I was lucky enough to have parents who cared about my teeth (after their generation had been in the habit of eating toffees, and wondering where tooth decay came from, and after their parents’ generation had been in the habit of having all of their potentially healthy teeth proactively replaced by false teeth to avoid the expense and trouble of maintaining the originals!).
With the wisdom of two generations behind me, I was encouraged to avoid sugary drinks, breakfast cereals and sweets (especially toffees!), and to brush regularly. As a result I suffered only a few fillings during my childhood (and those few fillings I remember vividly as being particularly depressing experiences).
So, in a state of pretty good dental health, I thought, I moved to Singapore, and signed up with the best dentist I’ve ever met: Dr. Angeline Ang. Dr. Ang spent a disturbingly long amount of time scraping plaque off my (I thought, perfectly good) teeth during my 6-monthly appointments, pointed out bleeding and receding gums (apparently spitting a little blood occasionally when brushing wasn’t normal after all) and referred me to a periodontist for the latter issue (who did a great job of cleaning around my gum line).
I hate to see only symptoms fixed rather than root cause (a positive mental legacy of too many years spent in I.T.), so I decided to ask Dr. Ang for help in how to improve my dental care process. Her two recommendations were:
- Upgrade to a Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush, and use it by gently holding the vibrating toothbrush head to the gum line, tooth-by-tooth, for 2-3 seconds (rather than adopting the classic up-down-repeat “brushing” technique I’d always used with a manual toothbrush: which results in more vigorous brushing, if right-handed, on the left-side teeth). The key learning point here is that the biggest risk to your teeth is gum disease (caused by bacteria under the gum line) and recession (caused by gum disease and/or by excessive brushing). In the past, this inevitable recession as one got older (with sub-optimal gum care processes in place) was reflected in the phrase “long in the tooth”.
- Floss! This had always seemed time-consuming, and a bit pointless to me. I asked Dr. Ang if I really needed to do it. Her answer: “Yes, but only for the teeth you want to keep”. This was a perfect dagger of psychology: I was convinced.
I took these two suggestions, and adopted a daily routine. Every time I returned for my 6-monthly checkup, I asked Dr. Ang for a grade for my pre-checkup state. This started as “B-” and eventually became “A+”!
Tools
My three critical gadgets for achieving that “A+” status are:
- Philips Sonicare Hx9332 – rechargeable electric toothbrush [used twice per day]
- Oral-B waxed dental floss [used once per day]
- Waterpik Cordless Advanced Water Flosser [used twice per day]
Process
I make a point of, pre-sleep, doing my most comprehensive routine (brush + flossing string + waterflosser) and gargling with some alcohol-free mouth wash, whereas after breakfast or lunch I tend to only use either the brush or the water flosser.
Principles
The principles to bear in mind are that over-brushing can be damaging to gums, and that inflammation manifests within 48 hours, so any effective (and not excessive) daily routine will keep plaque (and the inflammation-related effect of plaque) at bay. The water flosser I see as less effective than the string in terms of dislodging debris from between the teeth, but it has the advantage of being fun to use and something I can use to supplement the brush for cleaning that all-important gum line (by running the water flossing jet across the gum line when passing from tooth to tooth).
And finally…
I hope that this provides a few useful pointers for upgrading your dental care process, using some combination of the above gadgets. Your teeth and gums will thank you…
