Dental Blog - Orpington Dental Care

What Are The Basics Of Dental Hygiene?

We here at Orpington Dental Care know that taking care of your oral health is an important factor in maintaining good health. Our mouths are often a window to our health as a whole, making it crucial to maintain good hygiene and have regular visits to the dentist.

Studies are increasingly beginning to connect diseases, such as diabetes, to dental disease. Due to this, it’s important that the dental care you partake in at home is to a high standard and becomes a part of your daily routine. We care about dental hygiene in Orpington, so we have compiled some tips to help you keep your mouth as healthy as possible.

Brush your teeth twice a day

Brushing your teeth is the most basic, and essential, thing you can do to maintain a healthy mouth. Our mouths go through a lot, so it’s vital that we brush our teeth twice a day (in the morning and before bed) to keep our mouths clean and to fight against plaque. When brushing your teeth, be sure to focus on the gum line as this is where plaque tends to accumulate. Using a fluoride toothpaste can also assist in strengthening the surface of the tooth to protect it from decay.

Floss regularly

Flossing is less spoken about than brushing your teeth, and toothbrush adverts will often claim to clean in between your teeth too, but flossing is the best way to combat plaque building up in those hard to reach places. Flossing can help prevent bad breath and gum disease.

Snack to a minimum

You should be aiming to only eat three meals a day with minimal snacking in between. Snacking will lead to a build up of plaque in your mouth which can lead to tooth decay. Teeth need to have a period of recovery between attacks from the acid in our food.

Quit smoking

Providing dental hygiene in Orpington is one of our missions here at Orpington Dental Care and we are advocates for quitting smoking. By quitting smoking you can maintain your oral health and the health of your entire body. Research has linked smoking to being a cause of gum disease and toxins in tobacco smoke can make tartar more aggressive against our teeth. Quitting smoking can help to prevent serious oral diseases.

Have regular visits to the dentist and hygienist

By visiting your dentist you can have a check-up of your teeth and any teeth in need of fillings can be identified, as well as any risks being monitored. Your hygienist will be able to give your teeth a deeper clean and offer advice on the tools that are best suited to you, ensuring your home care is the best it can be.

Oral hygiene is an important part of everyone’s lives and we will be happy to lend a helping hand whenever you need. If you have any questions, or would like to book an appointment, then please do get in contact with us today.

Give yourself a smile worth noticing

Whatever your smile is like, people are going to notice it. That’s because human beings evolved to clock each other’s smile. When we meet someone for the first time, we check their smile for friendliness. A big open grin means friend. No grin, or a tight-lipped grimace means foe. This hard-wired noticing comes from prehistory and we still use it today. If you don’t have a big open grin, people might not think you are going to attack them and eat them for dinner, but they might think you are cold and unfriendly and they won’t try to get to know you.

Tooth Whitening in Orpington We also check each other’s smiles for health. Strong, white teeth mean good health. Dull, discoloured teeth indicate a chance of ill-health. They say, ‘Don’t come too close. You might catch something.’

Now that you know that, you can understand why tooth whitening is the world’s most popular cosmetic dental treatment. It’s quick, it’s non-invasive and you can even do it yourself at home.

At Orpington Dental Care in Orpington, we offer 2 types of whitening:

In-clinic

Get your whitening done in the clinic and it will only take about an hour. You just lie back in the chair while we protect your lips and gums with a plastic barrier before painting your teeth with a concentrated whitening gel that is activated by a UV light.

This is a great way to lift a smile for an important event.

At-home

For this, we make you a set of gel trays that fit you exactly, taken from impressions. Bespoke trays mean less chance of spillage. We give you a take-home kit. You put the less concentrated gel in the trays and then put them on over your teeth. Wear the trays for a short period every day and it will take a couple of weeks for your teeth to lighten by several shades.

Keep it up

Tooth whitening is not permanent. You can extend the life of your white teeth by avoiding the drinks and foods that stain, such as tea, coffee and red wine.

If you have gel trays, you can also buy more gel and give yourself a top-up treatment every few months.

Questions that people will not ask you

The idea of being constantly asked about their braces can put a lot of people off getting treatment. No one wants to have to deal with a barrage of stares and invasive questions on a daily basis. But surely there is a way to get teeth straightened that doesn’t mean having to also deal with other people’s curiosity?

