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Written by- https://www.mouthhealthy.org/

For generations, the Tooth Fairy has left a small gift for children who hid their fallen baby teeth under their pillow. This charming tradition is the perfect time to help kids learn more about taking care of their teeth. Here are 5 delightful and inexpensive ways to embrace this magical spirit with the whole family.

1. A receipt for your child’s tooth

This little document can be left in your child’s bedroom as a remembrance of the event. Buy a receipt pad and write it out yourself. Include your child’s name, the date, a description of the tooth received, and the reward, plus a small note such as: “Thank you for this lovely tooth! I can see that you are brushing every day. Keep up the good work!”

2. A tooth fairy dish 

Here’s a sweet alternative to the under-the-pillow trick (and one that is much easier to access): help your child choose or create a special dish to keep their teeth. Visit a local thrift shop or housewares store to find one, or paint your own at a local ceramics studio. Talk with your child about what she or he thinks might please the Tooth Fairy’s eye … perhaps one that is shiny and bright, like a healthy smile!

3. A keepsake book

A simple blank notebook can be turned into a lasting record of Tooth Fairy’s visits. Invite your child to choose one at an office supply store or bookstore. You can have fun decorating the notebook with your child’s name, hometown and any other details s/he would like the Tooth Fairy to know. Have your child write the Tooth Fairy a note before bed every time he or she loses a tooth. When you leave your child’s gift behind, record the date and add a little note, such as: “This is a very handsome tooth! Did you know you’re on your way to having 32 grownup teeth someday?”

4. A bright-smile calendar

The Tooth Fairy’s visit is a great time to engage kids in healthy dental habits. Along with the Tooth Fairy’s gift, leave a brushing calendar in your child’s room as an extra gift. You can also make it reusable by laminating it at your local office-supply store and provide a colorful dry-erase marker for your child to record each time he or she brushes, flosses, or visits the dentist.

5. A Tooth Fairy “Smilestone” scrapbook page

It can be fun to record how your child’s smile changes as baby teeth fall out and grownup teeth come in. Create a milestone keepsake album of “smilestones” to memorialize each visit from the Tooth Fairy. If you want to make your own, choose an album from the dollar or craft store — or have fun making one together with colored paper, stickers, yarn, and other supplies. You can also just add a scrapbook page to your baby book. Talk with your child about the experience of losing a tooth and capture memories in the pages of the album. Leave it out in your child’s bedroom for the Tooth Fairy to enjoy, too, and consider sharing with the dentist at your next checkup!

https://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/babies-and-kids/playing-the-tooth-fairy

Written by- https://orawellness.com/

There’s a new oral health development due to the events of 2020 that warrants a discussion.

Dentists are witnessing an uptick in the prevalence of dry mouth, gum disease, and tooth decay.

This uptick is being attributed to habitually wearing masks for long periods, which is why the media has named this new phenomenon “mask mouth”.

In this article, the focus will be on the solutions.

There’s a physiology behind how wearing a mask can impact one’s oral health and how to reduce the risks. Understanding how masks can affect our mouths can help us to take action so we can safely wear masks, while maintaining our oral health.

What is “mask mouth”?

Mask mouth is a new phenomenon for our global culture – it refers to the effects on our oral health due to long-term mask usage. Due to the pandemic, the public at large is now faced with having to navigate the impact of prolonged habitual mask-wearing, including mask mouth.

First, let’s take a look at what causes mask mouth. Then we’ll look into what you can do to avoid the risks of mask-wearing.

 What happens to our teeth when wearing a mask?

Did you know that one cause of tooth decay is dry mouth?

Yep, saliva levels play a huge role in whether or not the thug bugs implicated with tooth decay (and gum disease) gain the upper hand in the oral microbiome.

Decreased saliva levels allow these trouble-causing oral pathogens to build their numbers.

Wearing a mask might make you less likely to drink water during the day to stay hydrated and maintain the moisture important for a healthy mouth.

You might also find yourself breathing more often through your mouth instead of your nose when wearing a mask.

Habitual mouth breathing also invites a host of other system-wide breakdowns, including bad breath and even teeth becoming misaligned over time (because it prevents the tongue from being in the proper position against the roof of the mouth to help support the alignment of  the teeth).

So, here’s the issue summary as it’s seen…

1. Wearing a mask may make you less likely to drink water frequently, and more likely to breathe through your mouth.
2. Both of these lead to decreased saliva and dry mouth.
3. A dry mouth allows thug bugs to proliferate and gain the upper hand in the oral microbiome.
4. If the above steps are habitual, then this shift in the oral microbiome causes an increased tendency for both tooth decay and gum disease

So if masks have to be worn right now due to the pandemic, what can be done to help ourselves?

What can be done to mitigate the risks of mask mouth?

Thankfully there are several actions that can be taken up to help navigate this challenging situation.

1. Find opportunities to safely remove your mask during the day.

Simply put, seek to limit the amount of time you are breathing through a mask. Why risk causing the physiological down-regulation for longer than you have to?

