Five ways to help reduce teeth staining

Food and drink can stain your teeth. Sadly, some well-loved favourites top the list: coffee, tea, red wine, grape or cranberry juice, blueberries, soy sauce, tomato sauce and more.
 
No need to panic! You don’t have to avoid these foods altogether but it is a good idea to brush or rinse your mouth thoroughly after enjoying them. Here are some tips:

Drink through a straw
When you drink fizzy drinks, juice and iced coffee or tea, using a straw can help to keep the liquid away from the visible front surfaces of your teeth.
Brush, floss and rinse
Plaque makes your teeth sticky and can help give stains something to hold on to.
Brush twice a day
Flossing and using an antibacterial mouth rinse twice a day will help you fight plaque and therefore make your teeth less likely to stain.
Have your teeth professionally cleaned
At least twice a year, make an appointment with a dental hygienist for a thorough cleaning. Clean teeth look brighter.
Don’t smoke
Whether you chew it or smoke it, tobacco stains teeth.

Teeth staining can ruin a great smile and make you look older than your years. The truth is what you eat and drink has a big impact on the whiteness of your teeth. 

Longborough offers Professional Tooth Whitening.

If your teeth have become stained or if they have always been discoloured, whitening can transform their colour quickly, painlessly and with no damage to the enamel.

Remember, proper tooth care can help keep your teeth bright. So eat, drink, and be merry and brush your teeth regularly.

Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice

Janet’s advice on brushing your teeth

A toothbrush is used to remove bacteria (plaque) from our mouths, to maintain a healthy dentition. It is important to keep our teeth free from decay and also to keep the supporting tissue (gums) healthy. Our gums should create a tight collar around our teeth to help keep our teeth firm. Teeth can be lost because of gum disease and unfortunately, in my role as a Dental Hygienist, I  see many people losing healthy teeth because their gums have let them down.

Keeping your gums healthy depends on many factors but probably the most important is a good tooth brushing technique. I find the best results come from using a rechargeable electric toothbrush. You need to look for a brush that has the following features:

    •    A small head so you can reach all the awkward places
    •    A timer so you know you are spending long enough brushing
    •    A pressure indicator so you do not apply too much pressure

When using a toothbrush, you should brush the point where your tooth comes out of your gum. This is called the gum margin. An electric brush does the movement for you so you do not have to 'scrub' as many people do with a manual brush.
 
Brushing with an electric brush, on the gum margin, for the correct length of time will remove the plaque to keep your teeth clean and fresh and most importantly your gums tight and healthy. it should be efficient and systematic. Don't jump from place to place. Just move your brush carefully along all your teeth. Your gums need to be brushed, but remember they are soft tissue, treat them with respect or you will hurt yourself. Just think that you would not scrub your face with a scrubbing brush!

You should be able to brush your gums without them bleeding. Bleeding is normally a sign that your gums are a little inflamed and you may need to have a scale and polish. Scale (tartar) builds up if the soft plaque is not removed well enough and is able to harden on your teeth. If you have any hard build up on your teeth we need to remove it for you very gently in the surgery.

The main reason for using toothpaste when we clean our teeth is to put fluoride onto our teeth. Fluoride makes our teeth harder and therefore more resistant to decay. Fluoride has been the biggest boon to dentistry in my lifetime. Other reasons for using a paste is that they foam and they usually taste nice to create a nice fresh feeling after brushing.

You need only use a small amount of paste, brush for the required time and then just spit out the excess. Do not rinse after you have brushed and it is best not to swallow. Children should use a very small amount of a child's fluoride paste, which has a lower concentration of fluoride.

I hope this brief summary of brushing is useful. If there is anything else you want to know please come and see us. We are always pleased to talk to you at length in the practice.

Janet Scott    
Dental Hygiene Therapist
Longborough

How to brush your teeth in Space

Have you ever wondered how oral hygiene takes place in space? 
Well, wonder no more! Check out this video where Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield explains how to brush your teeth in space: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU9kffoAQ8U 

So there you have it. Your basic toothbrush and toothpaste can serve you just as well off the planet as they do on Earth. 

