Flossing for Children

Often overlooked, flossing your child's teeth is critically important for development as well as cavity prevention. Flossing is an important because it allows you to clean in-between the teeth, where the toothbrush cannot reach and where cavities are likely to form.

When the baby teeth begin to make contact with each other, you can begin flossing. Sometimes it happens with the first front four teeth just shy of a year old. If there is more spacing between the teeth they do not need to be flossed until the back teeth begin to come in, and touch. 

The easiest way to floss a young toddlers teeth is with a floss stick. They are super easy to find in any drug store or grocery store. Floss sticks allow bigger adult hands to reach inside the toddlers mouth allowing you access to the back molars without actually putting hands inside their mouth.

When flossing for your child, the position is key. The easiest way is to have your child lie on their bed with their head in your lap. You should be flossing their teeth until they are able to tie their own shoes. They lack the coordination to floss on their own until they have reached the age of 6 or 7.

Until then, they will learn habits from watching you. Lead by example and teach the importance of good oral hygiene.

Teeth Stains from Pool Water

Summer time is great for spending time with your children and indulging in fun activities like swimming. Unknown to most, you are putting your child's teeth at risk when entering the pool, as there are hazards in the water. If your child spends six or more hours in a pool every week they are at risk for developing yellowish-brown or dark brown stains on their teeth. 

Pool water is treated with large amounts of chemicals which gives it a higher pH content (making it alkaline) than saliva causing the proteins in the saliva to break down faster than usual. Once the proteins are broken down they can form deposits on the teeth that is often called "swimmers calculus." The stains will most likely form on the front teeth.

Pools that are poorly maintained or overly chlorinated which makes the water acidic. Continuous exposure to the water causes the discoloration and enamel erosion of the teeth.

Fortunately, these stains can be removed with professional dental cleanings. As soon as there is any signs of stains call the dentist and make an appointment. During summer season if you will be taking your children swimming on the regular, have their teeth cleaned every 3 months.

Visit Woodbridge Kids Dentistry to learn about preventative and restorative dentistry!

Why Food Tastes Funny After Brushing Your Teeth

If you or your child ever wondered why everything tastes pretty awful after brushing your teeth in the morning, here's the answer!

There is a chemical added to toothpaste that makes it foamy, assisting in spreading around your mouth more easily. The chemical is called sodium laureth sulfate which goes by multiple names including sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES), as well as sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). You can thank SLS for ruining your morning glass of orange juice. 

These chemicals are called surfactants . A wetting agent that helps to reduce the tension of a liquid, in this case the toothpaste. This is how you're able to get so much out of that little bit on your brush. Beyond creating the foam effect in your mouth, SLS and SLES also affects your taste buds in two ways;

• Suppresses the receptors that perceive sweetness which makes it more difficult for us to pick up any sweet tastes in anything we eat or drink afterward.
• Breaks up the phospholipids on our tongue. These are fatty molecules that inhibit the receptors for bitterness not allowing us to be overwhelmed by foods that are very bitter, but after you brush, the bitter taste is enhanced.

We know that the side effects are temporary but if the little one doesn't like it, there are alternative options. Opt for toothpastes that are SLES/SLS free, but make sure they contain fluoride as that is essential for healthy teeth.

Contact Woodbridge Kids Dentistry today for a check up on your child's teeth to ensure optimal health!

Home-Cleaning Solutions for your Retainer

If you have spent hundreds of days and dollars correcting your smile with braces, you had better be wearing your retainer! After prolonged use, your retainer may begin to show some signs of build-up that looks very similar to the tartar that collects on unbrushed teeth. Worse still, this build-up may begin to smell vaguely like rotting fruit, indicating some serious bacterial action. The good news is that you do not need to choose between proper hygiene and retainer use. For best results, review the following tips on how to give your retainer a proper home cleaning. 

What you will need:

• A toothbrush. Choose a spare manual brush for this task. A denture brush is also suitable.
• White vinegar. You can buy this food-grade distilled vinegar in any local market. Be sure that the variety you choose is rated at a mild acidity of roughly 5%.
• Small bowl and warm water. It is important not to use boiling water, though you may be tempted in thinking it will have a greater cleaning and sterilization effect. Boiling water can damage your retainer.
  

How to proceed:

First, you combine equal parts warm water and white vinegar in a bowl. Soak your retainer in this solution for 20 minutes. This soaking stage allows the barnacled tartar to weaken and loosen.

Next, you should brush your retainer with the toothbrush. Use small, circular strokes with slightly more force than you would apply while brushing. This should remove the majority of the calcified tartar.

Mix another solution of white vinegar and warm water, and repeat the soaking process you undertook in the first step. You have the option of extending the time frame of the soak past 20 minutes, even leaving it in the solution overnight if you desire.

Many patients wrongly believe that soaking their retainer in an Efferdent cleaner will suffice, but a manual debridement is required. In fact, some dentists caution against Efferdent cleaners, which can dry out both the mouth and retainer because they contain alcohol and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate.