For example, the next time you’re on the road, take notice of how many people you see driving in cars by themselves while wearing a mask. When you’re in the car alone, that’s a good opportunity to give your body a break by lowering your mask and breathing freely (through your nose, of course!). 

2. Be conscious of your breathing and water intake.

If you need to wear a mask for longer periods, tune into your breathing. By bringing conscious awareness to your breathing regularly, you can remind yourself to breathe easily through your nose, and also to take breaks for water when it is safe.

While in a mask-heavy zone, try setting a timer for every 15-30 minutes. This way, your little timer can go off and remind you to turn your attention to taking 5 slow, deep breaths.

3. Learn to keep your tongue in the ‘home’ position and to breathe through your nose all the time (even when you’re not wearing a mask).

This gem is a big one for us.

This technique has SO much benefit for the entire being. Limiting to just the scope of this article, learning to keep your tongue in the ‘home’ position helps to maintain existing saliva levels and it can even help to naturally increase the saliva production. 

Also, if the tongue is trained to rest in the place where it’s meant to hang out (the roof of the mouth), it becomes natural to breathe more fully, which addresses some of the negative consequences of mask-wearing.

4. Maintain a good oral hygiene routine.

Some people start slacking on their oral hygiene when they know they’re going to be wearing a mask. After all, who’s going to smell your breath?

While it might be tempting to save time by skipping some brushing sessions, this can be detrimental to the long-term oral health. (Also, remember that whether it’s fresh or stinky, you will be the one who is stuck smelling your breath in that mask! )

In all seriousness, it’s important to maintain diligence with healthy oral hygiene habits, including conscious brushing, flossing, and tongue cleaning daily.

https://orawellness.com/mask-mouth/

Written by- https://orawellness.com/

Is baking soda safe to brush with? 

“Will I damage my teeth if I brush with baking soda?”

Some experts claim that regularly brushing with baking soda can cause wear on tooth enamel and gum tissue.

Is baking soda really to blame?

Our teeth like to be polished and our gums like to be massaged.

If we remember just this one thing while brushing, we’ll be much more inclined to treat our teeth more carefully:

Our teeth are living gems.

Yep, our tooth structure is like a crystal. But, unlike rubies and diamonds, these ‘tooth crystals’ are alive

The bottom line is that most of us brush our teeth unconsciously. We call it ‘zombie brushing’.

Let’s face it, if we brush our teeth like we’re scrubbing a grout line in our bathroom, then yes, using baking soda to brush our teeth could potentially cause some real problems.

One way to tell whether you brush unconsciously is to note how you hold your toothbrush.

If you hold your toothbrush with a closed fist, you’re most likely scrubbing a grout line.

So, before we dive any further into the details of whether or not it’s safe to regularly brush with baking soda, let’s firmly state that how we brush our teeth is more important than what we brush with.

Let’s explore the risks and benefits of using baking soda to brush our teeth.

Here are the potential downsides to using baking soda as a tooth powder.

Risk 1: Abrasivity

Is baking soda too abrasive?

To answer this, let’s compare baking soda to some abrasives that are commonly included in oral hygiene products.

In the world of oral hygiene products, there’s a scale called ‘Relative Dentin Abrasivity’ (or RDA). It ranks product abrasive from zero (not abrasive) to over 200 (super abrasive).

Baking soda is only a 7 on the RDA scale. So, at first glance, it seems that when used consciously, baking soda isn’t too abrasive.

Pay attention if you have receding gums

As you know, the enamel is the outer portion of each tooth. Under the enamel is the dentin, then the tooth pulp.

However, if we have receding gums, it’s very possible that the portion of the tooth around our gum line may no longer be enamel. As the gum recession progresses, the softer tooth tissue called ‘cementum’ may become exposed around the gum line.

This explains why it’s more common for adults to get cavities along the gum line than on the chewing surfaces of their teeth. The receding gums expose the cementum, which is softer than the enamel that covers the crown of the tooth (therefore, it’s more prone to decay as well as structural damage from brushing too hard and using products that are too abrasive).

However, overall, when used consciously, baking soda is ok to use in a toothpaste or powder.

Risk 2: What about the aluminum in baking soda?

This is a common cultural myth. Baking soda does not contain aluminum.

Some product manufacturers have caused confusion by listing ‘aluminum-free baking soda’ on their ingredient list, but baking soda doesn’t have any aluminum in it.

Risk 3: Daily use of baking soda by itself may be too far…

There are experts in the field who suggest that brushing with baking soda alone is too ‘rough’ and compromises the healthy biofilm that our teeth need in order to be healthy.

Now that we’ve unpacked some of the risks of brushing with baking soda, let’s explore some of the benefits.

Benefit 1: Supports a healthier oral pH

Our mouth pH plays a big role in determining which populations of bacteria flourish there. It’s generally recognized that the lower (more acidic) the pH in the mouth, the greater the risk of tooth decay. (Enamel demineralization occurs at pH 5.5 and lower.)

You see, the bacteria that flourish at a pH of 5.5 will find a pH of 6.5 or 7.0 downright inhospitable. To successfully manage our oral microbiome, our job is to help maintain a mouth pH that supports the probiotic bacteria populations that help us to live healthy, vital lives.

