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Causes and Prevention of Plaque

Keeping your teeth and gums clean is very important. Oral health has a significant role to play in your overall well-being. Poor dental hygiene can reflect in your physical health. To have healthy teeth and gums, you need to keep it away from bacterial infection. The root cause of such infections is plaque and tartar. Indeed, it is crucial to know about these harmful substances and the ways to prevent them successfully.


This blog is all about causes, prevention and treatment of plaque and tartar

About Plaque:
It is a colorless, sticky and thin film of bacteria which keeps forming on the tooth surface and gumline. You need to remove it by proper flossing and brushing to keep your mouth clean and fresh. Plaque, if not removed, can turn into another thicker and harder substance – tartar. It is a form of plaque that sticks to the enamel and below the gum line.

Causes of Plaque:
After you have your meal, a lot of food particles remain stuck in between the teeth for a long time. There are bacteria in the mouth that attack on the food remains, especially carbohydrates and sugars producing harmful acids. The acids then target the tooth surface hampering the enamel. If these bacteria and acids are not removed on time, it results in the formation of more plaque and tartar. Tartar is an advanced form of plaque which makes it thicker and sticky adhering the tooth surface strongly.

The unremoved plaque can cause oral problems like periodontal disease and tooth decay which ultimately leads to more serious issues. To avoid these problems, you should go for a regular checkup with your dentist.

Common symptoms:
Formation of plaque is normal for everyone as the bacteria growing in the mouth are almost invisible. The unremoved plaque from the gum line results in irritation and inflammation of gums. This if left untreated, may lead to gingivitis which further progresses into a periodontal disease. Beyond these oral issues, lies another severe problem, tooth loss. You can ultimately lose a tooth as a result of untreated gum disease.

To the contrary, tartar can be easily noticed with its thick build-up above the gum line. Its most peculiar symptom is a brown or yellow deposit around the gumline or the front teeth of the lower jaw. An effective way of getting away with it is professional cleaning.

Its prevention - All you need to do is follow some oral care tips like:

• Brushing daily at least for two minutes both in the morning and night. It helps in regular removal of plaque 
• Daily flossing to clean between the teeth and under the gum line 
• Reduce intake of sugars and carbohydrates, especially sticky sweets 
• Book regular appointments with a good dentist for profesional cleaning and check-ups

Signs You Need Your Wisdom Teeth Removed

Most of the time, there are no noticeable signs that your wisdom teeth need to be extracted. Rather it’s your dentist who decides that your wisdom teeth may cause future health problems.

When you visit your dentist, he or she will take an X-ray of your teeth to look for possible signs of decay and check how your wisdom teeth are developing.  If a wisdom tooth is misaligned or is only partially erupted through the gums, it may need to be extracted. A misaligned tooth could crowd or damage adjacent teeth.  Partial eruption, meanwhile, leaves your mouth vulnerable to infection and tooth decay.

If you haven’t had an X-ray in a while, it’s probably time to schedule an appointment. The most common sympton is pain/swelling, swollen gum, pain/ulcers and moving teeth.  Other signs that your wisdom teeth are not growing in properly include:

·   If you’re concerned about your wisdom teeth, make an appointment with us today to receive an X-ray and develop an appropriate treatment plan.

Happy 2017!!!

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January News

Keep a Healthy Grin this Christmas

It’s that time of year again where everyone is rushing around de-tangling the lights (a dreaded job that someone must do!), last minute present shopping, writing Christmas wish lists and stocking up on festive food. During this time we all love to relax in front of the TV, indulge in food and forget about the gym-ing or healthy eating for a week or two. And although we deserve to take it easy for the end of the year it’s important not to forget about your teeth in the magical madness that is Christmas!

Here are some tips to help you protect your teeth from ho-ho-holes this Christmas:

1. Don’t use your teeth as tools this Christmas. Many people end up cracking and chipping their teeth, as they use them to tear cellotape, open beer bottles or crack open those nuts. Have a pair of scissors handy and ask Santa for a nut-cracker instead of asking your dentist for a new set of teeth come January!

2. Try to drink acidic carbonated drinks and juice through a straw to reduce the contact with your teeth.

3. Eating at Christmas time is one way we like to celebrate but try to keep the snacking at meals times, to expose your teeth to less acid and sugar.

4. However, if you just can’t resist snacking on those Quality Street (we know the feeling!) or having a Christmas tipple (or two!) chew sugar-free gum or drink a glass of water to boost protection.

5. Don’t ditch the routine! Even though Christmas morning is very exciting and we all want to see what Santa has brought us (adults and kids alike!) brushing your teeth before you head down to the presents only takes 2 minutes!

Christmas Dental Trivia.....

We thought it would be a good time for some Christmas inspired dental trivia!

Remember the song “All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth?” 

Did you know this novelty Christmas song was written in 1944, by Donald Yetter Gardner? A music teacher in New York, one day Mr. Gardner asked his second-grade class what they wanted for Christmas.

He noticed that almost all of the students had at least one front tooth missing as they answered in a lisp! According to Wikipedia, Gardner wrote the song in 30 minutes. In a 1995 interview, Gardner said, "I was amazed at the way that silly little song was picked up by the whole country.” The song was published in 1948 after an employee of Witmark music company heard Gardner sing it at a music teachers conference. This is the kind of missing tooth story even a dentist can delight in! 

When you picture a reindeer smiling, what do you picture?

Would it surprise you to learn that reindeer only have teeth on the bottom of their mouths? On the top, they have a hard, bony plate to help grind their food. So chances are, the big toothy grin you’re picturing isn’t really what a reindeer smile looks like — unless they’ve had some implants! And Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer probably wasn’t a regular patient for his dentist!

“All I Want For Christmas is You” — Mariah Carey has a secret for a straight-looking smile

One of our favorite Christmas songs is “All I Want for Christmas is You,” and most of us think of Mariah Carey as having a picture-perfect smile. But did you know her teeth are not perfectly aligned? Instead, she has a secret to LOOKING great in pictures! When she smiles, she lets photographers take most of her pictures from her best angle, her right. 

Check out photos online and you’ll notice that when Carey is is caught smiling from her left side, you can see that her front teeth and her front incisor stand out a little bit.

December Newsletter

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Muaks December News