While there are a lot of advancement in dentistry in recent years, the one thing hasn’t been changed much. It’s the way to take care of your oral health.

Rule #1 : Brush twice a day for 2 minutes. – You may have 1 tooth or you may have 32 teeth. Regardless of how many teeth you have, 2 minute is important because plaque need to be dissolved in toothpaste to be washed away with toothbrush.   

Rule #2 : Floss – If you have manual dexterity, then using regular floss is recommended instead of using a floss in U- plastic holder.

I still cant’ get plaque out

If you have recession of gum and bone and am constantly having food trap/debris between teeth, try Soft-pick from G.U.M. I have a lot of patients with success stories. Water pick is another useful tool to battle constant food trap on receded bone. 

Which toothpaste is good ?

Patients often ask which toothpaste is good. I don’t recommend one product over another unless you have very high caries risk. Then, I may prescribe prescription based fluoride toothpaste. Colgate pulled their colgate total toothpaste from the market a few years ago, which contained triclosan because it was reported to have caused irrigation in bowel. Now Colgate Total and Crest Pro health have the same ingredients (stanneous fluoride) and they are not much different from another. 

Is whitening toothpaste good ?

Some toothpaste are labeled whitening toothpaste.  I want you to use it with cautions. If you are a heavy coffee drinker, while it may help you remove stain easier, more abrasiveness can damage your enamel if overused.