We try, don’t we to look after our mouths as best as we can in south east London. We see the ads and then we go out and buy the products in the hope that our teeth and gums remain at their best. But one important factor to look at as well is what food we are shoving into our mouths each day, because this can also impact on our teeth and gums. The greatest fiends that compact the build up of plaque and add to tooth decay are starch and sugars and if you love both, then you should work doubly hard to ensure that any residue of them is removed after you have enjoyed them. Starch based food breed bacteria very quickly where as sugar based ones attack the enamel on the teeth immediately. There is also another important factor as to why you should keep your diet in check- a good diet will help to keep your immune levels up and then ensure that you have a good saliva level in your mouth. A poor diet will devastate this and leave floundering with the possibility of gum disease. Your dentist can help here and if you have any worries about how you live your life when it comes to food, they can point you towards a nutritionist that can sit you down, talk to you and then get your diet back on track once again.

The teeth are quite sturdy parts of the body. Made largely of hardened minerals (mostly calcium) their layered structure makes them ideal for resisting many of the problems that they face such as chewing hard food and bacteria. However, even considering these advantages, time is the one thing teeth are not able to defeat. Even the mightiest mountains will be worn down by a gentle rain, given enough time, and so it is with the teeth. Continued exposure to bacteria, extremes of temperature, and force will cause damage that leads to dental conditions.

The most common dental condition is probably dental caries or cavities. These happen when plaque acid causes a breach in the outer layer of hard enamel. This allows bacteria to penetrate to the softer, more sensitive part of the tooth, which contains the dental nerve. This can cause an infection to take place which, if left unchecked, will destroy the dental nerve and kill the tooth, causing it to fall out. There are a number of treatments that can prevent this happening if carried out in time, which is why you should always see your South East London dentist as soon as possible if you have a sore tooth, it might just save it.

Other dental conditions include staining and discolouration, which can happen as the result of fluoridation, eating and drinking certain foods too often or because of lifestyle choices such as smoking. While this may not be all that detrimental to the health of the tooth, it will certainly make the teeth look rather unpleasant.

Gum disease is the other major dental health condition that affects many people in the UK, and even has links to heart disease. As with all dental complaints, the key to avoiding them is to look after your teeth and follow your dentist’s advice.

Around the outside of the teeth is a hard protective layer called enamel. This acts as a barrier against bacteria, disease and extremes of temperature, and also prevents over-stimulation of the dental nerve located in the heart of the tooth. However, if the enamel comes under attack form bacteria it will eventually be worn down creating small breaches or holes in the surface of the teeth. These holes are known as cavities or caries and can lead to dental infection.

When we eat food small particles get trapped in the tiny spaces between the teeth and act as breeding grounds for bacteria. Food that we eat that contains lots of sugar or starch also coats the surface of the teeth as it is very sticky. If we do not remove these food particles or sticky starch then bacteria builds in a filmy substance called plaque. This releases acids which erode the tooth enamel causing the cavities. This process is irreversible so it is very important you listen to your South East London dentist’s advice and brush and floss correctly everyday.

Once the enamel has been breached it leaves the door open for bacteria to penetrate to the centre of the tooth and attack the dental nerve. There are various procedures that can prevent this. The most common is a filling. This involves sealing the cavity with a hard material, traditionally silver amalgam but more recently composite bonding. In more extreme cases you may need to have a ceramic inlay placed in the cavity or even an entire dental crown to protect the teeth.

Preventing cavities is very simple yet all too often we take our teeth for granted and assume they will be fine. With just a small effort you can ensure the health of your teeth for many years to come.

You may have heard the phrase dental bridge but very few people actually know what they are. A dental bridge is a dental procedure used to restore the appearance of a knocked out or lost tooth. Teeth can be lost for many reasons ranging from a blow to the face or simply as the result of poor oral hygiene. This can often leave a big hole in the teeth that looks unattractive and can cause a build up of damaging plaque and bacteria. London SE1 dentists always recommend that you replace missing teeth as soon as possible, not just for the aesthetic results but also because it benefits the health of the teeth around it.

A dental bridge is one of the most successful ways of restoring a lost tooth, making the dental arc complete and restoring the functionality of a real tooth. The bridge is usually made up of two dental crowns, one on each side of the missing tooth, which support the bridging tooth (also known as a pontic, from the Latin word for bridge). The crowns are cemented in place and act as a strong and sturdy support for the pontic, which is secured with dental bonding and metal strips.

When set in place, the dental bridge will look and feel like a real tooth and if properly cared for, can last as long as fifteen years (although the average is closer to ten years). However, for over a decade you can be secure in the knowledge that your smile has been restored and that you can use all your teeth once more. Dental bridges are available at all dentists including your local London SE1 dentist.

