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Are these habits damaging your teeth?


By Kirsty Brown

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From wetting toothpaste to brushing teeth after breakfast, dentists have shared the most common personal dental habits that are actually bad for our teeth.

To help the UK maintain a high level of dental health while people may still be unable to see their dentist as normal, Portman Dental Care is outlining the key steps to follow to break these bad habits, as well as the best alternatives to keep teeth healthy and strong.

Director of clinical dentistry Dr Catherine Tannahill said: “There are a lot of myths, bad habits and misconceptions around dental care and oral hygiene that we want to help educate people on.

“Wetting toothpaste before brushing is probably one of the most common bad habits people have when it comes to their dental routine, and although there has been ongoing debate on the likes of social media for years on whether you should wet your toothbrush before or after putting on the toothpaste, we actually wouldn’t recommend either.

“This is because toothpaste already contains water, and so wetting it further could dilute it and therefore reduce its effectiveness for cleaning your teeth.

“People often also like to rinse with water or mouthwash after brushing their teeth and think that this is good practice for dental hygiene, but this is another misconception.

“Helpful ingredients in toothpaste like fluoride, which protects against decay, and antibacterial agents stay on the surface of your teeth even after you have finished brushing and therefore when you rinse afterwards you are in fact just washing all of those ingredients away.

"We would instead recommend just spitting out any excess toothpaste and refrain from rinsing, as this will then leave a layer of toothpaste on your teeth, helping to protect them and prevent tooth decay.

“If you want to use mouthwash, then it is best to use it at a different time to brushing.

"For example, it is best to brush first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and you could then use a mouthwash at a completely separate time such as after eating lunch, or when you arrive home from school/work.

"An alcohol-free fluoride mouthwash used in this way is useful if you have high levels of decay, or your dental team may recommend an antibacterial mouthwash to help control plaque and reduce gum disease if necessary.

“Mouthwash could in fact give you a false sense of cleanliness and is definitely no substitute for removing plaque with your toothbrush and interdental brushes.

“It is also incorrect to assume that it is best to brush your teeth straight after eating, so post-breakfast or tea, or especially if you have just eaten something sugary or acidic like fruit.

“This is because the pH level in your mouth changes when you eat and drink, making your mouth more acidic and slightly softening the surface enamel, so brushing straight away means you are basically moving all that acid around your mouth and brushing off the softened surface layer of enamel, potentially causing more damage and increasing the risk of erosion.

"Brushing before, or 20-30 minutes after, you eat is the ideal.

“Another key misconception is thinking that you need to scrub your teeth hard while brushing in order to clean them well, but this can actually damage the tooth surface and cause your gums to recede.

“Brushing back and forth is a bad habit we see a lot in practice, as a circular motion is the best method.

"This can be achieved with a manual toothbrush, but an electric toothbrush with a small, round head is the ideal, as it does most of the work for you.

“Avoiding brushing your gums so you don’t damage them is also a myth, as you actually need to focus on the gum line when brushing your teeth, as this is where all the plaque sits.

"When brushing you therefore need to put the toothbrush half on the tooth and half on the gum.

“It is a long-held belief by many that you don’t need to take your child to the dentist until they are three-years-old, and this is still advice often given out by health visitors today.

“This might be because people feel like baby teeth don’t matter, as they fall out and get replaced anyway, so why bother with dental check-ups for young children?

"Dental pain and infection, however, is the most common reason for a child under the age of five to have a general anaesthetic, and problems with baby teeth can have wider effects on general health, causing sleepless nights, missed school and poor nutrition.

“Milk teeth also pave the way for adult teeth, so early loss of baby teeth can mean that adult teeth do not grow in the best position, resulting in the need for complex orthodontic care later.

“In reality you should take your child to the dentist as soon as any teeth appear, as preventive advice can then be given to combat any potential issues, and as dentists we can also get children acclimatised from an early age so that they actually enjoy visits to the dentist.

“A comment we hear a lot in practice is that patients feel they don’t need to wear their retainer once their teeth are straight and the orthodontist has completed their treatment.

"This is a myth, as teeth will start to move if you don’t wear your retainer at least occasionally.

"Our advice is to wear your retainer intermittently for as long as you want your teeth to stay straight.

"Finally, another misconception is that if patients get implants to replace missing teeth, they then feel they don’t need to worry about dental care, as implants won’t deteriorate.

"While implants can’t decay, you can still get gum disease around them, so the implants still need looking after and to be kept clean, just like teeth, and sometimes are more tricky to clean; it isn’t a case of having them put in and then forgetting about them.”


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