Prevention of dental caries and periodontal disease

"Chewing gum protects your teeth from morning till night. And at night, tooth decay comes! .. "And everyone laughed amicably, as tooth decay concerns virtually everyone and has it almost everyone. And everyone sighed loudly: that's just what they did ... It's especially sad when this problem concerns little children. That is why the prevention of dental caries and periodontal diseases is a matter of paramount importance for each of us.

There is at least two ways to get rid of this scourge. The first is faster and more reliable: surgically remove all the teeth and insert plastic, as scientifically proven: the caries does not eat plastic. Supporters of this method can no longer read. The second way is to go all your life. He demands a real sacrificial love for one's own health. It is a systemic and unceasing struggle against caries with the involvement of all modern scientific knowledge.

The main left column of the table lists the main risk factors for children's teeth. In short: if you do not in any way interfere with the life of microorganisms in your mouth, you prefer food composed primarily of carbohydrates, do not care about getting enough fluoride into the body and behave this way every day for decades - you are provided with caries. In the top line are actions that every civilized person seeks to counteract caries. If you eat not more than five times a day, properly brush your teeth with fluoride paste at least twice a day after meals (take into account all snacks, even a candy thrown into your mouth), contact the dentist not only for first aid in case of intolerable pain , but also for the prevention of dental caries and periodontal disease, you almost do not leave a chance for the disease.

Interaction of caries risk factors and preventive measures

Teeth cleaning

Balanced diet

Fluorine-prophylaxis

Microorganisms of plaque

removes plaque, reduces the number of microbes

less is the condition for the harmful activity of microbes

stops growth and slows the life of colonies of microbes

Carbohydrates in food

Deteriorates the conditions for the formation of dental plaque from carbohydrates

controls the amount and duration of contacts with sugar teeth

worsens the conditions of processing carbohydrates into acids in the mouth

Deficiency of fluoride

partially combined with local fluorine-prophylaxis

products, where there is fluorine, partially compensate for its deficiency

local and systemic prophylaxis eliminates fluoride deficiency

Time of exposure to harmful factors on teeth

reduces the continuation of exposure to a few minutes

reduces the number and aggressiveness of the effect on the teeth

prolongs tooth resistance to aggressive factors

Now let's look at each event separately.

Teeth cleaning. The minimum necessary inventory is a toothbrush and paste. Brush a synthetic fiber, medium hardness (soft brushes - for children and heavily sick with periodontal disease), and change it every three months - at least! Pasta must be taken with fluoride. The content of fluorine in the paste is measured in tricky units "ppm". For children, it is better to take a paste with 500 ppm fluoride, for adults - from 1500 ppm, more than 1500 - on the recommendation of a doctor. Unfortunately, not always these "ppm" are indicated on the package. So do not bother, but immediately consult with a specialist. As for the process of cleaning your teeth, the usual method takes about three minutes, cleaning technology is better to absorb under the control of the dentist. There are six main points:

1. Teeth must be cleaned on three sides (outside, inside and from the clamping surface).

2. Use three variants of the brush movement - vertical (in the direction from the gum to the clamping surface), horizontal (do not get carried away so as not to erase the enamel!), Circular (also from the gum).

3. Pay attention not only to the "facade", but also to those teeth that are not visible during the smile.

4. Be sure to brush your teeth twice a day: after breakfast and after dinner.

5. Experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) believe that it is additionally necessary to use a toothpick, dental floss, but the technique of using them is also better studied under the supervision of a dentist. The main thing is to avoid fanaticism and not to injure the gum. A toothpick or thread must slide over the surface of the tooth, and not directly hit the interdental gum.

6. Remember: neither the use of fresh fruits and vegetables, nor the use of chewing gum can be an alternative to brushing your teeth!

Balanced diet. Scientists from the WHO recommend eating five times (breakfast, lunch, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner), to eat meat, dairy products, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables in a balanced way. The most dangerous for teeth is refined sugar. But do not think that if you drink coffee and tea without sugar, then you do not need to waste time on hygiene of teeth. Unsafe in terms of the appearance of caries are almost all foods, except cheese, meat and butter, but the latter we usually use with bread or whatever. This means that after literally any food in the mouth creates a dangerous situation, you can get rid of only ... Yes, yes, by performing all the same hygienic procedures. Chewing something for a whole day is the fastest way to meet not only excess weight and atherosclerosis, but also tooth decay.

Fluorine-prophylaxis. There is nothing cheaper than this prevention of dental caries and periodontal disease. It can be local and system. Local prevention you do, if you brush your teeth with toothpaste or floss with fluoride. Specialist dentists will add here the use of dental elixirs with fluoride, fluorine-lacquers and fluorine-protectors. If you do not want to quickly lose your teeth, local prevention methods will have to be used throughout your life. Its effectiveness is the same in children and in the elderly. If you care not only about yourself, but about your children and want them to never lose their teeth, it is necessary to carry out a systemic prevention - the use of fluoride with food, including products artificially enriched with fluoride. These are marine products, fluorinated salt, milk, bread, mineral water, fluoride tablets and syrups. It is in children under the age of ten, as well as in women during pregnancy, that systemic prophylaxis gives the greatest effect.

Such systematic work under the leadership of the state in Northern Europe has led to the fact that not every dental center can find patients there - people have healthy teeth! It only remains to add that the methods of fluoride-prophylaxis are also better to be selected individually, together with a specialist. If you drink a lot of water during the day, since you spend it with sweat (hot shop), you just need to choose a drink like mineral water with fluoride. If you have diseased kidneys, do not get carried away by fluoride tablets. By the way, the use of fluorinated salt is the only one of the safest methods. But if the doctor advised you to limit the use of ordinary salt, the same applies to its fluorinated alternative.

Thus, you have a real chance to smile to your old age with your teeth. Naturally, if you not only read this article and immediately forgot about it, but armed with knowledge, actively, from the next minute, joined in the struggle for your health. Own teeth are many times better than any artificial, and are much cheaper. Leave the prosthetists out of work!