Dental Tips

Don’t eat ice cubes. It is the season for this refreshing pastime, but it can result in fractured teeth. The dentist adds that many older fillings are made of silver, which doesn’t bond to teeth like the white amalgams and can cause tiny cracks because of the stress of chewing hard items like cubes, candy or unpopped popcorn kernels. “The older we get, the more brittle our teeth become."

To clean the sulcus (the space between the gumline and the point where gum attaches to the tooth), turn your toothbrush at a 45-degree angleand get the bristles in there.

A normal depth for the sulcus is 2-3 millimeters, but if it reaches 7-8 it’stime to start worrying.
To clean in a particularly deep pocket, try tying a single or double knot in your floss to catch any food particles.

When flossing the back teeth, curve the thread around the tooth and push it underneath the gumline. 

When the outer bristles of your brush start to flare, it’s time to change it.

If you eat a sweet snack and can’t get to your toothbrush for a while, rinse with water to delay the sugar’s activity.

Stop smoking. Joel said smoking is so destructive to teeth and gums that many periodontists won’t even treat them because the prognosis for recovery is so poor.