to avoid crunching on hard food (e.g. hard nuts,  lollies, ice, etc.).

​

*Toothbrushing:

The keys to doing toothbrushing well is to do it in a systematic manner so that you are not missing out on any particular areas. All accessible tooth surfaces to the toothbrush must be cleaned. As a simple guide, start on a very back tooth in one corner of the mouth and start brushing one surface of the tooth, and gradually work your way to the very back tooth in the other corner  of the mouth.  Then change the surface being cleaned and work back to the very first tooth. Then repeat until all surfaces have been cleaned.

​​

Although 2 minutes of toothbrushing is usually mentioned, we have patients spending 10-15 minutes for each teeth cleaning sessions to maintain good oral health. At the end of the day, everyone is different and you need to do it well enough so that the risk for dental disease development is low. 

​​

Final tips:

- Focus on gently brushing the gumlines (the scalloping line where the gums meet the teeth).

- If the bristles of your toothbrush become splayed over time, you are brushing too aggressively and may be increasing the wear on your teeth and gums.

​​

Please click here, to access further information about toothbrushing fromTeeth.org.au, an oral health information website created by the Australian Dental Association (ADA).

​​​​**Interdental cleaning

There are several options available for interdental cleaning. Dental floss is effective for tight spaces between teeth and comes in a thread form or on some form of a handle. Other options include toothpicks, interdental brushes (e.g. Piksters) or water-flossers (e.g. Waterpik). 

Please click here for more information on interdental cleaning from Teeth.org.au.

​​​​

***Sugar:

​We need to be aware of the two aspects regarding sugar which causes damage to teeth - the quantity consumed and the time of exposure.

​​​

​​The quantity consumed is relatively easy to calculate by referring to the nutrition labels on most food packaging. Generally, less is better.

The time of exposure is more complicated and refers to the total amount of time your teeth are exposed to sugary food or drinks. Think about the number of meals you have in day (e.g. breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, snacking between meals) and the length of time taken to complete each meal or drink. You will need to keep track of your diet (e.g. use a diary) for a period of time (e.g. 1-2 weeks) to obtain useful information regarding the time of exposure.

​​​​Please click here for more information about sugar from Teeth.org.au.