I can confirm that the Braun rotary is a good brush, and that it will reduce wear and tear on your gums, but ONLY if you are sensible with it. If you are brushing for 10 minutes, and i’m guessing you’re prety damn viforous too, you WILL damage them.
sadly, your gums and teeth are not designed for wear on the lateral (side) surfaces, just on the occlusal (biting)surfaces. Add in an abrasive compound (i.e. toothpaste) and you can seriously damage your teeth if done excessively. Overall, brushing your teeth will help you to maintain them well beyond the Homosapiens design shelf life of 45 years, but you need to be sensible.
If you are having to reduce your brushing to sensible levels, but are ocncerned about whether you have ceaned them thoroughly enough, use a plaque disclosing tablet to check and satisfy your concerns.
If you’r having problems with decay, remember its not the quantity of refined/processed carbs you eat that causes the problem, but the frequency.
Heres a tongue in cheek bit of advice on decay problems. Also , are you using any sort of fluoride supplement, eg fluoride gel after brushing?
Diet for a healthy mouth
or
ìHow to ward off the Evil Decay Spiritsî
Would you like to never get another cavity? It is possible. In fact, if you follow just a few simple rules, you are almost guaranteed never to get another cavity.
HereÃs how it works. Everybody has germs in their mouths. Decay happens when certain of these germs turn sugar into acid. This acid causes decay. The good guy is your saliva. The saliva neutralises the acid produced by the germs (stick around, this will get more interesting). It takes 2 hours however after having anything with sugar for your teeth to stop dissolving.
So, your teeth are dissolving for two hours after you have anything with sugar. If you have three meals a day and nothing in between, your teeth dissolve for six hours a day. They seem to cope OK with this. Every sugary snack between meals adds an extra two hours to your dissolving time. If youÃve got enough fingers count up how many meals or snacks or drinks with sugar you have a day. Multiply by two (use toes as necessary) and you get how much of the day your teeth spend decaying.
If itÃs 10 hours or more, you may as well reserve a seat in our chair for lots of fillings.
Public enemy number one, the sugary snacks are the obvious ones like sweets lozenges, biscuits and cakes, but this also includes drinks with sugar such as soft drinks, fruit juice, coffee or tea with sugar. Did you know that a large McDonalds Coke has 22 teaspoons of sugar? ItÃs full of acid too, which really wrecks the teeth. A cup of juice is healthier, but still has 6-8 teaspoons. The worst snacks are those you suck on for a long time, especially sour candies which have built-in acid.
Even ìhealthyî snacks like cereal bars and dried fruit are loaded with sugar, especially those little boxes of raisins.
Before all you chocoholics jump out the window, there is a simple solution. All you have to do is bundle up all your snacks and juice and include them with the three major meals. Presto! No more decay. If you must gobble or nibble between meals some things are OK. Most dairy products, fresh fruit (not dried) and vegetables are fine to have as snacks. Meat, cheese and the like are good too. You can drink water, milk, coffee or tea unsweetened or with sugar substitute, and watered-down juices in moderation.
Fruit Juice with soda water tastes good, and has a lot less sugar and calories. Diet soft drinks and sugarless gum are sort of OK but donÃt overdo it.
It sounds easy and it is. The rest is up to you. Peter B. Nadin BDS
Modified and Reproduced with the kind permission of Brett Taylor DDS, Sydney Australia and Richard Ehrlich, DDS, Ontario, Canada
Drillski BDS