Invisalign in Orpington Well there is at Orpington Dental in Orpington, where we fit Invisalign invisible braces for mild to moderate alignment issues.

In fact, to call Invisalign braces doesn’t really do them justice. They don’t have brackets and wires and they are not cemented onto your teeth. Instead, Invisalign clear aligners look more like very thin mouth guards. You put them on over your teeth and because the transparent plastic is only 0.3mm thick, they can’t be seen once they are in place.

Invisalign does its straightening by way of carefully placed pressure points inside each aligner. When you come for treatment with us at Orpington Dental, you will receive a series of aligners. You wear one after the other. Each aligner takes 7-10 days to move your teeth by pressing on them. Once the pressure wears off, you ditch that aligner and move onto the next in the series.

Because Invisalign clear aligners are removable, meal times are as easy as ever. You can eat whatever you like. All you have to do is remember to clean your teeth thoroughly before you put your aligners back in. If you don’t, the pigments in the food may discolour the plastic, rendering your aligner visible.

Using Invisalign obviously takes a bit of discipline. Teeth move with sustained pressure. If the pressure is not sustained, the process of dissolving and rebuilding the bone around the tooth stops and it takes about 72 hours to get it going again. So, you must wear your Invisalign aligners for at least 20 hours a day if you are going to stick to your treatment schedule. On average, it takes about a year for this treatment.

We’d love to tell you more. Why not come in for a free consultation?

Your teeth? Who can tell?

When you look at some people with dentures, you can tell those aren’t their real teeth. Sometimes the tops of the dentures are not in line with the rest of the teeth. Sometimes, the denture clicks, or you see the person moving their teeth around. Sometimes they are too perfect and white and even to be real teeth in a person that age.

Dental Implants in Orpington Now you need to replace some teeth. How are you going to do it? Are you going to go down the denture route? Or maybe you are thinking about fixed bridgework? Or perhaps you are more inclined toward dental implants.

All 3 methods of replacing teeth have their pros and cons, but, when it comes to looking after the rest of your teeth and the health of your jaws and gums, at Orpington Dental Care in Orpington, we think that dental implants tick more boxes.

About your jaw

One of the things that ages people is a shrunken jawbone. The bone loses size and density, and, eventually the chin seems to be closer to the tip of the nose. This is what people draw when they want to do cartoons of witches: the big nose, the pointy chin. It’s not actually old age that causes that look, it’s lack of teeth.

Without your teeth, your jawbone starts to dissolve itself, thinking it is no longer needed because there are no vibrations coming down through the roots to tell it otherwise.

Dental implants are the only way to replace lost tooth roots and prevent this from happening.

The rest of your teeth

It’s not a good idea to live with gaps for too long as the surrounding teeth can start to tip into the gap and eventually fall out. However, if you replace the lost teeth with fixed bridgework, it will require the loss of 2 more teeth, one on either side of the gap. These have to be ground down into pegs onto which buttress crowns for the bridge are fitted. With dental implants, the crowns are anchored into the jaw on their own posts, so there’s no need to sacrifice healthy teeth.

To find out more, why not come in for a consultation?

Fillings? What fillings?

If you had a fair few fillings when you were a kid, and let’s face it, not many of us didn’t, then you can feel like your amalgam fillings never quite let you forget about all those sugary snacks and drinks you had, and all that toothbrushing you skipped.

General Dentistry in Orpington Lugging around your amalgam fillings is like lugging around the evidence of a misspent youth that everyone gets to see every time you open your mouth to have a good yawn or a big loud laugh.

Thankfully, when it comes to advances in general dentistry, one of the most important, as far as patients are concerned, is the advent of white fillings. White fillings have been around for a quite a while now. When they first became available, the materials weren’t all that strong and it wasn’t uncommon for people to have to get them replaced every few years, especially if they ground their teeth at night.

Now, however, the white fillings we offer at Orpington Dental Practice in Orpington are much stronger and therefore last a lot longer.

White fillings are made of composite resin, which is a mixture of glass and plastic. They go in differently from amalgam fillings. We put the composite resin in in layers and after each layer, we use a UV light to harden, or cure, it. It can take several layers of composite resin to fill a cavity, and when we have, the filling will come level with the top of the tooth. What we do then is use tools to sculpt and shape the composite resin as we recreate the chewing surfaces of your teeth. Between each shaping attempt, we get you to bite down on a piece of blue marker paper so we can see where we need to remove a bit more resin.

