Let’s face it: life is busy. At times, it’s impossible to get all the “gotta do’s” done and many are delayed or dropped altogether. Sometimes your car has to wait another 500 miles for an oil change, or you are a month late replacing your furnace filter. You may have realized that you’ve had a leaky faucet since the Clinton administration. Many important tasks get put on the back burner, but we strongly advise you not to get careless about vital dental care.
Here are some typical dental care shortcuts. Are you guilty of any of them?
Rushing Through Brushing
Your teeth deserve an attentive two minutes or more. Use a systematic approach to make sure you get every tooth. Playing one of your favorite songs can help you time it.
Only Seeing Your Dentist When You Feel Tooth Pain
We hope none of our patients put off examinations and cleanings. When you feel tooth pain, it may be way too late to prevent a filling, or even a root canal.
Neglecting Professional Cleanings
When softer plaque turns to calculus, you can’t brush it away with a toothbrush. Six-month cleanings help get rid of the calculus or tartar before it can hurt your enamel or irritate your gums.
Using Floss Picks Instead of Dental Floss
While it’s better to floss with a floss pick than to not floss at all, it’s important to recognize that floss picks can only clean a part of the tooth’s surface. A floss pick holds just a small length of floss stretched in a straight line. Looking down, a tooth is shaped somewhat round or oval. A straight piece of floss doesn’t make sense geometrically because it doesn’t conform to the shape of the tooth as well as traditional floss. When you wrap a string of floss completely around the circumference of a tooth, you can more thoroughly clean that critical area around and just below the gumline. We have seen patients who are faithful floss pick users who developed decay in a tiny crack the floss pick missed day after day.
At Center for Dental Anesthesia, we urge our patients to practice preventative dentistry to safeguard their smiles for life. We provide the full spectrum of general and cosmetic dental procedures including orthodontics, restorative dentistry, comfort dentistry, sedation dentistry, and teeth whitening. For more information, call Center for Dental Anesthesia today at 703-379-6400 .
Contact Center for Dental Anesthesia: 703-379-6400
Location (Tap to open in Google Maps):
5284 Dawes Ave
Alexandria, Virginia
22311