NOTE: The brushing technique (and swallowing toothpaste) didn’t impress our hygienist, Janet Scott, who said, "I’m amazed that guy has any teeth left!" 

You can read Janet’s advice on brushing your teeth in our next blog.

Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice

Another glowing testimonial!

 We just received this wonderful testimonial to our endodontist, William Scott. Furthermore this patient has offered to talk to any patients nervous about RCT and tell them how wonderful William is. When all the injections wore off she didn't feel a thing and couldn't even tell where the injections had been!

"I recently had root canal treatment for one of my teeth which was performed by William and I wanted to express my great thanks to him and his dental assistant Sarah. I wasn’t looking forward to the treatment but they very soon put me at ease and were very professional in their approach. 

William explained exactly what he was doing, showed me xrays at various stages of the procedure and I felt totally confident with my treatment.
William has a very nice personality and was very competent and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending him to friends and family.
I would be grateful if you could pass on my sincere thanks to him and his dental assistant.
 
Yours faithfully
Mrs S.S.
PS. I needed injections on both of my visits and they were the most pain free injections I have ever received. Thank you William."

And thank you very much Mrs S it's good to be appreciated.

Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice

 

A lovely email from a patient

Thank you very much to the patient who took the time to write this wonderful email and send it to us:

I just wanted to put on record how impressed I was with the service I received to date from Asad and his team.

If I am honest, I have never been a fan of going to the dentist which probably explains the state of my teeth! That said, whilst I don’t look forward to it, I do find the process much better and recently had a crown removed and replaced as I am getting married next month.

Asad and Andrea work very well together and make an excellent team.  Not only was I made to feels as comfortable as possible whilst the crown was replaced, but I was given some additional adhesive when I left just in case I encountered any problems. To top it off Assad rang me yesterday to check I was OK after the procedure which was a very nice personal touch.

In my industry people are quick to criticise but rare to praise, although it is nice when they do. I felt it important therefore to let you know how impressed I am with everything that you do at Longborough Dental Practice.

Thank you for making something that I don’t enjoy, comfortable and ensuring that I have a winning smile on my wedding day.

Yours sincerely Mr M.S.E

Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice

Root Canal Treatment: myths and misconceptions

Mr William Scott BDS MSc MClinDent

Almost every patient referred to me for root canal treatment has a friend/friends who told the most terribly tales (and were happy to tell them) of spine tingly, horrible, root canal experiences. It is time to lay to rest the misunderstandings, misconceptions, and myths surrounding endodontic (root canal) treatment once and for all.

1. ‘Root Canal Treatment is Painful’ – FALSE
Truth: Root canal treatment does not cause pain, it relieves pain. The belief that root canal work is painful was fostered many, many, decades ago when several aspects of dentistry were in their infancy. Today, with the latest techniques and anaesthetics, root canal treatment is no more uncomfortable than having a filling placed.

2. ‘Root Canal Treatment Does Not Work’ - FALSE
Truth: studies indicate success rates of 90% to 95% for root canal treatments done by endodontists. Of course, badly done root canal work will fail, just as any type of work done to a poor standard will not be a success.  

On the other hand, clinical excellence backed by the latest techniques, equipment, and materials lead to high levels of long-term success. A root canal treatment done to a high standard on a tooth carefully restored by your dentist and well looked after by the patient can last a lifetime.

3. ‘A Good Alternative to Root Canal Treatment is Extraction’ – False
Truth- Saving your natural teeth, if possible, is the very best option.
Nothing can completely replace your natural tooth. Keeping your own teeth is important not just cosmetically, but also functionally; allowing you to enjoy the wide variety of foods necessary to maintain a healthy balanced diet.
 
