BRUSH UPON HE ALTHY TEETH
How often do you clean and floss? Truthfully? According to Dr Ben Atkinswe could all do a lot better at taking care of our dental health
ORAL CARE
DR BEN ATKINS is a dental practitioner and clinical director of Revive Dental Care in Manchester, and a trustee at the Oral Health Foundation
A recent survey by the Oral Health Foundation discovered one in three of us don’t brush our teeth twice a day, while 7 million Britons regularly skip brushing altogether, citing a ‘lack of time’. It’s cause for concern, but as a nation our oral health has improved a lot; in the late 1960s, 37 per cent of everyone over the age of 16 had full dentures! But we’ve still got a long way to go – 90 per cent of us don’t know how to brush our teeth properly, and five per cent of us never visit the dentist.
It’s vital to look after our oral health. Brushing our teeth removes the bio-film covering them – this is where the bacteria live that produce acid that causes holes in our teeth – and applies fluoride from toothpaste. I only recommend fluoride toothpastes, containing at least 1350 parts per million fluoride. It helps strengthen tooth enamel and reduces the amount of acid that the bacteria produce. Brushing also cleans our gums, which protects against gum disease and possibly even heart disease; there is some evidence there may be a link between inflamed gums and inflamed arteries.