14 tips for preventing bad breath, tooth decay, and gum disease

The spaces between teeth, under dental bridges, and around orthodontic appliances, are particularly prone to harbouring bits from your last meal… or even yesterday’s breakfast. Bacteria colonise the food remnants, which slowly rot away, producing an assortment of smelly chemicals that lead to gum disease, tooth cavities, and bad breath.

Swishing with a mouthwash, after a half-hearted attempt at brushing, won’t remove all those sticky deposits. Neither will the tooth-paste advert method of brushing your teeth. You know the one… teeth together, lips curled back, scrub vigorously backwards and forwards and up and down. The movements whisk up more foam than on a cheap cappuccino, and the foam gives you the impression you’re doing a fine job. But the ends of the toothbrush filaments are skimming over the curved surfaces of your teeth and don’t touch the spaces between. And the up and down movements tend to ram food under the edge of your gums and between your teeth… exactly where you don’t want it. Result? Nice and white where the toothbrush touches, with staining in the gaps. Not only that, the back-and-forth motion can saw away at your enamel, rubbing unsightly, sensitive grooves in your teeth along the gum line.

Here’s a more effective way of brushing…

First, what sort of brush?

Choose a brush with a small head… it’s easier to get to all the corners of your mouth. And you’ll avoid triggering your gagging reflex. If you tend to heave with the slightest tickle, choose a children’s brush, as they’re smaller than adult ones. Medium texture is good. Hard’s a bit abrasive. Soft, I find, doesn’t clean effectively, but if you’ve got sensitive teeth, a soft brush may be more comfortable for you. Choose one with filaments that have been rounded, not just cut, as they are much are less scratchy.

Hand or battery operated?

There’s no doubt about it… an electric toothbrush cleans your teeth much better than one you have to wobble about by hand. If you can afford it, an electric one is well worth the outlay. My personal favourite is the cheapest model from Oral B. It’s got a nice small head, it’s rechargeable, doesn’t cost the earth, and does the job well.

There’s no need to push hard, or scrub with it. I place mine at an angle to my teeth, just like I do when I’m using an ordinary toothbrush, but instead of moving the brush in tiny circles, I just steer it around my teeth, methodically from one tooth to the next, letting the brush do the work. It cleans and massages the gums too, leaving them nice and tingly fresh.

How best to use an ordinary toothbrush?

Like most things in life, it’s best to start with the end result in mind. And a plan of how to achieve it. The end result is every tooth nice and clean, with no sticky deposits anywhere. That’s best achieved by working methodically from one tooth to the next, not darting about all over the place with your brush. So, start with a tooth at the end of a row, right at the back.

Place the brush at an angle of about 45 degrees, so the ends of some of the filaments have a chance of sliding just under the gum margin. In this way you’ll clean in the gum crevices, as well as giving the gum edges a healthy massage. There’s no need to push hard. Gentle pressure is all that’s needed.

Start to vibrate the head of the brush in little tiny circles, slowly moving it forward onto the next tooth, then the next, along the line where the gums join the teeth.
Think about each tooth as you go – better still, look at them in a mirror – and don’t move on to the next tooth until you feel you’ve made a good job of the one you’re working on.

Then work your way along the inside surfaces of the teeth, whose outsides you’ve just brushed, using a similar circular action. It’s not so easy to do the circles on the inside, but keep at it and you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Repeat the procedure for the lower teeth.

Next, vibrate the brush along the chewing surfaces of your top and bottom teeth, to get little bits of food out of the crevices. This is particularly important for children, as decay often starts in the crevices of the chewing surfaces of new molars.

Now you’ve cleaned 3 of the 5 surfaces of each tooth… still to be cleaned are the front and back surfaces, where the teeth butt up against each other. For the between-teeth areas, the ordinary brush is useless, so you’ll need to use something else.

Cleaning between your teeth…

Dental floss

Floss is a good way of removing sticky debris from the front and back surface of each tooth. Manufacturers invest a lot of money researching how best to use their products, so take the time to read the directions on the packet. Remember to start with a back tooth and work methodically, so you don’t miss any gaps. Be gentle, and avoid ‘pinging’ the floss onto the gum margins.