Endodontic treatment, if clinically possible, combined with an appropriate restoration placed by your dentist, is a cost effective way to treat teeth with root canal infections, and is usually less expensive than extraction and placement of a bridge or an implant.
Millions of healthy endodontically treated teeth serve patients all over the world, for years and years after treatment.  

These healthy teeth help patients chew efficiently; maintain their natural smiles and enhance their quality of life.

William Scott is our new Endodontist at

Longborough Dental Practice

CPR training

Last week the Longborough Dental Team carried out their basic life support and CPR training. This is an annual event which ensures that the team’s skills and knowledge are up to date with current guidelines. We regularly review our protocols and systems so we are prepared in the event that one of our patients (or team) should become unwell. It is a really important date in everyone’s diary.

Back 2 Life have been running our annual course for many years. They take us through various scenarios and we have the opportunity to re-familiarise ourselves with situations which may arise and review how best to manage them.

 On the day, each Team member needs to demonstrate that they are able to give quality CPR and work together efficiently in an emergency.

We are taught how to recognise signs of medical emergencies such as heart attacks, severe allergic reactions and other trauma. We also reviewed the contents of our emergency kits, from medicines to oxygen cylinder, their uses and mode of administration.

As always this was an excellent training session; it is essential to be able to refresh our knowledge on such a very important subject.

 As much as we hope we will never have to use these skills, the team at Longborough are always very keen to ensure that they are prepared for any situation that may arise.

Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice

Hidden Sugars In Food

You expect chocolate Easter Eggs, cakes and biscuits to be packed with sugar, but what about bread, baked beans, breakfast bars and smoothies? It’s a bit of a shock to find that many of these and other "safe" foods often contain hidden sugars. And here’s how to spot these sugars in your everyday foods.

Packaged foods are loaded with sugar
Most added sugars in our diet come from regular (non-diet) soft drinks - about 33% of all added sugars consumed. Sweetened fruit drinks, sweets, cake and ready-to eat cereal account for another 24%. But prepared foods, like tomato ketchup, soups, canned fruits and vegetables and "low-fat" products (where sugar has been added to make up for the reduction of fat) account for more than a quarter of the added sugar in our diet.
 
Avoid added sugars
Some sugars occur in foods naturally, like the lactose found in milk and the fructose in fruit. These sugars don't concern nutritionists as much as others because the foods that contain them also contain nutrients our bodies need. Added sugars are sugars and syrups that are added to foods or beverages during processing or preparation. They also include any sugar you add to the food and drinks you make at home.
 
Read the label to find hidden sugars
To find the sugar hidden in your everyday foods, read the Nutrition Facts label and the ingredients list carefully. Under "carbohydrates," you should find the word "sugars." At this time, there's no differentiation between naturally-occurring sugars and added sugars on the label. Ingredients are listed by weight, from the most to the least. If one or more of the first few ingredients on the list are forms of sugar (see below), the item is likely to be high in total sugars.
 
Sugar by other names
When reading the ingredients list, in addition to "sugar," watch for these ingredients (they're alternate names for forms of added sugar): corn sweetener, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, dextrose, fruit juice concentrates, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, cane juice, cane syrup and sucrose. Any ingredient ending in "ose" is likely to be a form of sugar.
 
Easy ways to reduce sugar in your diet
If you want to reduce the amount of hidden sugars in your diet, limit processed foods and control portion sizes of foods that have added sugars. Choose reduced-sugar syrups, jams and preserves.

Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice

Thank you for the lovely testimonials

We recently reviewed the patient surveys that we did last year and we were very pleased with all the positive feedback. Patients fill in our survey forms anonymously so we don't know who said all these nice things about us. Here are some of comments that we received:
 
'I have been attending the practice for 40+ years and have always found it excellent.’
 
‘I am very pleased and confident in all the care I receive. Thank you.’        
 
'I am pleased that I attend this dental practice where I am treated efficiently and courteously and know that I will receive the best treatment for my needs.’
 
‘I have recommended others to this dental practice.’   
 
