Keeping healthy teeth and gums, and the benefits of regular visits to your local Rockingham dentist.

There’s no doubt some people are lucky with their teeth – they rarely seem to need restorative treatment, and can happily skip brushing without any apparent ill effects. For the rest of us, it’s a different story – the condition of our teeth is directly related to the amount of time and effort we put into teeth cleaning and our maintaining our dental hygiene.

Fortunately, there are a number of very simple and easy strategies that we can adopt that not only pay immediate benefits, but also protect us against having to suffer extensive remedial procedures later in life.

• Brush twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste
• Spit and don’t rinse after brushing
• Stay away from sweets and sticky snacks
• Stop smoking (or better still, don’t start!)
• Reduce or eliminate sugar in tea and coffee
• Cut down on soft drinks, cordial and fruit drinks

Just as importantly, keep up those regular visits to your dentist. Remember, there’s more to your routine dental examination than just checking for decay. Your dentist will evaluate the health of your gums, take a look at your bite, check for damaged fillings and examine your mouth for any signs of oral cancer, diabetes and vitamin deficiencies. What this means is that most problems can be identified at an early stage, before small issues become big problems needing major treatment.

The dentist or hygienist will then scale your teeth, removing plaque and tartar that’s out of reach of the toothbrush, and will give your teeth a good polish. This isn’t so you don’t have to bother to clean your teeth when you get home – it’s all part of a strategy to help you avoid gum disease and serious periodontal issues.