• Make sure you brush your teeth properly before going to bed.

• Make sure you do not skip brushing even a single tooth. Bacteria can flourish in places you do not clean regularly.
• Floss everyday. Flossing ensures that no food debris are left in between the teeth.
• Rinse your mouth well every time you eat or drink anything. This helps keep your mouth clean and moist.
• Keep your mouth hydrated at all times. Saliva keeps your mouth moist. Drink plenty of fluids throughout the day to make sure your mouth is never dry.
• Try not to rub your tongue vigorously. Always apply gentle moves to clean your tongue.
• Avoid eating too many sweets. And avoid eating anything sweet after dinner. Bacteria love sugar; keep your mouth clean before going to bed.
• Never ignore any pain in your teeth and gums. Do not wait for a problem to aggravate before you visit your dentist.

Keep smiling, people!

Let me share with you a few correct ways to take care of your teeth. Make sure you pass on the right information to your children.

• Choose a toothbrush that has soft bristles. This ensures that you do not harm your gums and teeth while brushing.

• Your toothbrush should have a small head. This will help you reach all the places in your teeth.
• Change your toothbrush every three months. Change it earlier if the bristles appear tattered.
• Do not brush immediately after meals. Leave a gap of about an hour after your meal before you pick up the toothbrush.
• Brush along the gum line gently to prevent any plaque formation there.
• Floss the places that the toothbrush cannot reach like the gaps between your teeth.

Now, this information is really basic. And you know, advanced information is of no use unless the basics are right.

Happy smiling!

Brush after every meal. Brushing just once a day is not enough. It is important to clean the mouth off all the food debris that remain in the mouth after a meal. Just make sure that you wait an hour after a meal before you clean the teeth.

Floss everyday. Flossing is as important as brushing. While brushing takes care of the surfaces of the teeth, flossing ensures that the spaces between the teeth are cleaned. So, floss once a day, immediately after you have brushed your teeth.

Clean your tongue. You just need to clean it gently once everyday. Too much scraping can make cracks on your tongue, making home for bacteria.

Rinse your mouth after consuming anything. You cannot possibly brush every time you put something in your mouth. Rinse your mouth at such times. Rinsing helps your dental health in two ways. First, it cleanses your mouth. Second, it hydrates it and thus avoids problems borne out of a dry mouth.

Visit your dentist every six months. Not everyone takes this advice seriously. Why would you visit the dentist if you don’t have a problem? Well, first, you may not find out you have a problem until it’s late. Second, visiting the dentist regularly will make sure you don’t get a dental problem.

So, now that you know the basics of dental care, we expect to see warm smiles from you soon.

Happy smiling!

Do you know that most of us brush the wrong way? We rub the toothbrush rigorously on our teeth and think that our teeth are being cleaned. The right way of brushing is all about the right strokes and the right amount of pressure. Check one of our earlier posts on how to brush your teeth.

You have got to brush your teeth at least two times a day if you want clean teeth. If possible, make it a point to brush after all meals. However, make sure that you leave a gap of an hour after a meal before you pick up the toothbrush.

Never brush with a toothbrush that appears tattered or is older than three months.

Now, flossing is as important as brushing. In fact, flossing is how you can reach the farthest corners in the mouth and clean there. You should floss at least once a day, preferably immediately after you have brushed. There are many kinds of floss available in the market. Choose the one you are most comfortable using.

Imagine brushing and flossing your teeth but letting your tongue dirty. The bacteria will breed there, affecting your oral health in the most adverse way. It is, therefore, very important to clean your tongue regularly. You can use the tongue scraper to clean your tongue once everyday. Never rub your tongue vigorously. And make sure that your tongue and the mouth are always hydrated. For this, drink plenty of water throughout the day.

Take care.

Happy smiling!

Now, brushing and flossing may sound common and mundane but they are what make your smile look good. No amount of ‘extra’ or ‘interesting’ dental care will help if you are not paying attention to the basics. So, what are these dental care basics? Read on.

• Brush at least twice a day, preferably after meals.

• Brush before you go to bed. This will ensure that bacteria don’t play in your mouth while you are asleep.
• Brush for at least 2-3 minutes, every time. Brushing for just a few seconds doesn’t help clean the teeth.
• Wait for at least an hour after a meal before you pick up the toothbrush. If you brush too soon after eating, you can erode the enamel of the teeth.
• Follow brushing with thorough flossing. This will ensure thorough cleaning of the teeth.
• Clean your tongue using a tongue-scraper once a day. Clean teeth won’t help if the tongue is allowing bacteria to flourish.
• Rinse your mouth after eating or drinking anything. Since brushing is not possible every time you consume something, you should rinse your mouth thoroughly.

