WHY IS PREVENTIVE DENTAL CARE AND MAINTENANCE on your teeth and gums so important? There are several reasons. Devoting small amounts of attention to your teeth and gums will help you keep your smile for your entire life. We want you to be proud of the teeth you flash to the world each time you smile! But it isn’t just about the way you look—it’s also about your health and the way you feel. Don’t worry—here at our practice we understand that some things just can’t be helped. If you bite into a bagel and loose part of your filling Dr. Larry Stanleigh will be right here to help. But aside from the unforeseen, the biggest factor in your oral health is simple maintenance. Daily maintenance through proper brushing (for at least 2 minutes) AND flossing techniques not only improve your smile, they dramatically reduce your risk of gum disease. In fact there are 4 things we recommend you do daily: 1) Brush your teeth 2 to 3 times per day. At least one of those brushings is to be used with a mechanical, or electric toothbrush. Studies have conclusively shown that mechanical toothbrushes are more effective at removing plaque, bacteria and oral biofilm than manual toothbrushes. Our favourite is the Oral B Triumph Professional Care electric toothbrush. 2) Floss your teeth at least once per day. Flossing is the only effective way to clean the biofilm from between your teeth. 3) Brush or scrape your tongue. The tongue harbours billions of bacteria in their grooves and this is critically important. Make sure you get the very back of your tongue. Tongue scrapers are available in most drug stores and from us, in our office. Just ask and we’ll give you one with our compliments. 4) Use an oral rinse daily. Listerine is a long standing favourite of ours and the research is clear that it truly kills bacteria, and does not just reduce their numbers. It also has persistence, and keeps working for hours after you rinse with it. But you need to rinse for a full 30 seconds for it to work effectively (harder to do than it seems). And for those who don’t like to use an oral rinse with alcohol in it, we like the new oral rinses by Colgate (Total) and Crest. We know we urge you to come in for regular checkups and cleanings A LOT, but did you know there’s a lot more in it for you than just a free toothbrush? Studies continue to link your oral health to your overall health, making a visit to Dr. Stanleigh just as important as visiting your family doctor! Diseases associated with our mouths like oral cancer and gum disease are probably familiar terms to most people, but few people realize that other health issues can manifest themselves initially in the mouth as well. Visiting our practice can help catch potentially larger problems before they get out of hand—problems you may not even realize exist. Here at our practice, mouths are a huge part of our lives. Not only do we stare into them every day, we even read about them while we’re on vacation…(kidding). All jokes aside, please be sure to keep those regularly scheduled visits with us. We want to help keep you healthy! Whoopi’s right. Gum disease, also known as periodontal disease, can kill you. In case you missed Whoopi on The View, you can see her talk about her experience with gum disease and tooth loss below: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtB9k8z3bEU&version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0] If you haven’t had a chance to join us on Facebook, take just a moment to Like our page now by clicking below. It’s the very best way to keep up with relevant information about our practice and about your oral health. We look forward to connecting with you there! 
