Do you have a daily dental routine that you stick to all the time? As a child I’m sure most of us can remember our mothers asking “did you brush your teeth before bed”. Want some tips on how you can improve your oral health during your sleep?

According to an article at everydayhealth.com, “Nighttime Tips for Improving Your Oral Health”

“A lot can happen to your mouth in eight hours — especially when you’re sleeping and bacteria are gathering on your teeth. But don’t let the thought of nasty plaque, cavities, tartar, or gingivitis stop you from getting a good night’s rest. There are many ways to maintain your oral health while you sleep. Here are eight tips to get you — and your mouth — through the night.

1. Brush before bed. Brushing your teeth before you go to sleep at night helps protect against plaque buildup, tooth decay, and gum disease. If you are particularly susceptible to cavities and gum disease, dentists recommend that you brush immediately after dinner, then again right before bedtime.

2. Use good form. According to dentists, the best way to clean your teeth is to brush back and forth gently in short strokes. Brush the outer tooth surfaces first, then the inner tooth surfaces, followed by the chewing surfaces. To clean the backs of your front teeth, use the tip of the brush and stroke gently up and down.

3. Switch to an electric toothbrush. The rotating and oscillating movement of the electric toothbrush head removes plaque from your teeth more efficiently than a regular toothbrush. Be sure to choose an electric toothbrush that’s comfortable to hold, easy to use, and has the rotating-oscillating head.

4. Don’t just brush — floss! Flossing removes food particles and plaque buildup while it’s still soft. If this debris stays on the teeth, bacteria will increase throughout the night and feed off them while you’re sleeping. Furthermore, if the plaque is allowed to harden, it will turn into tartar, and tartar can only be removed by a hygienist or dentist during a professional cleaning. Flossing only at night is fine for most people, but if you’re prone to gum disease or tartar buildup, dentists recommend that you floss in the morning as well.

5. Rinse with mouthwash. Mouthwash isn’t just for fresh breath — therapeutic mouth rinses contain special ingredients that strengthen teeth and help treat certain oral health conditions. Rinsing with a therapeutic mouthwash before bed will help keep your teeth free of plaque and cavities and your gums safe from gingivitis. On the contrary, most commercial, over-the-counter mouthwashes — known as cosmetic mouthwashes — are designed to mask bad breath and they won’t do much to contribute to your oral health. Talk to your dentist about which mouthwash is right for you.

6. Be aware of teeth grinding. If you experience worn tooth enamel, increased tooth sensitivity, or torn cheek tissue, you may be grinding your teeth in your sleep. Though dentists can’t stop you from doing it, they can make you a mouthguard that you can wear at night to protect your teeth from the effects of grinding.

7. See your dentist regularly. Be sure to schedule regular dental checkups and cleanings. Your dentist and hygienist will help you keep your teeth clean and your gums healthy over the long run. Remember, preventive care and maintenance is just as important for a healthy mouth as good daytime and nighttime oral hygiene.”

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How well do you know your teeth? Do you have good oral health? In order to have great oral health; do you think you should understand the anatomy of your mouth besides your teeth?

According to an article at everydayhealth.com, “great oral health”

“Your mouth is made up of more than just teeth, so good oral health goes beyond simply brushing and flossing. In addition to your teeth, your mouth is made up of gums, oral mucosa, the upper and lower jaw, the tongue, salivary glands, the uvula, and the frenulum. All of these structures play an important role when it comes to good dental health and are routinely examined when you receive dental care.

The Oral Mucosa

When you open your mouth and look in the mirror, everything that isn’t a tooth is covered by a protective lining called the oral mucosa, which is a mucous membrane similar to the mucous membranes that line your nostrils and inner ears.

The oral mucosa plays an essential role in maintaining your oral health, as well as your overall health, by defending your body from germs and other irritants that enter your mouth. A tough substance called keratin, also found in your fingernails and hair; helps make the oral mucosa resistant to injury.

The Gums

Your gums are the pinkish tissue that surrounds and supports your teeth. Also covered by oral mucosa, gums play a critical role in your oral health. Healthy gums are firm, cover the entire root of the tooth, and do not bleed when brushed, poked, or prodded. Gum disease can ultimately lead to tooth loss, so taking care of your gums by flossing daily is just as essential to dental care as brushing your teeth.

The Upper and Lower Jaw

Your jaws give your face its shape and your mouth the structure it needs for chewing and speech. Human jaws are made up of several bones: The upper jaw contains two bones that are fused to each other and to the rest of your skull, while the lower jawbone is separate from the rest of the skull, enabling it to move up and down when you speak and chew.

