Great dental hygiene tips for healthy teeth from Pasadena, CA dentist

Taking care of your teeth and gums has important health benefits not just for your smile, but for your overall well-being. Studies have linked issues such as gum disease to a host of serious and potentially deadly health issues, such as strokes, heart attacks, and diabetes. Below, Dr. Christopher Marchack, dentist in Pasadena, CA, provides great dental hygiene tips for healthy teeth.

Dental hygiene at home

Your greatest tools to prevent tooth decay and oral disease are sitting right in your bathroom cabinet—your toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss. While we can help keep your smile bright and clean with regular hygiene visits at Pasadena Prosthodontics, those only fall on two days out of 365. That’s why good home habits are essential to the health of your mouth.

• Brush your teeth at least twice a day with a soft-bristled toothbrush and a toothpaste that contains fluoride, ideally, one that has the American Dental Association (ADA) seal of acceptance
• When you are brushing, clean all surfaces of every tooth and brush for a full two minutes
• Floss at least once per day with traditional string floss or any other type of interdental cleaner you prefer, which cleans the area between your teeth and gums where sugars and bacteria love to hide
• If you choose, rinse with an antibacterial mouthwash to flush away any remaining debris and bacteria that brushing and flossing didn’t eliminate

A healthy diet is good for your teeth, too

Brushing and flossing can help remove the sugars, bacteria, and their by-products from your teeth, but a great way to keep your teeth and gums healthy is by avoiding foods that feed bacteria, to begin with. Sugary foods and beverages, such as desserts, candy, soda, and juice all leave deposits on your teeth, and even starchy foods like bread and pretzels can help contribute to tooth decay. Instead, we encourage patients to choose healthy, crunchy fruits and vegetables like apples and carrots. These foods nourish your body with important nutrients and help clean your teeth at the same time!

The importance of regular check-ups

Even the most diligent of brushers and flossers have spots that they miss on their teeth, which leads to the development of plaque and tartar (also called calculus) on the surfaces of the teeth and at the gum line over time. That’s where your regular hygiene visits to Pasadena Prosthodontics come in.

The first portion of your check-up is a professional dental cleaning by one of our skilled dental hygienists. Using specialized dental tools, they will first gently scrape any built-up plaque and tartar off your teeth. This is an important step of the cleaning because calculus contributes to the formation of cavities, deeper decay, and gum disease, and once it has formed on your teeth, it cannot be removed by brushing and flossing at home. Then, we polish your teeth. This serves two purposes: it helps give your teeth a pearly white shine by removing surface stains and smooths the tooth surface to reduce the surface area that bacteria have to grow and multiply. After your teeth have been polished, we thoroughly floss your teeth and rinse your mouth from any remaining debris and polish.

The second part of your check-up is the examination by Dr. Christopher Marchack. He will use a variety of tools and methods to examine your teeth, which may include digital x-rays to view the inner portions of your teeth and jaw that are invisible to the naked eye. We understand that patients may have concerns about exposure to radiation, which is why we have equipped Pasadena Prosthodontics office with the latest low-dose digital x-ray technology, which is more comfortable than traditional film x-rays and minimizes your radiation exposure. If Dr. Marchack detects any issues during the examination, he will take the time to discuss which treatment options he recommends for you and will answer any questions you have so you can make an informed decision about how to restore your mouth to health. By regularly visiting the dentist twice per year, dental issues are often spotted early enough that they can be easily treated rather than requiring extensive time and costs.

Schedule your dental hygiene visit today

Whether you are a new patient seeking dental care or are an existing patient who is simply due for a check-up, we encourage you to call Pasadena Prosthodontics today at 855.770.3737 to schedule your visit. We love welcoming new patients and their beautiful smiles to our dental family!