Baking soda’s pH of 8.3 helps support a more alkaline oral pH. It gently nudges the environment in our mouths to a healthier place.

For more information on pH’s role in our oral health, check out our article, “Tracking your saliva pH“. This article contains a free OraWellness saliva tracking log that you can download to help you along your path.

Benefit 2: Baking soda lowers thug bug count  

Plenty of research shows that baking soda can really help lower the populations of thug bugs in the mouth, so it’s an effective support tool to reduce periodontal pathogens.

This makes sense if you stop and think about it.

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, so it’s a salt. All salts are naturally antimicrobial.

Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

Given the above information, we believe that baking soda can offer support in helping us navigate to optimal oral health provided that we brush consciously and avoid ‘zombie brushing’ our teeth.

Baking soda definitely provides plenty of ‘grit’ to help remove plaque. However, to avoid causing more harm than good, we must be vigilant and mindful while brushing with baking soda.

You see, most of the grit from baking soda (and toothpaste, for that matter) is diluted with saliva and ‘used up’ within the first 20 seconds of brushing.

So for example, if out of habit you always start on the upper left side when brushing, the teeth and surrounding gum tissue in that area are going to get more than their fair share of abrasive action, and they may weaken over time.

How to avoid overworking one spot in your mouth?

To help mitigate the risk of this habitual ‘starting to brush in the same spot every time’.

Here’s the simple strategy…

Presuming you brush twice a day, start on one side of your mouth in the morning and the other side at night. An easy way to remember this is ‘at night, start on the right’.

So, each morning, start brushing on the left side of your mouth and each night, on the right.

In this way, we reduce the risk of over brushing one area and we spread out the fresh toothpaste/tooth powder to various areas around the mouth.

How to use baking soda in a homemade tooth powder?

We are so grateful for the resurgence of the DIY (do-it-yourself) movement. From making deodorant to raising backyard chickens, we’re all waking up to the benefits of doing or making things ourselves.

If you want to try your hand at making a tooth powder, definitely consider using baking soda as one of the ingredients.

You may also consider using xylitol to boost remineralization. Just make sure that the xylitol is sourced from birch and not corn, so you avoid GMO exposure.

https://orawellness.com/is-baking-soda-safe-to-brush-with/

Written by- Jessica Arnold

Posted on October 30, 2020 

If you’ve been feeling a little on edge lately, you’re not alone. According to a report released by Harvard Medical School and the University of North Carolina, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased stress levels in the U.S. by 55%! Elevated stress levels can lead to many overall health problems, including issues affecting your oral health. And the current public health crisis is highlighting how lifestyle stressors can impact health and well-being. New data from the American Dental Association Health Policy Institute’s (HPI) COVID-19 impact poll reports that dentists have seen a rise in stress-related oral health conditions in their patients since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than half of the dentists polled reported an increase in teeth grinding (bruxism), chipped and cracked teeth, and disorders affecting the jaw muscles (temporomandibular symptoms). Over a quarter of these same dentists saw a rise in conditions like cavities and gum disease.

Stress affects your smile

It’s not uncommon for people under a lot of tension to begin grinding their teeth as a response to stress. Clenching the jaw or holding the teeth too tightly together during the day or while sleeping can cause jaw pain, earaches, headaches, and worn down teeth.

Increased stress can also take a toll on your immune system. Evidence suggests that a compromised immune system makes it easier for infections to develop and fester. It means the infections in the mouth, like canker or cold sores, can take longer to heal.

Stress can also lead to bad oral health habits like smoking, drinking, and neglecting a normal hygiene routine, including regular brushing, flossing, and visiting the dentist.

Preventive oral care remains down

HPI survey showed that 99% of dental offices in the U.S. are open. Patient volume leveled off at just over 80% of pre-COVID-19 levels, indicating patients have not fully resumed the usual preventive care and treatment schedules. It is troubling news because it affects adults and children alike.

Ways to reduce stress-related oral health problems

It’s not possible to make the pandemic or the stress associated with it disappear overnight, but you can take steps to make your family’s oral health a priority and reduce stress-related oral health problems.

1. If you find yourself clenching your jaw during the day, take a few moments to relax your face and jaw muscles and let your teeth part. If you’re a night-grinder, talk with your dentist about solutions, like a mouthguard.
2. Build up your body’s immune system by getting enough rest and eating healthy foods full of vitamins and minerals.
3. Brush and floss regularly. Keeping up a good oral hygiene habit at home is the number one way to prevent gum disease and tooth decay.
4. Visit the dentist. Dental offices are open and taking extra measures to keep you and your family safe. It could include pre-appointment screenings, temperature checks, extra cleaning and sanitation measures, and additional personal protective equipment for patients and staff.

Be sure to make time for some of your favorite ways to relax, like reading a book or going for a bike ride. It is also a great opportunity to try something new! Making healthy choices will help keep your physical and mental health in tip-top shape.  

http://deltadentalazblog.com/covid-19-stress-linked-to-increased-oral-health-problems/