This article explores three important lessons to learn about oral health and hygiene. By changing the way one thinks about these things, habitual improvements can be made.

There are a number of things every Rutherford dental implants specialist and general dentist wishes their patients knew. Perhaps then, we might stop making the same silly mistakes and actually take proper care of our teeth and gums! But above all of the lessons our dental healthcare professionals wish we would learn are the following…

Lesson # 1: It is not normal for your gums to bleed.

Typically there are only two reasons why gums bleed:

1. They have become weakened by bacterial infection and therefore tear more easily when brushing and flossing.
2. They have sustained some kind of trauma, for example, biting down on something sharp or via brushing too hard.

“If you are gentle when you brush and floss and your gums still bleed, then you should go and see your dentist,” say Rutherford dental implants specialists. “It’s possible that you have a mild to moderate bacterial infection of the gums.”

The bottom line here is that your gums should not bleed when you brush or floss them.

Lesson # 2: Flossing is AS important as brushing

Brushing is simply not effective in removing the accumulation of plaque and food debris from between your teeth, so if you don’t floss you are permanently leaving all this junk there to sit and fester. In fact, if you don’t floss your teeth, you are leaving 35% of your tooth surfaces unclean! The places that floss reach – between the teeth and under the gums – are the most likely to harbor disease. Brushing alone is ineffective, so start flossing every night before you go to bed.

Lesson # 3: Believe it or not, but your mouth is a part of your body!

Most patients fail to appreciate the link between the health of your mouth and the health of your body. This is strange because your mouth is a major gateway into your body. If it is riddled with bacteria and infection, the rest of you will become exposed to some pretty harmful pathogens! Not only will you be repeatedly ingesting oral bacteria, you’ll also be breathing it in, which can make you pretty sick.

To highlight just how poor people’s regard is for the mouth-body connection, ask yourself this question: why are there separate medical insurance types/schemes for dental and medical care? Your oral health is inextricably linked with the health of the rest of your body; a point that is illustrated by the connection between gum disease and the following serious and in some cases, potentially fatal conditions:

• Heart disease
• Gastric problems
• Respiratory disease
• Liver and kidney disease
• Diabetes
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Risk of stroke
• Oral cancer
• Pre-term labor and low birth weight babies

“The important message for all Americans to learn is that disease and infection in the mouth affects the rest of the body and in a potentially devastating way,” say All On Four implants specialists. “This is not even to mention the effect oral disease and tooth loss has on quality of life, bite function and the appearance of your smile.”

What You Can Do

What you can do – what we can all do – is try to look after our teeth and gums a little better. This means regular and thorough brushing and flossing and regular visits with the dentist and oral hygienist. And if your gums bleed when you floss… speak to your dentist!