Caring for your teeth at home 

Oral health care products available to order

If you are running low on oral health care products we would be delighted to supply you with items you would usually purchase from us when attending a routine appointment.

Tips on how to maintain healthy teeth

We would like to offer some general dental advice on how to maintain healthy teeth plus tips to help you deal with any non emergency dental problems. 

What Are the Best Ways to Practice Good Oral Hygiene at Home?

It’s vital that we all engage in daily brushing and flossing, but to take your oral hygiene to the next level, follow a handful of particular steps to good dental health. These include:

• Using products that contain fluoride.
• Limiting snacks that are high in sugar.
• Eating a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables.
• Avoiding tobacco in any form.

The essentials of maintaining a healthy mouth are to:

• Brush your teeth thoroughly twice every day, last thing at night and at one other time during the day.
• Brush your tongue.
• Clean in between your teeth at least once a day with interdental brushes or floss.
• Leave some toothpaste on your teeth after each brush by spitting out remaining toothpaste but not rinsing your mouth with water.
• Use a mouthwash every day.
• Keep sugary snacks and fizzy drinks (even sugar free ones) to mealtimes only.

Click on the digital guides below for further information

Tips to help manage dental problems at home

Please click on the button below to read advice on any of the following dental problems together with information about what counts as a dental emergency and painkillers you can use if you are in pain.

• Toothache
• Wisdom Teeth
• Ulcers
• Pain or bleeding after an extraction
• Bleeding Gums
• Lost Crown

What to do if I knock a tooth out?

• Find the tooth…if it is clean push it gently back into the socket yourself .. Make sure it is the facing the right way! Call us to book an emergency appointment and we will try to see you as soon as possible.
• If it isn’t clean or you are not confident about pushing it back yourself. Put the tooth in either a container of milk or your mouth. Do not swallow it.
• Take painkillers if you need to. Avoid aspirin as it may encourage further bleeding.
• Don’t handle the tooth by the root. It has fragile ligaments which need to be kept intact if it is to be successfully replaced.
• Don’t try to clean it with disinfectant or water. Don’t let it dry out. Just put it in a container of milk.
• Don’t panic! Teeth can and are successfully put back in! We may need to splint the tooth in position and you will almost certainly need further work on it later on.
• Baby teeth get knocked out and we don’t usually try to re-implant them and if an adult tooth has not been knocked out in one piece it may not be possible to re-implant it, we will always do everything we can to help. 

My teeth are really sensitive, what should I do?

Patients with tooth sensitivity feel pain when they consume items that are hot or cold, sweet or acidic. The pain is severe but only lasts for a few seconds. If you get pain that lasts longer than this and is triggered with hot things more than cold you have toothache not sensitivity!

Sensitivity comes from thinned tooth enamel, which doesn’t protect the tooth pulp or dentin from exposure to extreme temperatures. In some patients, this may be a result of:

• Receding gums
• Tooth grinding during sleep
• Chipped or fractured teeth
• Tooth whitening
• Orthodontics and fillings

The solution is to limit exposing your teeth to acid attack, cleaning with an electric tooth brush and using toothpaste for sensitive teeth. Use the toothpaste as an ointment…rub it into the sensitive areas and leave it there.

I think I’ve got bad breath, what can I do to get rid of it?

Bad breath is most commonly caused by the smelly gases produced by the bacteria coating your teeth and gums. Food debris trapped in between the teeth can also start to decompose and cause a very unpleasant odour. Effective and regular tooth brushing and cleaning in between your teeth with dental tape or interdental brushes and cleaning your tongue is crucial to keep your breath fresh.

Strong foods like garlic coffee and onions and smoking of course adds to the problem, as can having a dry mouth caused by certain medical conditions and some prescribed drugs and mouth breathing. Artificial saliva products may help.
Infections in the throat nose lungs or sinuses and diabetes liver or kidney problems may also cause bad breath. 

Your general health can have an impact your oral health