Issue 13 Winter 2015
Is Fluoride Good for Teeth
The fluoride debate - is it good for you or not?The fluoride debate is focused on the daily fluoride intake from our water supply.Fluoride taken daily through our water supply is especially valuable for growing teeth, it is only able to impact on the structural development of children’s teeth internally, where as when you are older it has no value this way, only on the outside surface and this is where topical fluoride plays an important role. There are many articles that show that children who have ingested fluoride on a regular basis have incorporated the benefits of fluoride into the entire structure of their teeth, having a much lower rate of decay, than those who did not. Topical fluoride, which is applied either by a mouth rinse, gel, foam or varnish, will deposit fluoride on the outside surface of the tooth and doing this strengthens teeth and reverses microscopic decay. The least effective topical fluoride is from toothpaste and in fact the difference is remarkably small, approx 3% reduction in tooth decay. The next best application is a mouth rinse, following this, your dentist can provide the best fluoride treatment by way of a gel, varnish or foam. If you really want healthy teeth, then reduce your sugar intake and have regular topical fluoride applications. This method has shown in research studies to reduce cavity rates by 25-40%. The “Fluoride Action Network” who do not want fluoride in our water supply acknowledge that topical fluoride helps prevent dental decay and they support the use of topical applications. (www.fluoridealert.org). FLUORIDE MOUTH RINSES WE RECOMMEND
|
 |
Jessica Tyson – My Journey To A Beautiful Smile.
"So far I am 13 months into my journey wearing braces. Time has gone really fast and my teeth are looking great!!
The most recent change is wearing a removable appliance (plate) for the last 3 months. Its purpose is to develop my upper jaw width, especially my first left-side molar. Before wearing the plate the molar had been a bit stubborn and hadn't straightened up with the other teeth. The plate I'm wearing has a screw in it that I turn every 5 days, to push the tooth out from the inside. As well as that my braces are pulling the tooth from the outside to straighten it up.
Since wearing the plate I have seen a huge change. The molar has shifted more into line with the other teeth and I think it won't take long until it's completely straight! |
WHAT IS IT LIKE WEARING THE PLATE?When I was first given the plate to wear I found it difficult to speak clearly for a few days. Since I work in retail and have to talk to customers a lot, I found it a little uncomfortable at work as I couldn't fully pronounce my words. As well as that I am studying a full-time Te Reo Maori course where I am required to speak a lot of Te Reo Maori. When I first wore the plate I found it very hard to pronounce these words and always wanted to take the plate out when I needed to do a speech. For the first few days I also found the plate to be very uncomfortable. It felt as though it took up too much room in my mouth and it was very hard to eat food wearing it - and I was always tempted to take it out when I was eating (which I am not supposed to do).
However, over time I have become very used to wearing the plate. I don't mind eating with it and after about a week of wearing it my speech returned to normal again. I also get excited seeing how my tooth is slowly straightening up alongside the other teeth. The plate is not painful at all so that’s also a bonus! HOW TO KEEP IT CLEANI have to clean my plate after I have eaten food. At night I clean it with my toothbrush and toothpaste, and every three days I soak it for 3 minutes with a specialised cleanser which leaves my plate fresh and minty clean! “
Follow my journey on the North Shore Dental onFacebook and www.northshoredental.co.nz |
The movie “sugar” If you haven’t seen this movie its a must see. My dentist Dave Lovrich has being banging on about how bad sugar is for teeth and the whole body for years and I never really took this on board as I thought “ he’s over the top on this topic” but once I saw the movie I realized that what he had being going on about was infact that sugar is just pure POISON and I can’t emphasis this strong enough.
If you want to have a healthy body stay away from sugar as it not only destroys your teeth and gums but many other body parts and functions . If you want to loose weight fast then kick the sugar addiction. Sugar is an ingredient in most manufactured foods – its highly addictive so thus the foods with more of it in we want to eat more of so manufactures liberally put it into their foods so we need to start reading labels for how much sugar is in items we buy. If we want to reduce our sugar intake dramatically and this is what we all need to do as all of us are consuming way too much sugar – the average consumption of sugar in NZ to get to a healthy level needs to drop to I/4 of what it is. Any doubts just get the movie out it was a real eye opener for me. Jacqueline Kampen
|
Brighten Up This Season
|