The Tongue

The tongue is a powerful muscle covered in specialized mucosal tissue that includes your taste buds. The tongue is not just important to your oral health — it’s also considered an integral part of the body’s digestive system — it’s responsible for moving food to your teeth, and when chewed food is ready to be swallowed, the tongue moves it to the back of the throat so it can proceed into the esophagus. In babies, the tongue and the jaw work together to enable the infant to breastfeed. Additionally, the tongue plays an essential role in the ability to speak by shaping the sounds that come out of your mouth.

The next time you’re brushing your teeth, spend a minute looking at the parts of the mouth that lie farther inside the oral cavity. Knowing what these structures do and what they look like can help you to maintain optimal oral health.”

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Do you ever have rapid sharp pain in your teeth? Is it when you ingest hot or cold fluids or food? Want to understand the histology of dentin hypersensitivity?

According to an article at dentistrytoday.com, “understanding dentin hypersensitivity”

“Clinical Features of Dentin Hypersensitivity

The histology of dentin helps us to further understand dentin hypersensitivity. Dentin is naturally sensitive owing to its close structural and functional relationship with the dental pulp. Normally the dentin is well protected so sensitivity does not present an issue. It is a calcified tissue of the body usually covered by enamel on the crown and cementum on the root surface. By weight, 70% of dentin consists of hydroxyapatite, with 20% being organic material and 10% water.7 Dentin consists of microscopic channels called dentinal tubules which radiate outward through the dentin from the pulp to the exterior cementum or enamel border. As a result dentin has a degree of permeability which can increase the sensation of pain. Dentin is thought to be covered by a smear layer, consisting of a combination of both inorganic and organic elements, which occludes the dentinal tubule orifices forming a smear plug and natural “bandage” that blocks stimuli. Conversely, removal of these occluding materials can also frequently occur as a result of physical or chemical agents that open the den­tinal tubules.

If the hydrodynamic theory is to be accepted as the mechanism involved for inducing dentin hypersensitivity, then lesions must have open dentin tubules at the surface. Through the use of scanning electron microscopy as well as dye penetration, studies have demonstrated the presence of a greater number (up to 8x) and wider tubules with average diameter being 2 xs greater on hypersensitive dentin compared to non-sensitive dentin. Depending on the depth of the sample, about 30,000 tubules can be found in a 1-mm2 cross-section of dentin.

There is also evidence that tubule numbers and diameters increase from the outer dentin toward the pulp. The difference in tubule diameter is an important variable as the fluid flow is proportional to the fourth power of the radius, resulting in a 16-fold increase in fluid flow. Being it is the fluid flow that excites the pulpal receptors, there is conclusive evidence that tubule diameter plays an important part and that greater fluid flow plays a predominant role in dictating the intensity of hypersensitivity experienced.

The majority of studies report that gingival recession occurs in descending order of canines and premolars followed by incisors and second premolars and finally molars with the majority of sites being buccal and cervical. In comparison, the majority of studies show a similar preference of distribution for gingival recession and both conditions have been shown to be more common on the left than on the right sides of the mouth and also possess an inverse relationship with plaque scores. This provides some interesting conclusive evidence to support that the majority of the population are right-handed and most likely exhibit a heavier brushing force on the opposite side of the mouth. The other factor to note is that there is an inverse relationship with the plaque score again supporting that the brushing force may be heavier on the opposing side."

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Our smile is one of the first things that people notice, so it’s very important that you make oral health a priority along with your diet. Do you think what you eat has an impact on the health of your teeth? How about a couple of tips on what foods and drinks; are great not only for your diet, but your smile as well.

According to an article at msnbc.msn.com, “eat and drink your way to better oral health”

“What you eat and don’t eat can play a huge role in how white your teeth are. It seems certain fruits, vegetables and other foods can aid in your quest for whiter teeth. Here’s what you should know about the white smile diet:

The crunch factor

Apples, cauliflower, celery and carrots work to whiten because they function as an abrasive scrub for teeth. These foods are nature’s toothbrush. They also stimulate the production of saliva, which helps keep plaque from forming. Stain sticks to plaque.

Orange ya glad?

The acid in oranges and pineapples may whiten and brighten the surface of the teeth. The acid also contains enzymes that kill bacteria that cause tooth decay and bad breath. “Saliva is the body’s wonder fluid,” says Chase, and eating juicy citrus increases saliva production that washes away foods that stain like coffee, soda and red wine.

