What Dentists Wish You Knew – 02/28/2023 – Balance

I don’t get birthday cards from many of my friends, but my dentist does. A smiling tooth wishes me a happy birthday, along with a reminder to make an appointment.

However, I’ve put off my last three visits by somehow convincing myself that, much like cleaning the gutters in my house, I’ll put it off until there’s a problem.

That’s a mistake, says Tricia Quartey-Sagaille, a spokeswoman for the American Dental Association and a dentist who practices in Brooklyn, New York. “Many people see the absence of pain as an indication that nothing is wrong and say, ‘My teeth are fine, I don’t need to go,'” she points out.

The ADA does not have a set schedule for checkups. Some people need to visit the dentist once or twice a year, while others may need more visits. But what all three dentists I spoke with agreed is that you should go.

Often, Quartey-Sagaille indicates, there is “no pain” with periodontal disease, which is usually caused by an infection of the gums and the bones that support the teeth and affects nearly half of adults age 30 and older, potentially leading to problems. teeth and bone loss.

And the last thing you want is to have to make an emergency appointment when you’re in pain. For one thing, she says, when that happens it’s inevitably “on a weekend or when you’re on vacation in another country.”

All good. I’m going to see my dentist next Tuesday (although I haven’t made an appointment to clean my gutters yet). Here are five other things dentists wish we knew.

Your gums shouldn’t bleed

As every dentist has probably told you, you should floss daily. It’s true that if you relax for a while, you might see a little blood when you restart the habit, says Tien Jiang, instructor of oral health policy and epidemiology at the School of Dental Medicine at Harvard University. But keep the habit.

“It’s like starting to exercise, when you go back to doing it after a while and your muscles hurt,” he says. “I encourage patients to go through this initial period because they need the debris to come out in order to regain health.”

If your gums bleed for an extended period of time, see your dentist, says Pernima Kumar, chair of the department of periodontology and oral medicine at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. “Would you be concerned if any part of your body bleeds?” she asks. “Do not normalize bleeding gums!”

Kumar also suggests that people with gaps between their teeth use an interdental brush, a small, thin, “absolutely fabulous” brush designed to reach the hidden places where bacteria thrive.

Avoid charcoal toothpastes

Toothpastes containing powdered activated charcoal, marketed as a natural teeth whitener, have gained popularity in recent years.

But a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association concluded that while charcoal toothpastes may be “in” they have no whitening effect. Instead, researchers found that its abrasiveness can cause tooth hypersensitivity; that charcoal particles can lodge in pockets in the gums causing damage and discoloration; and that few contain fluoride. (These toothpastes also leave “gray-black stains” on towels.)

Notably, no charcoal toothpaste has received the ADA Seal of Acceptance, a good resource for verification products. Instead, says Jiang, the whitening toothpastes that earn the seal are fine to use every day.

An electric toothbrush is not necessary.

Brush your teeth twice a day, against the gums at a 45-degree angle, for two minutes. That’s everything the ADA says you need to do when it comes to brushing. Both electric and manual toothbrushes work.

That said, if you’re an enthusiastic brusher, says Jiang, an electric toothbrush with a pressure sensor to tell you to slow it down a bit can be helpful, as brushing too hard is a major cause of receding gums.

Oral health is linked to the whole body

The mouth and the rest of the body are intimately connected, but in healthcare they are often treated separately, says Nezar Al-Hebshi, co-director of the Oral Microbiome Research Laboratory at Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry.

And a growing body of research shows how oral health can affect other parts of the body. Al-Hebshi listed five diseases for which there was “moderate to strong evidence” that periodontal disease may be a contributing factor, including diabetes, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease.

Don’t get high before the exam

In a 2022 survey of American dentists conducted by the ADA, half reported treating patients under the influence of marijuana or another drug.

“I’ve seen this in my office,” says Quartey-Sagaille. One reason patients may self-medicate, she noted, is that they are nervous. But she explains: “You can’t consent to a treatment if you’re on drugs. If patients have anxiety, it can make things worse, and I can’t anesthetize people as effectively.”

A 2019 study of cannabis users undergoing minimally invasive procedures found that a quarter of them needed twice as much anesthesia as patients who did not participate.

Find out about pain management options if that’s what concerns you, says Jiang. For particularly sensitive teeth, she adds, start brushing a few weeks before your appointment with a desensitizing toothpaste that contains potassium nitrate, like Sensodyne.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves