July 16, 2020

Five Simple Ways to Prevent Cavities

One quarter of all American adults and half of teens have cavities. Many people take their oral health for granted. But taking care of your teeth is critical for your best overall wellness. This makes one of your biggest oral health issues is cavity prevention. Below are five easy ways to prevent cavities, no matter your age.

Prevent Cavities

 

1. Know Your Oral Health

Taking good care of your teeth means understanding your current oral health status and risk for cavities. This knowledge comes from visiting your dentist twice yearly for a routine oral health exam. Your dentist advises about your cavity risk, which treatments you need and how you can reduce your potential for dental problems. For these reasons, visiting your dentist every six months enables one of the easiest ways to prevent cavities.

2. Brush Your Teeth Regularly

Proper tooth brushing is the most obvious among ways to prevent cavities. Brushing with a fluoride toothpaste removes bacteria and plaque from the surfaces of your teeth. It is most important to perform this twice-daily ritual after meals and before going to bed at night. Otherwise, bacteria and plaque linger on your teeth, their acids damaging your precious enamel.

If possible, brush your teeth after lunch at school or work. Use an antimicrobial mouthwash each time you brush, too. This freshens your breath while cleaning away cavity-causing bacteria.

3. Choose Water and Drink Less Soda, Coffee, Juices, and Tea

Routinely exposing your teeth to the acids and sugars in tea, coffee, juices, milk, and sodas increases your risk of cavities. This means that drinking less of these beverages is another one of the easy ways to prevent cavities. If you do partake in sugary or acidic drinks, enjoy them for 20 minutes or less each day. Then rinse your mouth thoroughly with water.

Speaking of water, most municipalities in the United States add cavity-preventing fluoride to their water supply. This makes water healthier than any other choice when it comes to cavity prevention and general wellness.

4. Floss Daily

No one looks forward to flossing their teeth every day. But this is one of the important ways to prevent cavities. Each tooth has five sides or surfaces, with all of them holding onto food particles, plaque, bacteria, and other debris. You need to clean these surfaces to ensure your best oral health and fewer cavities. Brushing only cleans three to four of each tooth’s sides and flossing reaches where your toothbrush cannot.

5. Stop Using Tobacco Products

Tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco cause a wide range of physical health problems. More than 16 million American adults use tobacco daily. Many of these people do not realize how much damage doing so cause in their mouths. In fact, tobacco use leads to cavities, stains on teeth, gum disease, tooth loss, and oral cancer.

By quitting smoking, you enable your body to heal from past damage caused by tobacco use. At the same time, quitting reduces your risk of cancer and other diseases. You can also improve your smile through this clear way to prevent cavities. Stopping your smoking or other use also makes it easier to keep your smile bright white. You look and feel healthier throughout your body, as a result.

Lower Your Risk of Cavities at Carolina Dental Arts

As said before, visiting your dentist regularly is one of the key ways to prevent cavities. Your dentist can help you improve your oral health, prevent tooth decay, and restore your smile after cavities occur. Your dentist can even help you get on track to quit smoking or using other tobacco.

Start taking cavity prevention more seriously by seeing your dentist twice yearly. Carolina Dental Arts offers three convenient locations to serve you, with two in Raleigh and one in Goldsboro, NC. Schedule your next visit today.

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May 31, 2020

Floss Your Teeth Daily
As you learn from the dentist and in health class at school, it is important to floss your teeth daily. But why is this so important?

First and foremost, regularly flossing your teeth removes plaque. This keeps more plaque from building up and hardening between teeth and at your gum line. Removing all of the food particles and plaque from your teeth actually makes your smile appear brighter. Flossing also reaches where your toothbrush cannot.

Besides these reasons to floss your teeth daily, more exist. Doing so benefits your health in many ways. These include:

  • Lower risk of heart disease
  • Prevents tooth decay
  • Reduces risk of gum disease
  • Helps you find signs of swelling, redness, bleeding or infection
  • Helps keep your breath fresh

If you floss daily, you enjoy better gum health.