We’re using Oral B’s Satin Floss. It’s flat like a tape, slides between our teeth easily, and has a fresh minty taste.

If you find the floss shreds around fillings or crowns, ask your dentist to check them. Rough areas and ledges tend to collect food, so get them smoothed and polished.

Oral B’s Super Floss

A box of this floss contains what looks like lengths of ordinary floss, with a floppy pipe cleaner on one end, attached to a small piece of fishing line. The stiff piece of ‘fishing line’ threads easily between teeth with orthodontic wires on them, and under dental bridges, allowing you to pull the ‘pipe cleaner’ through the gaps. It cleans brilliantly, though does need nimble fingers to thread it between back teeth.

Interdental brushes

There’s a good variety of small, user-friendly brushes available nowadays, as you’ll see if you stroll down the dental aisle at your favourite pharmacy. Very small brushes with a cylindrical bottle-brush shape are great for cleaning the larger gaps between teeth, and the gaps under dental bridges and orthodontic appliances. Don’t scour too much: remove the sticky deposits, not your tooth enamel.

Wooden tooth picks

Wooden cocktail sticks are the things people often use to poke between their teeth. Matchsticks, too. The problem with them is that the tips tend to snap off, usually where you don’t want them to – deep down between two teeth.

There are wooden sticks designed for the job… Interdens have been around for generations, for example. So have Johnson & Johnson’s Stim-u-Dent. They’re made from soft wood that’s flexible if you wet it with saliva before you use it. They’re not round: they’re triangular in cross-section, which approximates to the shape of the gaps between your teeth.

Rinsing your mouth…

Between cleaning, flossing, and tooth-picking, rinse frequently with water at body temperature to flush out the bits of food you’ve loosened.
If you’re going to be meeting and greeting, you may like the added confidence of an effective mouthwash to finish off your cleaning programme. For a good mouthwash, see our post about halitosis, or visit Dr Rosenberg’s site at www.smellwell.com

Tooth paste or not tooth paste?…

This is a topic that rattles many cages when it’s about a paste containing fluoride. Fluoride can be toxic. And there’s also a whole bunch of other chemicals in modern toothpastes.

My great-grandmother alternated between table salt and bicarbonate of soda on her toothbrush. She passed away at the age of 98, and when she met her Maker, she still had all her teeth. She’d certainly say it’s not necessdary to use a commercial toothpaste. Interestingly, these two household favourites were recommended in the 70’s to people suffering from gum disease, because they create an environment in dental pockets that kills off the bugs thought to be responsible for the progression of the disease.

If you prefer to use toothpaste, don’t swallow it. Clean your teeth, spit out the bits, and rinse well with lukewarm water. If you do use one with fluoride in it, while brushing, the fluoride combines with the crystal structure of the surface of your tooth enamel, giving it an extra hardness and resistance to decay.

Children need to be carefully supervised though, to make sure they don’t swallow the toothpaste. We used to stand with ours in the bathroom, encouraging them to brush with the little circles, and spit the toothpaste into the sink: not swallow it. The “training” takes time, but it’s well worth the effort for life-long oral health. There are pastes available specially designed for children, so have a word with your dentist or pharmacist about a suitable one.

Some toothpastes can be rather abrasive… perhaps best for cleaning the chrome on your car, or the grouting between the tiles in the bathroom. Put a little paste between your teeth and grind them slowly and gently together. If you feel like you’re grinding sand, try another make of toothpaste.

Gums bleed a little?…

Some people notice their gums bleed a little when they first start to clean thoroughly, and the brush reaches parts previously untouched. Don’t worry about it… just carry on cleaning. The tendency to bleed will get less and less, and after a few days you’ll find no more red stuff. After a week of the new cleaning routines, if your gums still bleed when you clean, go and see your dentist. Could be you’ve got some stubborn deposits below the gum you won’t be able to shift yourself, and you need professional help.

Chewing gum…

Lots of people can’t be bothered to take a toothbrush and floss to work, so chomp a stick of gum instead. Is it any good? I think the answer is “yes”. And “no”.
Yes… it does grab left-over bits of your sandwiches. And it does make your saliva flow, which has been shown to reduce cavities.

