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Healthy mouth leads to healthy body because it is one of the main transient of food
and anything we ingest. So it is important for us to maintain our oral environment
healthy and that can be done by avoiding the occurrence of most common dental diseases
which is encountered by almost every human being. They are: Dental
caries and Periodontal diseases (peri: around,
dontal: tooth)
The basis of these two major and most common diseases is PLAQUE
. Plaque is continuously being formed and it adheres to the tooth surface
if it isn’t cleaned for 12 or more hours. If plaque formation isn’t controlled it
leads to calculus formation which is a hard, stoned like mass and which eventually
leads to poor dental environment.
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We surely don’t want our teeth to turn out to be something like the above picture.
As it is a famous saying that prevention is better than cure so we should try to
adopt good oral habits and should teach our children these tips too from their childhood
so that they may inculcated these things in their lives and if done properly, surely
we can reduce the prevalence of dental diseases.
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Plaque Removal
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At individual’s level the most reliable mode of controlling plaque formation is
by
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Proper diet planning |
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Appropriate use of fluoride |
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Ingestion of sufficient fluoridated water |
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Appropriate use of fluoride prescriptions |
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Mechanical plaque removal |
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Inter-dental oral hygiene aids |
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Periodic visits to the dentist |
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Proper Diet Planning
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Try to reduce of food having free sugars like soft drinks, chocolates, candies etc
because they cause erosion of enamel (outer most protective layer) of tooth and
leads to caries formation |
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Add up more fibrous food in your diet because chewing such stuff stimulated gums
and leads to healthy oral environment. |
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Try to chew sugar cane (gannah). It is thought to be best exercise for mouth. |
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Tip
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If you can’t resist something really yummy but full of free sugars then don’t be
sad that you can’t eat it. Consume it just before your meal and immediately after
your meal brush your teeth.
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Use of Flouride
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Fluorides play a pivotal role in the prevention of dental caries because it forms
a very strong complex with enamel and makes the tooth more resist to acids and eventually
to dental caries.
Fluorides can be consumed by several sources
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Water (fluoridated water) |
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Leafy plants
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Sea food |
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Rock salt |
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Tea
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Fresh juices
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As topical fluorides applied by the dentist
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By using fluoride containing toothpaste (which is very important)
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It is the responsibility of national authorities to ensure implementation of feasible
fluoride programmes for their country
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Mechanical Plaque Removal
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It is done by the use of toothbrushes either
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Manual
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Electrical
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Important Points
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Always use a soft tooth brush. Never use hard tooth brush because it can lead to
gum trauma and recession |
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Brush for 2 minutes approximately. |
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Change your brush after every 3 months
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Proper Brushing Tecnique for Adults
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On outer and inner surfaces, brush at a 45-degree angle in short, half-tooth-wide
strokes against the gumline
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On chewing surfaces, hold the brush flat and brush back and forth |
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On inside surfaces of front teeth, tilt brush vertically and use gentle up-and-down
strokes with toe of brush
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Brush your tongue in a back-to-front sweeping motion to remove food particles and
freshen your mouth
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Method for children
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As the motor activity of small children is in its development still they can not brush their teeth on their own satisfactory. Therefore, dentists recommend that parents supervise the tooth brushing and clean again afterwards until the child enters school.
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Moi Method -- Masticatory (chewing) surfaces:
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Start with the chewing surfaces using simple to and from movements. Brush the top right side at first, then the top left side, the bottom right side, and finally the bottom left side. Start at the back and brush slowly towards the front.
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Outer surfaces
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Perform small, circular movements on the outer surfaces of the posterior and lateral teeth with the brush whilst the dentition is slightly opened. Once again, start at the back and brush slowly towards the front. To brush the incisors, close your teeth because then it is easier to perform the circular movements.
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Inner surfaces
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For cleaning the inner surfaces, put the toothbrush in an upright position and move it in the direction: from the gums to the tooth.
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Electrecal Tooth Brush
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To effectively remove plaque in less time and without mastering any special technique because brush is designed in a way that it offers a combination of all types of patterns e.g. horizontal, vertical, rotatory and oscillating
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Special uses of electrical toothbrush
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Parental brushing of children’s teeth
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For patients who are physically handicapped |
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Mentally retarded patients
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Aged patients
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Patients with poor dexterity
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InterDental Oral Hygeine Aids
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The interdental embrasure and dental faces that are in contact, accumulate a great amount of dental plaque and it is very difficult to eliminate it using the type of toothbrushes described before, this is why there are other instruments for this explained ahead.
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They are:
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Dental floss
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Dental floss holder |
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Dental floss threader
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Knitting yarn
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Pipe cleane
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Gauze strip
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Interdental tip stimulator
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Wedge stimulator
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Tooth pick
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Interdental brush and swab
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Tongue cleaner
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Metal pick instrument
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Most important of all is flossing and so it is very important to make it a habit and do it in a proper way.
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Proposed Method Of Flossing
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Wrap an 18-inch strand around your middle fingers and hold a one-inch section tightly
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Ease floss between your teeth. Clean up and down several times while curving around teeth at the gumline. Don't scrub.
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Always floss behind the last tooth. Unwind clean floss as you proceed
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Floss around the abutment teeth of a bridge and under artificial teeth using a floss threader.
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ORAL HABITS
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We should also avoid other bad oral habits which not only cause dental diseases but also cause systemic diseases. These habits include:
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Smoking
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Alcohol |
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Pan chewing
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Tobacco chewing
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Nail biting
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Teeth grinding
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Excessive intake of sweets
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So if we adopt the above mentioned measures, we can definitely save ourselves from different dental diseases which lead to other problems in the body. We at individual level along with professionals, community and government can eradicate dental diseases from our country.
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