Your regular visits are your best chance for keeping your teeth strong, clean & white & your breath fresh. Hygienists can remove stains that regular brushing & flossing & in-home whitening treatments can’t! Plus, we’re always happy to give you refresher training on the best techniques for your at-home oral hygiene routine

You should be brushing your teeth twice a day & flossing at least once a day. Most people brush in the morning when they wake up & brush & floss at night before bed. If you want to brush after lunch too, we highly approve. When you brush your teeth it should be for a full two minutes. Make sure you get the back & front sides of your upper & lower teeth & their biting surfaces.

Don’t believe everything you hear in the news. It’s true that more studies are needed to solidify the connection between flossing & various effects on your oral health. But that doesn’t mean flossing is ineffective, it just means we need to know more.

Yes! There is some stubborn tooth gunk that even the best brushing & flossing can’t get off. This is especially true of tartar, which is the hard substance that plaque can turn into if not cleaned off in time. Getting a professional scaling & polishing (the technical term for a teeth cleaning) by a hygienist can actually improve the appearance of your smile by removing stains. Polished teeth are also smoother & harder for bacteria to stick to, which will make your at-home brushing & polishing efforts more effective.

As children, we’re taught that eating too much candy causes cavities, so it must be sugar that causes tooth decay, right? Actually, that’s an overly simple way of explaining the process. Sugar is more like the fuel for decay & it doesn’t just come from sweet foods. When you eat, chemicals called enzymes in your saliva break down carbohydrates into sugars. These sugars - plus the sugar compounds that occur naturally in fruit & foods sweetened with refined sugar or corn syrup - are then eaten by the bacteria in your mouth. Unless you brush or floss them away, these bacteria hang out in your mouth, consuming the sugar & excreting a waste product in the form of acid. This acid is what eats holes in your tooth enamel & the softer dentin layer underneath, causing cavities & tooth decay.

Children should see the dentist when their first tooth comes in or by age 1, whichever comes first. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be caring for your baby’s oral health before then. After feeding, you can clean your baby’s gums by rubbing them gently with a damp washcloth. For more advice about caring for your baby’s mouth, please feel free to ask your pediatrician or us.

Children should see the dentist when their first tooth comes in or by age 1, whichever comes first. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be caring for your baby’s oral health before then. After feeding, you can clean your baby’s gums by rubbing them gently with a damp washcloth. For more advice about caring for your baby’s mouth, please feel free to ask your pediatrician or us.