According to surveys, in Russia every fifth person under 45 is missing 5 or more teeth.
aif.ru discusses the dental topic with director of the Institute of Dentistry. Borovsky Sechenov University, Head of the Department of Therapeutic Dentistry, Professor Irina Makeeva.
3 minutes of brushing is not enough
Lidia Yudina, aif.ru: Irina Mikhailovna, there are people who are genetically immune to caries. How can others avoid it?
Irina Makeeva: Lucky people who inherit caries resistance (resistance) have a microorganism in their mouth that prevents the formation of plaque and tartar that cause cavities and gum disease. But this does not mean that people who do not have such stability are doomed to tooth decay. If a person adheres to proper nutrition, the frequency of meals, does not abuse easily fermentable carbohydrates and takes care of the oral cavity, the risk of caries is minimal.
– Proper care is brushing your teeth 2 times a day for 3 minutes?
“That was enough for our grandparents, who sat at the table three times a day. Modern people who chew continuously (the number of snacks sometimes reaches 10 times a day) need to brush their teeth longer and use more than just a toothbrush and tooth powder. In three minutes, you can remove the dental film from only two surfaces of the teeth (lingual and buccal), and the tooth has five of them and each needs to be thoroughly cleaned. There is the concept of “individual oral hygiene”, the duration of which should ideally be determined by the doctor. For example, I spend 24 minutes brushing my teeth. I’m not in a hurry, I use a regular brush, a mono-bundle brush, a thread, and brushes. For me, this is a pleasure. Proper brushing of teeth allows you to save not only teeth, but also money. I have never done expensive procedures in my life – professional cleaning and removal of tartar.
You can evaluate whether you are brushing your teeth correctly. Purchase a plaque indicator from your nearest pharmacy. It stains only those areas of the teeth where there is plaque. For most people, after using the indicator, the entire mouth and teeth turn purple, like the tongue of a chow chow. This means that they will definitely have caries.
spa for teeth
– Does the quality of cleaning depend on the brush and toothpaste?
– If there are no problems, you can use any preventive paste. If there is an increased sensitivity of the teeth, dryness, stomatitis, the dentist should advise the paste, who knows the properties of the pastes, their composition and indications for use. You can use therapeutic toothpastes for no more than two weeks if they contain antiseptics, which, having “killed” the harmful ones, begin to destroy beneficial microbes. As a result, dysbacteriosis occurs, which is extremely difficult to deal with. When it comes to toothbrushes, most people buy a “cool” electric toothbrush and think it will do it all by itself. The other extreme is to constantly “brush” your teeth with a stiff brush. Strong pressure can cause damage to the cervical tissues of the teeth and soft tissues of the oral cavity. The brush should glide gently over the teeth, and brushing should be as pleasant as a scalp massage. Therefore, a soft or medium-hard brush is suitable for most. But no brush can reach the contact surfaces of the teeth. To clean them, you need to use brushes, dental floss (floss), irrigators. If there are crowns, implants, prostheses in the mouth, the use of an irrigator is strictly necessary.
Remove or cure
— You can often hear from dentists that a tooth that has been destroyed by more than 50% must be removed.
– Each case is individual, and you need to assess the situation as a whole. Not only the percentage of tooth decay is important, but also the condition of the surrounding bone tissue. There are periodontal diseases in which it is necessary to remove practically healthy teeth due to the fact that the bone tissue around them has resolved.
– Implantation is considered the pinnacle of dental rehabilitation. Can the implant last for the rest of your life or does it need to be replaced every 10 years?
— Any dental treatment is a team work. This team also includes the patient. A doctor can choose an implant system and install it accurately, an orthopedist can make a perfect crown, but if a person does not carefully care for it, the implant will not last long, because it needs proper oral hygiene even more than a regular tooth. If proper hygiene care is not carried out, the mouth will become inflamed, the bone tissue will begin to dissolve and problems will arise that will require either surgical correction or removal of the implant. With proper hygiene, modern implants can last indefinitely.
In what direction is science moving? What technologies will be used to treat the teeth of our grandchildren and great-grandchildren?
“I hope that with the help of prevention we will reach the level of the Scandinavian countries, where dental faculties are closed due to the lack of patients with caries in medical universities. So, our neighbor – Finland – has long been declared a country free from caries. Dentists there are engaged in orthodontics (treatment of dento-jaw anomalies – malocclusion, which cannot be prevented) and cosmetic problems. Where teeth are well cleaned, high technologies are not needed for their treatment.
Source: aif.ru
