Tips and hacks on how you can keep your teeth clean, aside from the normal regime.
MiNDFOOD chats to Dr Giulia D’Anna, founder of iDental, on the best approaches to keeping your teeth clean and gums healthy.
- Celery aids saliva
Chewing celery helps in producing more saliva in your mouth which prevents plaque acids. Eating celery once a week can help keep your teeth naturally clean on top of brushing. - Use a water flosser
Water flossers are great for people who have difficulty cleaning between their teeth. Older people with arthritis, big hands and little mouths or teenagers with braces can struggle to clean between the teeth. Water flossers are like a high-pressure water cleaner for teeth, blasting debris and plaque out of there. - Avoid sparkling water
It may not look harmful, but sparkling water tends to have a pH level of between 2.74 and 3.34. This gives it an even greater erosive potential than orange juice.
Caring for your child’s teeth
Most children are using too much toothpaste, don’t brush often enough and don’t start brushing their teeth at a young enough age, according to a U.S. survey by the CDC Division of Oral Health in Atlanta, Georgia.
Parents should brush infants’ teeth when the first tooth appears, which can be as early as age six months. And they should help their kids brush until the kids are independent enough to thoroughly and correctly do it themselves, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and pediatrician groups advise.
While starting to brush as soon as teeth begin appearing is recommended, ingesting too much fluoride can harm still-forming teeth, so the CDC recommends that children don’t use fluoride toothpaste until they are two years old.
Children under age three should use a smear of toothpaste the size of a rice grain, and children ages three to six should use a pea-sized amount.
