To take care of our teeth is a common knowledge for everyone. Besides brushing and rinsing, there are other methods for dental care, such as tapping teeth, picking teeth, chewing exercise, gum massage, and early treatment for prevention.
Brushing Teeth
This is the most common method. Everyone brushes their teeth, but not many do it well or thoroughly. Brushing well means cleaning every surface of each tooth. It is recommended to brush at least twice a day, in the morning and evening.
The correct way to brush is to rotate the brush from top to bottom for upper teeth and from bottom to top for lower teeth. For the inner surface of front teeth, brush along the gum line. For chewing surfaces, brush back and forth. To clean the teeth surface effectively, it is important to use a small brush head with soft and elastic bristles.
To prevent dental caries and periodontal disease, it is best to use toothpaste that contains sodium fluoride or Xilitol. Toothpaste that contains sodium fluoride or strontium chloride also helps to relieve tooth sensitivity.
Rinsing
Rinsing is important. After meals or picking teeth, rinsing with warm water can remove food residues in the oral cavity. In ancient China, it was recommended to rinse with tea, which is a good practice because tea contains fluoride for preventing caries and tannins for preventing gum inflammation.
Adding a little salt to the rinsing water, with a slightly salty taste, can also help prevent gum inflammation. Adding certain medications, such as 0.2% chlorhexidine or 0.2% sodium fluoride solution, to the rinsing water can have good caries prevention effects. Chlorhexidine solution is also beneficial for eliminating dental plaque.
Tapping Teeth
Tapping teeth can enhance the health of supporting tissues, just like exercising the body. It can also stimulate saliva secretion and clean the tooth surface. The method is simple and can be done by anyone. Close your lips and make a biting motion with the upper and lower teeth, tapping up and down. Do this more than 100 times each time, preferably in the morning after brushing. Develop a habit of tapping teeth.
Picking Teeth
Some food particles can get stuck in dental plaque and are difficult to remove by brushing. It is best to use a dental probe to gently pick out the stuck food and clean the dental plaque. Some people prefer to use toothpicks, but be careful not to apply too much force and avoid injuring the gums or causing alveolar bone resorption.
Chewing Exercise
Chewing exercise is about practicing chewing muscles. It is recommended to eat hard and rough food with high fiber content (such as beans and celery) and chew thoroughly instead of swallowing whole. This can exercise the chewing muscles, strengthen the jaw and alveolar bone, and promote healthy supporting tissues. Chewing thoroughly can also stimulate saliva secretion, which has a good self-cleaning effect on the oral cavity.
Gum Massage
Gum massage can promote blood circulation in the periodontal tissues, enhance the metabolism of supporting tissues, and improve the teeth's ability to resist disease.
Gum massage can be done inside the oral cavity or outside. When done inside the oral cavity, it is best to do it after brushing in the morning and evening. Wash your hands and insert the index finger into the mouth, press it against the gum on the buccal and lingual surfaces of the teeth, and then rotate and knead from front to back. Then rotate and knead from back to front. Repeat this 20 times, then move to the other side, and then do the lingual side. When done outside the mouth, close your lips and use your right hand or both hands to press and knead the upper and lower lips and cheeks, but make sure the pressure reaches the gingiva. Divide it into six sections: upper and lower, and front, middle, and back. Do more than 20 kneading motions for each section.
When chewing food, it is also important to overcome the bad habit of chewing only on one side. People with this habit often have one side of their face swollen and enlarged, which affects their appearance. The teeth on one side are clean, and the periodontal tissues are healthy, but there is a lot of dental calculus accumulation and inflammation in the teeth on the other side.
Early Treatment for Prevention
There are three main causes of dental caries. First, foods with high sucrose content are harmful to teeth. Second, bacteria adhere to food residues on the tooth surface, fermenting sugars and producing acids, which damage the calcium and phosphate in the tooth tissues. Third, the structure of the tooth itself is related to the occurrence of caries, such as deep grooves, crowded teeth, and overlapping teeth, which make it easy for food debris to accumulate and cause caries.
Shallow caries have no obvious symptoms. Moderate caries can cause sensitivity to cold, hot, sour, and sweet stimuli. Deep caries can cause severe spontaneous pain and facial swelling.
If dental caries are not treated in a timely manner and the cavity becomes deep, it can invade the dental pulp and cause pulpitis. In some cases, it can even spread to the surrounding tissues of the tooth root. In severe cases, it can cause facial swelling, pain, fever, and even systemic diseases such as rheumatic myocarditis, glomerulonephritis, and iridocyclitis. Therefore, early treatment is extremely important.
