Page 7 - September Issue

Health Street: Dental care

Most people don’t pay much attention to their teeth/ oral health and think that brushing alone
is enough, well there is more than just that.

Mouth plays a vital role in our lives, especially in our social lives. We smile and they appear
the most even when we talk. For sure you don’t want to make people uncomfortable talking
to you because of your bad breath and poor oral health as result of your negligence in oral
health care.

Here is how you can have a perfect oral health and smile, by just taking sure you do the
following oral health care routine.

 Selection of toothbrush.
 One should use a toothbrush with soft bristle.

 Selection of tooth paste.
 One should select a tooth paste that will suit his/her oral needs, either
for gum, sensitivity or whitening.

 brushing properly.
 Use MODIFIED BASS BRUSHING TECHNIQUE, in this
technique you need to hold your toothbrush with bristles horizontal and
towards your gums.
 place your toothbrush 45 degrees towards your teeth and under your
gums a bit and be gentle.
 start by making back and forth movements and small circular
movements and swap towards the biting part of your teeth, stay in one
place and do at least 10 times then move to set of teeth, ideally your
tooth should cover at least two teeth at once. When reaching the front
teeth, your brush should be vertical and do the same movements.

 Floss and mouthwash.
 One should make use of dental floss and mouth wash in addition to tooth
brushing. As they do extra work that can not be done by toothbrush alone.
 Dental floss helps to clean between teeth as your tooth brush is too big to
clean space in between your teeth.
 How to floss?
 It depends on how each individual feel when holding the dental floss, but
most common technique is by rolling it with a middle finger and support
by index finger, careful not to hurt your gums.
By: Nkosiyazi Makwakwa

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