Strawberry patch

Strawberries contain an enzyme called malic acid that can whiten teeth. Munch berries several times a week to naturally whiten chompers.

Pass the cheese, please

Dairy products such as yogurt, milk and hard cheeses like cheddar contain lactic acid, which may help protect teeth against decay. Researchers think proteins in yogurt may bind to teeth and prevent them from attack by harmful acids that cause cavities. Dairy is also loaded with calcium, which guards and strengthens bone that holds teeth in place. Plus, chewing hard cheese creates saliva that helps remove food particles that stain.

Nix these

You can also try to avoid stain-causing foods. Any food that causes a stubborn laundry stain can discolor teeth, too. If you look at a tooth under a microscope, it looks like a kitchen sponge with many little nooks, crannies and holes. When stain-causing foods and beverages get stuck in those nooks and crannies, especially over time, dark stains develop. While we hear a lot about coffee, tea and red wine, soda is actually one of the worst offenders. It not only contains acids that open up those nooks but then stains them with cola color.

While you’re at it, be sure to go easy on other teeth-staining food and drink, such as coffee, tea, blueberries, red wine, soy sauce and tobacco.

“It only takes seven minutes for destruction to start, but you can stop it by rinsing with plain water for seven seconds until you can brush and remove plaque,” says Dr. Joe Kravitz, a Washington D.C. dentist and author of “Dirty Mouth.” If you can’t get to a toothbrush or drink water, chew sugarless gum to remove stain food causing particles.”

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This is a warning for all the parents that have a teenager that may want a piercing in their oral cavity. I understand teens want to express themselves they just need to do it a safer way. How about having some great tips on why your teen shouldn’t get a piercing in their oral cavity. Want to learn all the risk that may come with an oral piercing?

According to an article at dentist.net, “metal piercings may pose a greater risks to oral health”

“Studies have shown that oral piercings can cause numerous problems in the oral cavity, including chipped, fractured, or cracked teeth and gingival recession. And yet they continue to remain popular with many patients, especially teens. And although dental practitioners would prefer their patients not get any piercings at all, if the patient insists, dentists can tell them to get plastic jewelry instead of metal because it may be less harmful.

That’s the conclusion of a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health (January 18, 2011) that found that stainless steel jewelry can accumulate more bacteria than jewelry made from plastics such as Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE).

“In our previous study on the prevalence of periodontal complications with median lip piercings (Quintessence, October 2010, Vol. 41:9, pp. 731-737), we observed significant biofilm development on the subjects’ own piercings,” lead author Ines Kapferer, MD, from the department of restorative and operative dentistry at the Innsbruck Medical University Dental School, told DrBicuspid.com. “Therefore, we were interested in which species colonize on oral piercings and whether biofilms on oral piercings might be a risk for systemic infections or periodontal infections.”

While it is not surprising that total bacterial load is higher on titanium and steel piercings than on PTFE or polypropylene piercings, Dr. Kapferer said, this is the first study to consider such a wide range (80) of bacterial species, he noted.

Working with 85 subjects with tongue piercings, Dr. Kapferer and her colleagues conducted baseline dental exams, and then randomly allocated the patients to sterile piercings of four different materials: stainless steel, titanium, PTFE, and polypropylene. Two weeks later, the researchers collected and processed microbiological samples from the study participants.

Among their findings:

Nearly 29% of subjects reported lingual recessions, while 5% reported tooth chipping on one tooth each.

With the exception of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Fusobacterium nucleatum species, and Parvimonas micra, bacteria associated with periodontitis were not commonly found in the samples from studs or piercing channels.

Of the 80 bacterial species, 67 were found at significantly higher levels in samples from stainless steel than from PTFE or polypropylene piercings.

Pathogens found in statistically significant higher counts on stainless steel piercings than polypropylene or PTFE included Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenza, and the paropathogenic species Porphyromonas gingivalis, Eikenella corrodens, Prevotella intermedia, F. nucleatum species, P. micra, and Campylobacter rectus. Also, staphylococci were found on steel and titanium studs, but not on polypropylene and PTFE.

“The low bacterial counts from piercing channels suggest that having a tongue pierced would not contribute to an increased risk for oral infection,” the authors concluded. “The present study demonstrated that studs made of steel might promote the development of a biofilm, whereas those made of polytetrafluoroethylene or polypropylene may be rather inert to bacterial colonization.”

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