Bad breath will lose you friends, and even business if your job involves face to face selling, says a London SE1 dentist. Yet the solution to bad breath is often a simple change to your oral hygiene program, although you`ll need to identify the cause first to make sure. The most common cause of bad breath is a poor method and a lax attitude to keeping your teeth clean and free from food deposits, these deposits fed the bacteria which causes the bad odour in the first place. In the night while we sleep, acid production builds up due to a dry mouth and bacterial activity. That acid breaks down the enamel on our teeth and wears away our gums, this allows disease to infect the gums and they recede. The bacteria that lives in our mouth is constantly reproducing and causing us all sorts of problems, bad breath is a sure fired sign of this. To keep that acid down we have to more careful what we eat, cutting out excessive sugar and fat will help a lot as these feed the bacteria. Brushing with the correct brush and in the correct manner will also help to keep food deposits in the mouth down, as will flossing. Flossing is the most underrated part of oral hygiene and is more important than brushing. Flossing every time we eat will help to keep bad breath at bay, so keep a flossing stick with you and just spend a few minutes using it every time you eat.

Tooth decay is the disease which is the most common cause of pain in patients, say a dentist from SE1 in London. It usually starts off in early life and quickly gets a grip to follow us all through our teens and adulthood. The most disturbing thing is that it is so easily prevented if an Oral Hygiene regime is taught and adhered to from an early age. Tooth decay is caused mainly by the build up of acid that is prevalent in bacteria and food deposits that sit in between our teeth, the build up eats away at the enamel and gets in between fillings and cracks in our teeth. This is especially damaging to young teeth and is now the most common cause of mouth problems in the world. It’s a big problem to solve as it mostly occurs in children and is often associated with a bad diet. As parents and relatives of children we buy them sweets which contain all the wrong things for their teeth. Sugar and bad fats are the most deadly of them and these are the worse enemies of our teeth, they all have acids in them which cause cavities that need filling, then the bacteria and acid gets into and below the fillings. Tooth ache follows and the only real way to eliminate the problem is a root canal treatment, and more fillings. Using a fluoride toothpaste and teaching the children to floss and brush properly, will go a long way to preventing the decay that will follow them through life. It takes just a few minutes a day to keep the decay away, but the regime must become a habit or the whole process is worthless. The old saying that an apple a day keeps the doctor away should be applied to flossing and brushing, for these two simple applications will indeed keep the dentist away.

Gum Disease should be a thing of the past says a dentist from SE1 in London. It is so easily prevented by a simple regime of controlled and habitual oral care and hygiene. Every dentist has an oral hygiene nurse and when we go to have our 6 monthly check up we should talk to them. Preventative dentistry is as important as repairing and curing gum disease, which by the way is incurable. Most people who have constant and depleting gum disease are exasperating the condition by not brushing their teeth properly or for long enough. Your teeth should be cleaned after every meal, but in the absence of the opportunity to do that you should clean your teeth when you get up and go to bed. Rinsing with a quality mouthwash will also help, but it isn’t a `be all and end all` of cleaning the gums and teeth. Flossing is another much missed opportunity to keep bacteria at bay, especially as most gum diseases are caused by food residue lodged in between the teeth. Once a gum disease like Gingivitis takes a hold there is no cure, the best we can hope for is a delay in the disappearance of the gums. Even slight gum disease is hard to eliminate once it occurs and again this is easily prevented by a good and regular regime. Bad breath is a sign of lodged food in between the teeth, and that in itself should sound the alarm bells about gum disease. If you can’t manage to brush your teeth after every meal, then carrying some floss sticks around is the next best thing, they have a floss hoop at the top and a pick point at the other end, this alone will go a long way to keeping bad bacteria away from the gums.

A dentist in SE1 in London has spoken out about Root Canal treatment in order to dispel some myths about it. It may sound like a torture from the Spanish Inquisition, but it is in fact a painless and effective way of curing and preventing diseases of the teeth. The problem with bacteria is that it is small enough to penetrate to the root of the tooth, not even the most effective antibiotics are good enough to kill it off entirely. Root Canal work involves drilling deep down into the cavity of the tooth, and then scraping out the bad bacteria. This is usually the cause of a constant and reoccurring infection of the gums and teeth. The gap that is left is then filled with an anti bacterial material and the tooth is capped to seal it in. The end result is a clean and healthy tooth that has been saved to serve the patient for many years to come. It is more expensive that extracting the tooth, which will usually be quite a healthy one apart from the bacteria problem. The dentist will feel better as well as the patient for having saved the tooth, after all the job of the dentist is to give our teeth the best fighting chance of surviving well into our sixties. It is considered to be preventative dentistry as opposed to just dental repair and general maintenance. Infections caused by bacteria are the most common reason for premature tooth loss, and preventative procedures such as a Root Canal are preferred by the dentistry profession. The procedure is painless and any swelling is usually gone in a few days, and the patient will be back to normal with no further problem from infections in the future.