No… because all that chewing, and swallowing of saliva, triggers a response in your stomach that says: “Food’s coming. Get the acid ready.” When no food arrives for the acid to work on, what happens to the acid? Could it predispose to ulcers? Just a thought. I haven’t actually seen any research on it – if you’ve found any, please let me know in the comment box.

Chewing gum appears to become a habit, and some people walk about all day chewing it. And when they’re fed up with it, they stick it under chairs and tables. Or flick it out the window, for other people to tread on. Another disadvantage of chewing for hours is that your jaw is moving about so much, you can end up with painful joints and muscles.

Bottom line? If you can’t brush and floss your teeth after a meal, chew a piece of sugar-free gum for a couple of minutes. Then put it in the wrapper it came in, and dispose of it responsibly in a waste bin.

Wait for 20 minutes…

When you eat food, especially food containing acids, a tiny amount of your tooth enamel dissolves. Don’t worry! Your saliva contains salts to replace the dissolved bits of your enamel. But it needs a little time to do its job. That’s why it’s best not to brush your teeth immediately after a meal. Wait 20 minutes or so, to give your saliva a chance to repair your enamel. Then clean gently to remove the leftovers.

Dissolving enamel is one of the many problems with fizzy drinks and fruit juices. If you want to know if your favourite swig is attacking your teeth, pour some into a glass and leave an old coin in it for a day or two. If the coin’s surface gets attacked, so will your pearly whites.

Don’t forget your tongue!

The surface of your tongue is full of little hills and valleys, ideal for collecting bits of food and colonies of bacteria. For a really healthy mouth, you need to remove your tongue gunge. Unfortunately, the tongue’s not easy to clean, especially far back towards your throat, so you’ll need to find out what works best for you. I find if I brush it gently, I risk seeing my breakfast again, but scrubbing vigorously with my toothbrush doesn’t trigger my vomiting reflex.

Take some supplements!

Inside your gums, there are bundles of fibres like elastic bands, that hold your gums firmly onto your teeth. One important group of those fibres is collagen, the same stuff that holds your skin together.

Collagen is made from protein building blocks (called amino acids)… and vitamin C. If you don’t get enough vitamin C every day, you can’t make collagen properly, and you’ll develop flaky skin… and bleeding gums. Eventually, a condition called scurvy will develop.

In the 1700’s British sailors found this out. They were at sea for months, eating only dried biscuits and salted meat, neither of which contained vitamin C. They suffered badly from scurvy, until a naval surgeon started giving them fresh limes. The vitamin C in the limes cured their scurvy, and gave the British sailors the nickname “Limeys”.

You don’t have to suck on limes… GNLD has a tablet to provide 500mg of natural vitamin C. It also contains bioflavonoids, which are found in the white stringy bits just under the skin of citrus fruits. Bioflavonoids work hand-in-hand with vitamin C, enhancing the vitamin’s effect many-fold. So, next time you enjoy an orange, eat the stringy bits as well to get maximum benefit from what Mother Nature has provided. The tablet is also in a form that dissolves very slowly, giving you a nice gradual amount of vitamin C, just the way you get it from eating real fruit.

Apart from vitamin C, there are lots of vitamins and minerals needed to keep your gums healthy, so choose a supplement that has a good variety of everything. GNLD’s Multi, Formula IV, and Formula IV Plus all provide meaningful amounts of vitamins and minerals from whole foods from the human food chain.

One of the ways harmful chemicals we’re exposed to in our daily lives can enter our bodies is, of course, through our mouths. I can imagine there’s quite a battle going on between free radicals and our oral tissues! To help prevent the invaders’ harmful effects, consider taking an antioxidant supplement like Carotenoid Complex. It’s packed with natural power – in fact, to get the same antioxidant protection as there is in one 90-capsule pot, you’d have to eat over 110 kilos of raw fruits and vegetables! It’s well worth visiting the dedicated website at www.carotenoidcomplex.com for lots of fascinating info about this unique, patented product.

Got any dental questions?

If you’ve got a question about a dental topic, please put it in the comment box… I’m happy to help you.