Getting white fillings takes longer than getting amalgam fillings, but the end result is something that looks just like your tooth. Now when you laugh or yawn, no one will be able to look into your mouth and see that you were ever anything but a saint with the toothbrush and the sweets.

Get rid of your winter stains

The trouble with winter in the UK is that it seems to go forever. Short, dull days interspersed with long, dark nights. We eat heavier comfort foods in an effort to feel snug and it’s no wonder that along with all those stews and heavy puds, our consumption of comforting hot drinks, such as tea and coffee, and hearty red wines can go through the roof.

Teeth Whitening in Orpington Come the spring, you can be forgiven if your teeth are showing the stains of all those mulled spicy drinks, those hot berry-apple crumbles, those heavy tomato-based stews. All these things leave tiny traces of themselves as surface stains on your tooth enamel.

Your teeth look duller and your smile looks older. You may not even want to smile so much. But don’t shy away from a good smile, just get the stains removed with safe teeth whitening treatments from us at Orpington Dental Care in Orpington.

We have 2 ways that you can whiten your teeth. You can either come in and we can carry out the treatment for you, or you can do it yourself at home. Both methods have different advantages, and with both you can choose how white you want your teeth to be.

In-clinic whitening

The advantage of in-clinic whitening is that it’s done in around about an hour. You can pop in during your lunch hour, or get it done after work. You relax while we protect your soft mouth parts (lips and gums) with a plastic barrier and paint your teeth with whitening gel. In around an hour, your teeth will be several shades lighter and you can get on with your day. That’s all there is to it. This is a great treatment if you need to look your best for an important event that is happening very shortly.

At-home whitening

For this, you get a pack containing a weaker concentrate of gel, along with 2 gel trays that have been made from impressions of your teeth so that they fit you exactly. It takes about 2 weeks of wearing the trays each day to reach the shade you want. And you can buy more gel every time you need a top-up treatment.

Why dental hygiene is so important

We know we bang on about dental hygiene all the time, on our website, our social media and, of course, when you come to see us, but it’s because dental hygiene is the foundation of your oral health.

We find that repetition is key to the message of the importance of dental hygiene sinking in and being put into action. So at the risk of repeating ourselves, yet again, let’s take another look at why cleaning your teeth is so important and how to do it.

Plaque never stops and neither should you

When you clean your teeth, what you are aiming to do is brush away the bacterial plaque that builds up on your teeth, gums and soft parts of your mouth. Plaque never stops feeding on the sugars in your saliva and using that energy to reproduce itself. It’s a busy bacterium, and as it goes about eating and making little copies of itself, it also gives off acids. The acid is the problem, not the bacteria in themselves. It eats away at your tooth enamel, creating little holes for decay causing bacteria to get into your teeth.

Those acids also irritate and inflame your gums, causing them to bleed and pull away from your teeth. Plaque can then get underneath and start corroding your tooth roots and jawbone.

Whether it’s gum disease or tooth decay, the final end is your teeth falling out.

Your dental hygiene routine

You need to brush your teeth twice a day for 2 minutes. The best thing to do is get a soft-bristled brush, and gently brush the plaque away. If you have a new electric toothbrush, it can count down those 2 minutes in 30 second increments, making sure you brush each half of each arch thoroughly before moving onto the next. Using a fluoride toothpaste helps to strengthen the teeth against decay.

Back this up with flossing and interdental brushes to remove plaque and trapped food from between the teeth. Do this at least once a day.

And don’t forget to come to our hygienist twice a day for a deep clean to remove plaque from all those places your brush doesn’t reach so well.

Strictly teeth

Are you glued to Strictly every Saturday and Sunday like most of the rest of the nation? What bedazzles you the most? Is the moves? Is it the sequins and swirling skirts? Or is it those sparkling smiles? Dr Ranj Singh’s smile was a thing of wonder and beauty and got almost as much attention from the judges as his footwork.

Tooth Whitening in Orpington They all commented at some point or other on the power of his wonderful, white smile, hammering home the message to millions of Strictly fans that your smile is just as important as your other messages.

Teeth whitening for winter

As we head into the depths of dark winter, your smile becomes even more of a beacon. As your most important non-verbal tool of communication, having it in top white form for winter helps it stand out in the darkness of the long nights and the dark winter clothes we all tend to favour.