‘As you will see from the above I think the practice generally and Miss Noon in particular, are excellent.’
 
‘The care and attention of all staff at Longborough is fantastic.’
 
‘It is well worth travelling the distance I do for the treatment I receive here at Longborough.’
 
'Teresa is a real asset to this practice and always treats me like I am her only priority, great customer service.’
 
‘Excellent dental practice. Best I’ve been to.’
 
‘I have every confidence with Dr Noon and her staff; her approach is professional yet personable and my children are happy to attend for regular examinations without fear or apprehension. The dental hygienist is also to be highly commended. The reception team offer service with a smile and are efficient, courteous and customer focussed.’
 
A big thank you from everyone at the practice and we will try to keep up all the good work.

Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice

7 things you didn’t know about Teeth Whitening

1 WHITENING IS SAFE
If carried out by a trained dental professional, whitening is perfectly safe. Based on their knowledge of your oral health your dentist will discuss with you the options available, decide if tooth whitening is appropriate for you and develop an overall treatment plant that gives the desired effect.

2 ONLY A TRAINED DENTAL PROFESSIONAL CAN WHITEN TEETH
It is illegal for anyone other than dentists or their teams to carry out teeth whitening. Anyone else offering teeth whitening won’t have the right training and knowledge, could permanently damage your teeth and gums and can’t help you when something goes wrong.

3 THE PREFERRED OPTION
Whitening won’t remove the surface of your teeth or change their shape. It’s often a better option than alternatives, such as veneers, because it doesn’t involve permanently altering the tooth’s structure and is easy to look after.

4 SELECTING THE RIGHT PRODUCT FOR YOU
Your dentist is trained to know what whitening products will be safe for your teeth and gums. Products provided by non-dentists often do not have enough safety data and evidence to support their use; this can result in burned gums and/or blistered lips or even more serious consequences. Using products that are not appropriate for you will produce poor results.

5 HOW IT WORKS
A carefully controlled concentration of bleach is applied to your teeth using bespoke trays that fit in your mouth. Your dentist will be able to discuss with you the level of whitening you want to achieve and give you an idea of how many treatments you may need to achieve the shade you’re after.

6 WHAT TO EXPECT
You may experience some sensitivity for a short time during your treatment but this is normal and will soon fade away. We can supply you with products that can ease this sensitivity.

7 OVER THE COUNTER KITS MAY NOT BE SAFE
The products you can buy online or from high street shops often fail to declare the precise chemicals used so it’s very difficult to assess their safety. Because of this they should not be considered safe. These products won’t produce the same good results you can expect by visiting your dentist.
 
ASK YOUR DENTIST ABOUT WHITENING

The British Dental Association has just released this information on Teeth Whitening
Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice

Emergency appointments for pain relief

At Longborough we listen to our patients views on the service we provide. Our patient surveys ask patients to anonymously fill in a form and give us feedback on their experiences at the practice. We also invite our patients to add any further comments they might like to add because we want to know what we are doing right and where we need to improve.

Last year, in a survey of 100 patients, we found that in some cases patients were not aware of all the services we can provide at Longborough. For instance, about 30% of respondents indicated they were unaware that we provided short notice emergency appointments and we obviously need to publicise this.

In fact, this aspect our our service has recently been greatly improved with the introduction of a specific ‘Dental Pain Clinic’ with our Specialist Endodontist, Jenny Lai and we now receive requests from people who don’t have a regular dentist to attend this popular clinic. 

Dr Lai is a gentle dentist with specialist training in endodontics and her aim is to treat your pain. Jenny can answer your questions and provide pain relieving treatment.

Anyone can book themselves directly into the Clinic without the need for a referral from a dentist. Longborough have reserved a number of emergency appointments throughout the week to ensure patients are seen as urgently as possible, with some same day appointments available on a limited basis.

If you would like to make an appointment today please call our patient advisors on 01306 882494. 

Alison
Practice Manager

Longborough Dental Practice