Basic Oral Hygiene - Part 1

Oral hygiene is one of the most important part of our life. Specially, students are more prone to get disorders due to poor oral care. This may be due to lack of knowledge on basic oral care. And also poor oral hygiene has a impact on their studies too. So, here I'm sharing major two preventive care techniques in dentistry. Brushing and Flossing!

Brushing

Brushing can be discussed under three topics,

1. Selecting Tooth Brush

2. Selecting Tooth Paste

3. Brushing method

Selecting Tooth Brush

1. Size - According to Age - Kids or Adult

2. Soft, Hard or Medium - Soft is better for normal dentine 

3. Handle - Should have a grip to hold tightly

4. Bristles (Head part) - Should cover atleast two teeth

                              - Surface should be flat - No zig zag or other structures

5. Connection between bristles and handle should be in a bended manner - To access the last tooth

Selecting Tooth Paste

 

- Fluoridated 

- Do not use Ayurvedic preparations

Brushing method

- Hold your brush properly (Hold tightly)

- Brush your teeth in a proper order

- Place your brush in 45 degree in the line between teeth and the gum

- Give a vibrate movement - In and Out

- Then take your brush upward - If upper dentine

                               downward - If lower dentine

- Follow this method for inside and outside of teeth, in the back and outside of teeth,  in front

- Hold the brush vertically when brushing front teeth (as in no.4 of first fig.)

- Brush the occlusal surfaces as usual

- Finish with cleaning your tongue with the same brush

For video tutorial : http://www.smilecliniq.com/guru/gum2.html

* Brushing in the night, before sleeping is compulsary

* Change your brush atleast once in 3 months duration

* Do not stop brushing if bleeding occurs, continue brushing there as usual

* There are other ways for brushing too, this may be easy for students :)

Flossing

Flossing is a technique used to clean interdental surfaces

How to hold a floss?

- Take adequate legnth of floss

- Put two knots and make it like a circle

- Put your last three fingers of both hands in it

- Use thumb for upper dentine and pointer finger for lower dentine

Method - As shown in this video    http://www.smilecliniq.com/oral-health.php

* CAREFULL! - Do not damage your gums

* Do not floss after eating

 PLEASE SHARE YOUR COMMENTS AND DOUBTS

Thanks : Br. Ilham and Sasly, Department of Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya.:)