Easing Your Child into Their First Dental Check-Up

Getting your child to cooperate with any new experience can be a tricky task, so a trip to a dentist's office filled with whirring electrical tools, needles, and strangers is often problematic for parents. The good news is that you are not alone. All parents struggle to get their kids to the dental office peacefully. You can be sure that your child's outburst is not the first tempter-tantrum that your dentist has seen. 

Many parents wonder about the best way to prepare their child for their first trip to the dentist, and sometimes turn to sugary bribes or outright lies to get them in the chair without any fuss. Read on for some healthy and helpful hints about the best ways to prepare your child for their first dental check-up.

Start early!

It is extremely important to get your child into the dentist's office as early as possible. Most professionals recommend doing so no later than age 1, or at the emergence of your child's first tooth.

By getting your child into the office early in life, you are building a positive association as the foundation of their understanding of the dentist's. This means that your child will be more comfortable as procedures intensifying, and that their peers' horror stories and phobias will have no effect.

Keep your talks simple and honest.

It is important to discuss what to expect prior to your child's first visit, and to set their expectations in a healthy and positive way. Going into gruesome detail about cavity procedures is obviously a mistake, but lying about the experience can be even more damaging. Lying to your child causes a loss of trust in you and in their dentist, allowing future anxieties to multiply with little hope of reassurance. Stay positive with your child, and make uplifting vocabulary choices, framing the visit to the dentist as a way to get "strong, healthy, and good-looking teeth."

Introduce the dentist through play.

Preparing your child for their trip to the dentists can be as fun as you want to make it. A variety of picture books are available involving some of your child's favourite TV characters, and these are all excellent options for introducing dentistry in a fun way. Playing dentist with your child is also a great way to build a positive association with their upcoming check-up. This can involve role-playing, holding a mirror up to check their smile, and reviewing brushing technique.

You can read more about kid's dentistry here. 

Oral Hygiene Tips to Beat Bad Breath

Known formally as halitosis, bad breath plagues a good portion of the population, as demonstrated by the commercial success of the chewing gum and breath-mint industries. Blamed for everything from bad interviews to sour dates, unpleasant breath can be a real turn-off, but more importantly, it is often an embarrassing indication that something is wrong. The causes of bad breath are extensive, and range from sub-par dental hygiene and gum disease to more serious systemic infections in the lungs or gastrointestinal tract. The following hygiene tips will solve bad breath problems for most people, but a medical professional should be consulted in the case that they persist. 

Clean your mouth thoroughly!

Bacteria and rotting food particles are two of the most common causes of bad breath, both of which can be taken care of with a strong cleaning routine consisting of brushing, flossing, and rinsing with mouthwash.

It is important to recognize that there is a difference between cleaning your teeth and cleaning your mouth. While the teeth are important, they constitute only a small portion of your mouth as a whole. Your tongue is a biological shag-carpet that picks up all sorts of bacteria and food residue. Using a manual toothbrush, the edge of a spoon, or a specialized tongue-cleaner device, you should scrape your tongue to remove bacteria as part of your brushing regimen. You should also include the sides of your cheeks in your routine.

Leave your morning breath in bed.

Morning breath is caused by having a dry mouth, as saliva production is naturally slowed while we sleep. Bacteria loves dry mouths that do not threaten to wash it away. Increasing your saliva production physically washes away bacteria, and also taps into saliva's natural antiseptic properties. Mouth-cleaning gums are often little more than saliva-production stimulators. You can lessen the severity of bad breath simply by chewing sugar-free gum between meals, and by drinking as much water as possible throughout the day to keep your mouth moisturized. 

Gum Disease Prevention Primer

Gum disease is extremely common, with roughly 70% of Canadians experiencing it to some degree at some point in their lives. Many of these cases go undiagnosed until they have progressed to the point where a periodontal specialist must be called in. This occurs because mild forms of gum disease are often painless, with early symptoms difficult to spot by the untrained or uninformed eye. For this reason, prevention is extremely important, and awareness is the first step in the fight. 

How does gum disease begin?

As with many dental afflictions, gum disease is the result of improper oral hygiene. When plaque forms below the visible gumline and is given the chance to harden into tartar due to negligent brushing habits, bacterial infection can occur. In its early stages, this bacteria infection is known as gingivitis. Reddened gums may be visible at this stage to indicate the onset of infection, but many untrained eyes struggle to identify this redness in the pink-hued gums.

How does gum disease progress?

If left untreated, and further worsened by poor cleaning habits, tiny pockets of infection begin to form, causing the gums to become puffy. The gums will become more prone to bleeding during brushing and flossing, but will still be relatively pain-free. The lack of pain is perhaps the most sinister component of gum disease, as it allows the infection to creep along unnoticed until it is too late. By the time you are feeling pain, the infection will have begun to destroy the gum tissues, which can result in loss of teeth.

How do I fight gum disease?

The first step in preventing gum disease is the basic upkeep of healthy oral care habits. Flossing and brushing as advised by your dentist go a long way towards fending off this creeping gumline affliction. Booking and having your child attend regular appointments with your dental professional is also crucial for early identification. If your child is already in the early stages of gum disease, the best treatment is a professional cleaning to remove built-up calculus that cannot be accessed with brushing and flossing alone.