Now, that’s not asking for too much. Once you start appreciating the basics, you will realize they are far from being mundane.

Happy smiling!

Your teeth are important. If you lost them all tomorrow you would very quickly come to understand how much you needed them. Try eating a steak with not teeth. Try eating a carrot with no teeth. You would be restricted to soft mushy food. So I come back to my original question, how much do you know your teeth?

You should have an intimate relationship with each and every tooth. You should know every ridge, every bump and every surface of that tooth. Use your tongue as a finger and feel around each tooth and get to know it.

Do this on a regular basis and you will ‘get to know your teeth’. So why is this important? The answer is simple and really obvious. Once you know your teeth well any change will be quickly evident. As soon as you notice a change you can investigate a little further. If something seems amiss, you can schedule an appointment with your dentist and get them to check things out.

Preventative maintenance is always the best policy. However, even the best preventative program cannot stop every single problem. The second best tooth care program is early intervention. As soon as there is a problem, step in and get it fixed, this will prevent major problems from developing at a later date.

Get to know your teeth and I do mean each and every tooth and you will be in a position to take early intervention action when ever a problem starts to surface.

There are several things that many of us ignore even when concerned about our dental health. Are you missing out on the basics? Let’s find out.

• Do you brush your teeth after an hour after your meal? If you brush soon after a meal, you are doing more harm than good to your teeth.

• Do you change your toothbrush regularly? You should change your toothbrush every three-four months. If the bristles wear out sooner, change the toothbrush immediately.
• Do you clean your tongue immediately after you have brushed? Imagine getting rid of bacteria from the teeth, but letting them prosper on your tongue. Clean your tongue at the time of brushing so that the entire mouth is clean.
• Do you drink plenty of water? Dental care requires that you consume enough water. It not only helps keep your mouth hydrated and clean, thereby preventing teeth erosion, but also helps boost overall health.
• Do you stop brushing if you find your gums bleed?
  It is an extremely wrong notion that brushing should be avoided if gums bleed. You should not stop brushing at any point, unless specifically asked by your dentist. However, you should not take bleeding gums lightly. See your dentist right away.

I hope I have been able to open your eyes to certain basics.

Happy smiling!

• Frequency of changing the toothbrush: You may not think this one is important, but it is. Ask your dentist. You should change your toothbrush every three or four months. And if its bristles appear torn and tattered sooner, buy a new one immediately.

• Timing of tongue-cleaning: Yeah, you already know how important tongue cleaning is, but do you know the timing of cleaning is also important? It is better to clean your tongue immediately after you have brushed. This ensures that your mouth is thoroughly clean. Keeping tongue-cleaning for later will cause bacteria on the tongue to attack the teeth.
• Water consumption: Every fitness magazine or website, your instructor at the gym, and the lady at the salon will tell you this: drink at least 8-10 glasses of water everyday. If you have been reading this blog, you know that we say the same. Water not only cleans your mouth but also keeps it hydrated, something that you need to keep gum diseases at bay.

These are absolute basics and definitely not difficult to follow. If you want a scintillating smile, follow a good dental care routine and keep that half-yearly appointment with your dentist.

Happy smiling!

__ I change my toothbrush every three months.
You should change your toothbrush every three-four months. If the bristles wear out sooner, change the toothbrush immediately.

__ I clean my tongue immediately after brushing my teeth.
Imagine getting rid of bacteria from the teeth, but letting them prosper on your tongue. Clean your tongue at the time of brushing so that the entire mouth is clean.

__ I drink 8-10 glasses of water everyday.
Dental care requires that you consume enough water. It not only helps keep your mouth hydrated and clean, thereby preventing teeth erosion, but also helps boost overall health.

__ I always brush, irrespective of pain or problems in my mouth.
It is an extremely wrong notion that brushing should be avoided if gums bleed. You should not stop brushing at any point, unless specifically asked by your dentist. However, you should not take bleeding gums lightly. See your dentist right away.

Happy smiling!

• Rinse your mouth after consuming anything.

• Drink 8-10 glasses of water everyday.
• Eat a fruit instead of drinking its juice.
• Change your toothbrush every three months.
• Leave a gap of at least one hour after a meal before brushing your teeth.
• Rub your gums with a finger after you have brushed to ease the blood circulation.
• Eat a citrus fruit like guava or orange everyday.
• Consume milk and milk products everyday.
• Visit your dentist for a dental check-up every six months.

Happy smiling!