Home Dental Care – Glenpool, OK

Brushing

Brushing should be performed three times a day with an extra soft toothbrush. Place a dab of toothpaste the size of a small pea on the brush. On the outer surfaces of all your teeth and the inside surfaces of your back teeth, the toothbrush is worked with light pressure in a circular fashion with its bristles pointing at the tooth-gum junction. To clean the inside surface of the front teeth, hold the toothbrush in a vertical position and push and pull several times. On the biting surfaces of the teeth, use gentle short strokes. You may have to change the position of the brush several times to reach all of the different areas; use your bathroom mirror to your advantage.

Flossing

Flossing should be performed once per day to clean the surfaces between the teeth that the toothbrush cannot reach. Grab a 12-inch piece of floss or longer. Wrap it around your middle fingers leaving an inch or so in-between. Use your thumb and forefinger to maneuver the floss between your teeth. Do not force the floss between the teeth and instead, gently seesaw until it’s in. Once between the teeth, wrap the floss in a c-shape around the side of each tooth and scrape it clean by moving it up and down. Don’t get discouraged if your gums begin to bleed. It is normal, and the gums will heal. With time and practice, you will become more proficient and faster at flossing.

Recall Maintenance

With time, minerals in a person’s saliva combine with bacteria in the mouth to form hard deposits called calculus or tartar. That’s why it’s important to receive a dental cleaning by a hygienist or dentist every 3-6 months depending on the severity of the condition.

Nutrition

Nutrition plays a key role in oral health. A healthy, well-balanced diet will help boost the immune system, leaving you less vulnerable to oral diseases. In addition, what you eat and how often you eat it also affects your dental health. Starchy food such as crackers, candy, bread, and cookies can feed bacteria and cause them to create an acid that eats away at your tooth for 20 minutes or more. Sticky foods such as potato chips, dried fruits, and granola bars are slow to dissolve and allow more time for the acids to accumulate.

Cavity Treatment with General Dentistry

Decay is a common dental issue we see in both children and adults. The only way to treat cavities is to remove the decay and fill the tooth. At 918 Dentist of Glenpool, we do not use mercury-based silver fillings as part of our general dentistry services. After years of using silver and mercury amalgam to fill cavities, the dental profession has found that not only do these fillings have an unpleasant appearance, but they also weaken the remaining tooth structure and cause cracks in the enamel.

Our fillings are instead made of a dental resin that can be shaded to match your natural tooth color perfectly. These tooth-colored fillings, as they’re often called, offer several advantages over traditional metal fillings, including aesthetics and general health. Many of our patients are choosing to begin their smile makeover by replacing their old mercury-based fillings with tooth-colored restorations. Your old silver fillings can be replaced in just one appointment, leaving you with a beautiful, healthy smile.