Life is chaotic. At times, it’s impossible to get all the “gotta do’s” done and many are postponed 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. Many important tasks get put on the back burner. We urge you not to neglect essential dental care.
Here are some common dental care shortcuts. Are you guilty of any of them?
Rushing Through Brushing
Your teeth deserve a conscientious two minutes or more. Slow and methodical beats quick and dirty. Use a system to make sure you get every tooth. Playing one of your favorite two- or three-minute songs may help you go the distance.
Only Seeing Your Dentist When You Notice a Problem
We hope none of our patients put off checkups 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 clean 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 know 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 just doesn’t make sense geometrically because it doesn’t conform to the outline 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 crucial area around and just below the gumline. We have seen patients who are dutiful floss pick users who developed decay in a minuscule crack the floss pick missed day after day.
At Salt Lake Dental Care – Clint Blackwood DDS, we urge our patients to practice preventative dentistry to safeguard their smiles for life. We deliver the full spectrum of general and cosmetic dental procedures including sedation dentistry, teeth whitening, wisdom teeth removal, porcelain veneers, and Invisalign. For more information, call Salt Lake Dental Care – Clint Blackwood DDS today at 801-938-8855 or visit https://www.saltlakedentalcare.com/meet-dr-blackwood/.
Contact Salt Lake Dental Care – Clint Blackwood DDS:
801-938-8855
Location (Tap to open in Google Maps):
279 E 5900 S Ste 202
Murray, Utah
84107
