Bad breath can be extremely inconvenient and lead to awkwardness in social situations. Dentists can offer great advice on how to combat it and one of these pieces of advice will probably be to tighten up your home oral hygiene routine. By taking extra care to brush and floss you are removing the bacteria in your mouth which causes bad breath. Strangely though, some of the products you might use to take care of your mouth can actually make the problem of bad breath worse.

The thing about some products is that they can make your mouth drier, which allows the bad breath bacteria to stick to your gums, teeth, tongue and the inside of your cheeks. If you suffer from bad breath and are using tooth paste which contains peroxide or baking soda, these ingredients might be making your mouth dry which means it is harder to remove the bacteria which is making your breath smell.

Products containing alcohol can often have the same effect: by keeping your mouth drier, the bacteria are harder to remove. A number of mouthwashes contain alcohol and it is imperative that if you use of these products that you rinse your mouth thoroughly with water afterwards. If you don’t then the alcohol will hang around in your mouth, keeping conditions dry and ideal for bacteria to flourish.

Be gentle with your mouth too as the bacteria causing bad breath thrives in conditions where the enamel on your teeth is starting to break down and cavities are forming. You may want to use a tooth brush with softer bristles or review the way you are brushing and do it with less force. Speak to your South East London dentist for more expert advice.

Every time you eat, drink and talk you are relying on having a healthy, fully functional mouth. To be able to do these activities in comfort throughout your life it is imperative that your look after all the parts of your mouth and ensure that they remain free from diseases which can compromise their functionality.

The main way in which teeth and gums can become diseased is by allowing plaque to build up. Plaque is a substance which is formed by the food you eat and, if left to its own devices, it will attack the enamel which protects your teeth. Once enamel has been broken down then cavities can form. These are small holes in the teeth which can be very sensitive and need to be filled.

Plaque can also affect the gums and cause them to be diseased. If plaque builds up on the gum line of teeth, the gums will become inflamed, reddened and more sensitive. This condition, called gingivitis, must be stopped before it progresses into periodontitis. If it gets this far then your teeth will be at great risk of falling out as the bones which hold them in place will have become inflamed.

You should brush your teeth at least twice a day and floss too to ensure that your teeth and gums stay free from disease. It is much better to avoid these conditions occurring than having to deal with the consequences. Even with advances in modern dentistry some of the procedures to deal with teeth and gum disease can be invasive and inconvenient. If you are worried about tooth and gum disease, talk to your London SE1 dentist to get more advice.

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.