Oral health – Tips and techniques for looking after your teeth between dental visits

Who doesn’t love the feeling of a clean mouth right after visiting the dentist’s office? But we can’t visit the dentist every day for a professional cleaning – which means, of course, that we must practice oral health at home to keep that feeling of freshness every day. So, what can we do to look after our teeth between visits to the dentist?

Here are five tips for practising better oral health at home:

  1. Brush your teeth twice a day – be sure to use fluoride toothpaste.
  2. Remind yourself to use a proper brushing technique – Think about how you brush your teeth by checking and watching what you do in the bathroom mirror. Make sure you’re getting the most out of your brushing time by holding the bristles against your teeth, then tilting them at a 45-degree angle to point up into your gums. Don’t brush hard or side to side. Move the bristles in a circular motion as you clean all surfaces of your teeth and gums. Don’t forget to brush the top of your tongue, as bacteria live there too.
  3. Replace your toothbrush regularly – they should be replaced every three months – once the bristles are worn past a certain point they don’t clean as thoroughly and can also damage gums. If the brush bristles splay out like a toilet brush you are probably brushing too hard or with the wrong technique – check number 3 again!
  4. Don’t forget to floss, flossing once per day is recommended to clean the areas of our teeth and gum line that a toothbrush simply can’t reach. Be sure to ask your dental team about the best flossing method to use and be sure to let your dentist know if your gums bleed or you experience pain while flossing. Martin advises flossing at night before brushing, this gets rid of the plaque between the teeth and allows the fluoride toothpaste to get to those hard to reach interdental areas and promote enamel healing. Flossing at night means 8 hours of minimum plaque on your teeth, isn’t that great.
  5. Avoid sugary foods and beverages, as bathing your mouth in sugar throughout the day leaves your teeth and gums at the mercy of acid producing plaque which love regular sugary snacks! Lowering the number of sugary drinks you consume throughout the day by replacing them with water will do both your mouth and your health in general a favour!

Good oral health means far more than a white smile and pleasant breath
Our oral health affects the rest of our body, so being focused on keeping teeth and gums free of food and plaque benefits us long after we’ve visited the dentist’s office.

As you can see from the points above, it doesn’t take much time or effort to practice good oral health at home – so there’s no excuse not to!

/by

COVID-19 Update from Dr Martin Jest Dental Surgery and Lodgehill Health

Dear patients,

COVID-19 has been a very difficult time for all of us. Many of you were forced to wait for dental care, and we deeply appreciate your understanding while we kept our practice closed to help control the spread of the coronavirus.

Most of you are probably aware that we are back to full work hours and are seeing all patients once again.

Your health and well-being continue to be our highest priority, and we are ONLY opening because we have carefully planned and revised our practice procedures to greatly minimize the risk of infection for our patients and our team members. Our own families are also patients here, so you can be assured that we’ll be taking care of you just as well as we’ll be taking care of them.

For your peace of mind, the measures we will be taking to provide a safe dental treatment experience include, but are not limited to, the following:

Upon Your Arrival at the practice
 ● Patients will be screened BEFORE entering the practice and temperatures will be checked on entry. Any patients showing signs of a fever or other symptoms of illness will be asked to reschedule their appointment.
● ONLY patients and guardians be allowed entry into the practice. We ask that a second parent and other family members wait outside whenever possible.
● Patients are asked to wait in their cars or outside the practice until their scheduled appointment time. We will call you when we are ready to take you into the clinic room.
● The waiting area chairs have been reduced in number and will be spaced apart to allow for social distancing.
● We will ask that you continue to practice social distancing measures in common areas of the practice, including the front desk.
● The front door handles are cleaned between each patient entry. Internal doors will be regularly disinfected and handled by staff only.
● There will be no physical contact with patients with the exception of treatment.

During Treatment
 ● All treatment rooms will be disinfected before each patient is seated, and public areas, including restrooms, will be cleaned and disinfected frequently throughout the day.
● Our team will STRICTLY follow guidelines set forth by the Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention, Occupational Health Services Australia, and Australian Dental Association in regards to personal protective equipment (PPE), practice disinfection and sterilization of reusable instruments.
● During patient care, goggles or protective glasses will be worn by staff and disinfected between patients.
● All surfaces that came in contact with the patient will be wiped with disinfectant including the patient chair and the accessory chair where the patient placed their personal items.

Checking Out After Your Appointment
 ● After every transaction, the checkout desk and will be wiped with a disinfectant.
● We prefer financial transactions using electronic means and not cash wherever possible. We ask patients to swipe their own health fund cards through the eftpos terminal and that you “hover” your cards over the terminal so no contact is made.
● For staff and patient protection we have fitted a “sneeze screen” on the front desk to help minimize aerosol spread of infection. Transactions will be undertaken through a slot under the screen.

We are proceeding with an abundance of caution, but we want you to feel as confident as we do that any visit you make to our practice will be a safe one.

We also realize that many of you have been impacted financially during this outbreak, and we are offering some solutions to keep dental care affordable for you and your family.

To discuss these payment options, schedule an appointment, or ask us any questions you may have about your next visit, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 07 3359 1996

We look forward to seeing you soon!
Dr Martin Jest and Staff

/by