Getting your teeth whitening is a cinch too. You can choose between 2 methods of whitening here at Orpington Dental Care, here in Orpington.

Power whitening

You can get your teeth lightened by several shades in around 60 minutes by coming into our dental practice and letting us do the whitening for you. As professionals, we can use more powerful whitening gels, using brands such as Enlighten and Zoom!. First of all, we use a colour chart to help you choose the right shade of white for your teeth, mouth and age. We protect your soft tissues (gums and lips) with plastic barriers. Then we paint the whitening gel onto your teeth. Then you relax while a UV lamp activates the gel and it gets going on your teeth.

At home whitening

This uses a milder gel, and you put it into mouth trays made to fit your teeth. Wearing them for a short period each day will lead to the shade that suits you in a couple of weeks or so.

Topping up

Whitening is not permanent so you will need to top up your whitening every several months, either by coming in for another session or by buying more gel to use in your bespoke gel trays.

More than just a pretty face

Did you know your dentist and your dental surgery can offer you so much more than just looking after your teeth and gums? At Orpington Dental Care, we take your oral health seriously and for this reason we offer additional services that ensure you and your family are taken care of.

Mouth Cancer Screening in Orpington Most people are aware of the link between smoking and cancer, and because of the increase in mouth cancer incidents we offer you information and support as you cut down or stop smoking altogether.

Smoking and its effects on your teeth

The chemicals in cigarettes damage the health of your teeth and gums in many ways. Smoking actually damages the cells of your gums making them prone to infections and diseases. Without healthy gums your teeth are undermined, leading to the possibility of tooth loss and decay. In addition, the nicotine and tar in your cigarettes stain your teeth and cause bad breath, and can also lead to jawbone loss, shrinking gums, mouth sores, decreased sense of taste and smell and poor healing of your mouth. Overall, smoking’s not great for your health and is one of the key indicators for cancer.

In Orpington, mouth cancer screening is available to you and your family.

We offer a yearly screening for mouth cancer for all our patients. If you have or are giving up smoking, it’s vital that you attend your screening and ensure that the health of your mouth and gums are normal.

When you attend your screening, your dentist will give a thorough examination of your mouth, throat and around your tongue. Using a handheld device, they will assess your health and look out for any abnormalities, so we can then provide you with swift treatment or refer you on if this is needed.

You can ask Dr Loubser any questions about smoking cessation and your yearly mouth cancer screening. She is dedicated to your oral health and ensuring all our patients receive the best dental care. If you would like to discuss any issues raised in this blog, call our reception for an appointment. At Orpington Dental Care you don’t have to worry, we put you at the centre of our practice.

See through to straight teeth

If you could get your teeth straightened without looking like a teenager, would you go for it? Of course, you would. You wouldn’t be alone in your choice either, as we have found out here at Orpington Dental Care in Orpington since we introduced clear braces.

We offer 2 types of clear braces, both designed to deal with mild to moderate misalignment issues. One type is fixed, the other is removable.

Fixed braces

Our clear fixed braces are called Six Months Smiles, so named because the average amount of time they take to straighten your teeth is just 6 months. They work on the front 6-8 teeth only. These are the ones most visible when you talk, eat and laugh and they have only one root. This means that the forces required to move them are less and so the braces themselves can be smaller. The brackets are smaller than traditional metal braces and are made of clear ceramic. There is just one wire, which is finer than usual, and coated in a tooth-coloured material. The wire is tightened through the brackets, which are cemented onto the teeth at carefully calculated angles. Together they pull the teeth into position. You need to be careful with these braces to keep your teeth scrupulously clean in and around the brackets.

Removable aligners

These come from Invisalign and feature transparent, very thin plastic aligner trays that look like mouth guards. You get a series of them, and wear one after the other, each for about 7-10 days. Each one has a slightly different set of pressure points built into it and these nudge the teeth into alignment. You take them out to eat and to clean your teeth. You need to be disciplined to wear these every day for at least 20 hours to keep the alignment process going.

Retainers

Moving teeth is a process of removing and replacing bone tissue around the tooth. Once the teeth are in alignment, you will need to wear a retainer while the bone settles down around the teeth properly. Otherwise, they might start to wander about.

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