The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What dentists wish you knew
I don’t receive birthday cards from many of my friends, but I do from my dentist. A smiling tooth wishes me a happy birthday, along with a reminder to make an appointment.
Yet, I’ve postponed my past three visits, having somehow convinced myself that, like cleaning the gutters on my house, I’ll just put it off until there’s a problem.
This is a mistake, said Tricia Quartey-Sagaille, a spokesperson for the American Dental Association and a practicing dentist in New York City’s Brooklyn. “A lot of people see the absence of pain as an indicator that nothing is going wrong and say, ‘My teeth are fine, I don’t need to go,’” she said.
The ADA does not have a set schedule for checkups; some people need to visit the dentist once or twice a year, while others may require more trips. But what the three dentists I spoke to all agreed on is that you must go.
Often, Quartey-Sagaille pointed out, there is “no pain at all” with periodontal diseases, which are usually caused by an infection of the gums and the bones supporting the teeth and affect nearly half of adults 30 and older, potentially leading to tooth and bone loss.
OK, fine. I’m visiting my dentist soon. Here are four other things that dentists would like us to know:
Your gums should not bleed
As every dentist you’ve ever seen has probably said, you should floss daily. It’s true that if you slack for a while, you may see a little blood when you restart the habit, said Tien Jiang, an instructor in oral health policy and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. But stick with it. “It’s like starting to exercise when you haven’t in a while, and your muscles ache,” she said. “I encourage patients to push through that initial period because they need that debris to come out to get back to health.”
If your gums have been bleeding for a prolonged period of time, see your dentist, said Pernima Kumar, chair of the department of periodontology and oral medicine at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry.
Kumar also suggested that people who have gaps between their teeth use an interdental brush, a small, skinny, “absolutely fabulous” brush designed to reach the hidden places where bacteria grow.
Avoid charcoal toothpastes
Toothpastes containing powdered activated charcoal, marketed as a natural teeth whitener, have grown in popularity in the past few years.
But a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association concluded that while charcoal toothpastes might be “fashionable,” they did not have a whitening effect. Instead, researchers found that the abrasiveness of charcoal toothpaste could cause tooth hypersensitivity; that particles of charcoal might lodge in gum pockets, causing damage and discoloration; and that few contained fluoride.
Tellingly, no charcoal toothpastes have received the ADA Seal of Acceptance, a good resource for vetting products.
Electric toothbrush is not needed
Brush your teeth. Do it twice a day, against the gumline at a 45-degree angle, for two minutes. That’s all the ADA says you need to do when it comes to brushing. Both electric and manual toothbrushes work.
That said, if you’re an enthusiastic brusher, said Jiang, an electric toothbrush with a pressure sensor to tell you to take it down a notch can be helpful, as brushing too forcefully is a leading causes of receding gums.
Mouth health is tied to total health
The mouth and the rest of the body are intimately connected, but in health care, they are often treated separately, said Nezar Al-Hebshi, co-director of the Oral Microbiome Research Laboratory at Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry.
And a growing body of research shows how dental health can affect other parts of the body. Al-Hebshi listed five diseases for which there was “moderate to strong evidence” that periodontal disease might be a contributing factor, including diabetes, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease.