Selecting Toothbrushes

Cartoon by Aishwarya Jayadeep

Selecting a tooth brush is something that should be done with utmost care. Or else, a tooth brush that's supposed to help you retain that pretty smile of yours would do you more harm than you can imagine. My mom and my mother in law are the two people I have seen who take a serious interest in the maintenance of their pearly whites, but sadly their ignorance of this crucial aspect led to the deterioration of their gum's health. Both these ladies used to vouch on their hard-bristle tooth brushes for doing a better cleaning job than any other. What they ended up with are receded gums and tooth sensitivity because of exposed dentin. To make it more clear how it happens, please look at the figure. Usually, the exposed part (Crown) of the tooth is protected with enamel. But this protection is not there from the point the gum starts. So what happens when one uses hard-bristled toothbrush is that it pushes the gum back, thus exposing that part of the sensitive dentin. This would make it painful if you were to take hot or cold liquids. But more than the pain, once the dentin part is exposed, if you continue using the hard-bristled brushes, the brushing would erode the dentin itself (as these are not as resistant to abrasion as the enamel is). What this means is that you could even end up having fresh cavities.

Now the question is how to select a toothbrush that is best suited for you.
Tooth brushes have different bristle firmness ratings – soft, medium, and hard. This tells you how firm the bristles are and how much pressure they put on your teeth and gums when you brush. This can be very confusing when you select a toothbrush. Most people, like my mom and MIL , select toothbrushes with firmer bristles, believing they’ll do a better job of cleaning their pearly whites. Then these zealots would brush their teeth vigorously to clean it to a fault. As I mentioned earlier all of that brushing causes gum irritation and aggravates sensitive teeth. or even ends up making new cavities in some cases. So to select the right toothbrush that does the right work without causing more harm make sure that:

1. Any toothbrush you choose have soft bristles. Soft toothbrush gets the job done without gum irritation or contributing to receding gums.
2. Select a toothbrush head size that can easily fit into the mouth and can brush one to two teeth at a time (the general size is 1" long and ½" wide) with end-rounded bristles
3. Powered toothbrushes are better choices than manual toothbrushes for anyone who needs assistance brushing teeth, including seniors, people with arthritis (or any condition that may limit mobility), anyone wearing braces or people with misaligned or uneven teeth surfaces that make a thorough cleaning more challenging. These would be a good choice for kids who has teeth that are a mix of baby teeth and adult teeth.

Now the next question is when to replace your tooth brush.

1. Replace your toothbrush as soon as the bristles begin to look worn or frayed (usually every three months). A worn toothbrush does not do a good job of cleaning your teeth. 
2. Remember always to replace your toothbrush after an illness. Otherwise, your brush will be retaining the germs that caused the illness and you may fall sick again.

For children, most of the above holds good. And specifically select a brush that has:

1. Soft bristles (for gentle cleaning)
2. Very small heads (designed for baby teeth)
3. Large handles (easier for children to grip)

And from my experience, when the child is having mixed teeth (some adult and some baby teeth), a powered toothbrush with soft bristles, specially for kids would work best.


Keep Smiling!

Dental Visits: How Important?

Cartoon by resident artist Aishwarya Jayadeep

I myself is a person who has a white apron phobia, and is still struggling to overcome this. So this post is for people like me who always want to reschedule or avoid a dentist's or doctor's visit as much as possible. The three main reasons that I feel prevents a person from visiting a dentist's office are:

1. Past bad experience
2. Ignorance
3. Cost

Past bad experience:

One reason may be that you had a bad experience with one particular dentist and now is scared of all of the class. I am in this category. It does happen sometimes to those of us who are unlucky. Growing up, didn't we all had some good teachers and some really bad ones? But did we quit school because of one bad teacher. (Well, if you are one of such a rare breed, I am sure, by now you would know the consequences). So let us not take this as an excuse. Let us move forward and find that perfect dentist; and schedule that long overdue visit immediately.

If you are still in doubt, remember this: DENTAL PROBLEMS DO NOT GET BETTER OR JUST GO AWAY -  if only a toothache would take you to a dentist, then it is already too late, and it would probably take a root canal treatment or crown - which means more visits. As the saying goes: " A stitch in time saves nine"

Ignorance:

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine. She was ranting about her recent visit to the dentist. As we talked more and more, I realized that her last dental visit had been 5 years ago, and when she made it to the dentist's yesterday, her so called "greedy" dentist suggested 6 fillings, 1 root canal treatment and a crown to follow! According to her, all these years she was perfectly fine without seeing a dentist. So feels that she would be fine without making any more scheduled visits.

I had to have a long talk to convince her that the cavities were probably not felt previously as those were not deep enough, but as a matter of fact, they might have been there all along. And if not treated now, would do her more harm in the long run. This wouldn't have happened if she had kept up her bi-annual check-up.

Cost:

Many of us including me had seen stars on receiving a treatment plan for a dental work, because of the  high costs involved. This again is something that could have been avoided with regular check-ups. If the cavity was detected early enough, you would have needed only a filling; but gone undetected it would need a root canal treatment and a crown - almost 10 to 15 times the cost. 

Your teeth are made to last you a lifetime. It is up to you to help them stay healthy and strong.  For miles of smiles, I have 3 secrets to share with you:

1. Brush twice a day
2. Floss daily
3. Routine dental check-ups

I hope I convinced you to schedule that long overdue visit; I am off to schedule mine.

Ciao! Keep smiling till we meet again!