Unhealthy gums increase your risk of tooth decay and tooth loss. If you suffer gum disease, you can also soon need a root canal. Periodontal disease, also known as simply gum disease, occurs when plaque builds up at the gum line. But you remove much more of this plaque when you floss your teeth daily, when compared to just brushing, alone.

Sometimes when gums bleed or feel sensitive, it is easy to neglect your flossing routine. But you should likely not skip a day, even when you suffer these symptoms. Flossing actually improves gum health and prevents bleeding by removing plaque and food particles. One in eight American adults suffers gum disease. Most have this condition because they floss their teeth daily.

When you floss your teeth daily, do so after eating.

It often feels inconvenient to stop doing other things to floss your teeth daily. But doing so after your daily meals and when you brush your teeth at night easily becomes a part of an evening routine. As a result, you enjoy better dental hygiene. You also have a cleaner feeling mouth.

Some foods get stuck between teeth and cause greater plaque build-up than others. Among these foods are raisins, pretzels, chips, dried fruits and candies. Each of these have high starch or sugar content. Starch and sugar linger with the food debris between teeth and cause more plaque. Without flossing to remove this food and plaque, you risk getting more cavities.

Avoid reasons to skip flossing your teeth daily.

People give their dentists many excuses for not flossing daily. You should try to avoid these reasons to not floss your teeth daily, whenever possible. After all, flossing takes only a few minutes out of your routine and easily integrates into your toothbrushing routine.

Common excuses for not flossing daily include:

  • I was traveling. Dental floss is one of the smallest and lightest of your personal hygiene needs. It fits anywhere in a suitcase, pocket or handbag and using it requires only a few minutes each day.
  • I have sensitive gums. Gum and tooth sensitivity or gum bleeding often improves with use of a soft dental floss. Find a soft floss at your dentist’s office or local drug store. Choose one with wax to easily glide between your teeth.
  • I have braces or dentures. Having braces or dentures is no reason to neglect flossing your teeth. Ask your dentist about specialized floss with stiff ends to thread between braces wires. This floss has a spongy feeling to it, making it slide easily.
  • I am taking care of children. Children need to follow the same rule of, “Floss your teeth daily.” Start teaching them at age five to seven. When they see you floss your teeth daily, they follow your example in life.
  • I cannot get the floss to work right. If you struggle with the fine hand movements required to floss, try using floss picks or an electric flosser.

Talk to Your Dentist About Flossing…

Whether you find yourself neglecting to floss your teeth daily or struggle to properly do so, your dentist can help. Talk to them about daily flossing and other dental needs. With two locations in Raleigh and one in Goldsboro, NC, the dentists at Carolina Dental Arts want to help you make flossing a part of your daily routine. Schedule your next visit today.

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Kathy Anders
Kathy Anders
2022-10-18
Excellent staff and love my dentist and the ladies in the office! Mrs. Patsy is my favorite and Liz is second. They are all good at what they do. Keeping my smile and my teeth looking their best! Awesome as always!
Marian Malone
Marian Malone
2022-10-10
Ashley who was my hygienist today did such a wonderful job on my teeth. I have gone in for cleanings before with other dentists in the area of Goldsboro and always come out with yellow teeth still.. I did not have any any kind of whitening done she just cleaned my teeth and I felt so good afterward .
Julian Edwards
Julian Edwards
2022-10-10
Awesome
Rodney Mealing Jr
Rodney Mealing Jr
2022-10-04
The Staff and service were great. From scheduling to dental work done, everything went easy. Felt relaxed, would recommend their services.
Tisse Martin (Tisse)
Tisse Martin (Tisse)
2022-09-29
Carolina Dental Arts staff & services are amazing. I called in as a new patient. They got me in and took care of my tooth the same day, with little waiting time. I was truly impressed. Thanks again CDA, see you guys soon ! 🤗
Janai Donyele
Janai Donyele
2022-09-29
My name is Sharonda. And I have been going to Carolina Dental for years, this is my family, whom I love so much. So kind very considerate, and patient. God bless everyone that works there. Love u guys.
Ellen Barlow
Ellen Barlow
2022-09-29
Friendly staff and Dr Taylor!! They really ease your anxiety!




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