ADULT Prevention

ADULT

I've added the more recent videos that are currently on the teeth4life App. I have included a copy of the text, as you can always add your voice to the video, as it must be more lively than mine, and you may be able to improve them. I made a brief video on how to manipulate them in iMovie and this is the link that can be found on the teeth4life YouTube Channel, customise App playlist. https://youtu.be/a9a9OV0UQs4?si=GR5hMjFNp5knUpq6

As you progress down through the videos, there are my initial animations that you and your patients may find more useful.

POCKET CLEANING

This video needs the audio adding,
https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/781528678

This video applies to the 10% of the population who have periodontal disease, and how and why we need to clean what we turn a pocket a bit more thoroughly. Where the gum appears against you, too, isn't often where it's attached to the tooth, and that's the area we call the pocket. I made this animation some time ago with a simple explanation for the anatomy and disease process. Just pause the video for the text explanation. Basically, you need to get under the gum margin and clean what we now call the biofilm. We need to clean this specific area. A few years ago we thought directly applying a mouthwash may help. However, just as with bleeding gums, which we call gingivitis, mouthwash is relatively ineffective. You don't want to be cleaning the wrong area. So your hygienist or dentist needs to point out where the pockets are. And to reduce gingivitis and periodontal disease we need to use our toothbrushes more effectively, and for longer by physically changing the biofilm back from destructive anaerobic bacteria to aerobic. It needs to be done daily, a scale and polish every six months isn't enough. It's up to you. Recent evidence shows you are six times more likely to die from COVID If you had poor gum health.
10% of the population with active periodontal disease, have it due to their negative exaggerated auto-immune response. We are now more acutely aware of the importance of a good immune system and a healthy lifestyle. All the recent evidence demonstrates the better your oral health, the better your general health and you're more likely to keep your teeth for life.

TOOTHBRUSHING PRINCIPLES

This is some essential advice about cleaning your teeth.
For just two minutes twice a day, set and maintain an effective health routine, ensuring you are angling the brush against the teeth and gums correctly and cleaning all tooth surfaces.
We like power brushes. The technique differs from a manual brush, allowing the brush bristles to do the work by slowly moving the brush head over the teeth and gums. While this can be demonstrated in the surgery, why not at home, saving time and money for you and the dental practice? And it's GREEN.
To enforce the two minute routine, most power brushes have timers. Whatever brush you use, concentrate on the tooth gum margins, keeping the brush head at 45%.
With a manual brush, use a circular scrubbing motion gradually moving along the teeth, with a medium-sized head and medium bristle. Remember to tip at the back of the last tooth for both types of brushes to clean the back surface to help avoid problems with your wisdom teeth.
Crooked teeth are more difficult to clean and require a better technique to avoid problems. But in my experience, there aren't any weak teeth, only a weak toothbrushing technique.

WELLBEING AND MICRPHABITS

Wellbeing and toothbrushing

We all seem to be very busy. But twice a day, we have a bit of time that we can use more constructively.
Instead of bouncing around while we're cleaning your teeth, have a quick look at a video to show how to use these power brushes correctly. This lady is standing still. Actually, she could close her eyes when she has just got the routine. And then she can concentrate on breathing. And so in effect, you know, it's mindfulness, or it's yoga, but as they say, it's time to be in the moment.

When it comes to actually cleaning the teeth. The best thing is we get PowerBrush you've got two minute timer.

So this short animation explains why it's two minutes.

And you don't necessarily have to follow this example or have a set routine so it becomes automatic. And then when you're there, your eyes shut in the bathroom, cleaning your teeth, just concentrate on your breathing.

And as you get better, you can go into your tree pose or whatever other pose that you want, but don't go too far from the sink. You may have to spit out halfway through. Yeah, and do have a nightime as well.

So there you've got four minutes to yourself, breathing slowly relaxing.

This is specifically for those of us fortunate enough to reach beyond the age of 60. Our mouths are now a bit more susceptible to decay due to the changes in our salivary flow rate and content.
Like most dentists, I recommend a power brush. Get used one now, and you don't need to spend a fortune. Moderately priced ones are extremely effective, and carers prefer using them.
We recommend interdental brushes now, as when we're older and the gum shrinks back and they are more effective than floss. Some new products are coming along that look promising.
Smaller heads are also useful on most electric brushes.
We are all aware of the importance of keeping ourselves hydrated. Just keep the drink sugar-free, and the sugar fee gum that stimulates salivary flow. Generally, I don't recommend mouthwashes, if you use one that contains fluoride, do it at a different time to cleaning your teeth.
Some medication gives you a dry mouth.
Recent evidence of the more common medications, a mini aspirin, cod liver oils and a statin may help with our general immunity, which is related to gum disease.
Remember to keep a glass of water at your bedside, as we often wake up with a dry mouth.
This is the advice for my mum, the toothbrush I recommend as she has arthritis, and this innovative BIOMIN toothpaste for last thing at night.

ORAL AND GENERAL HEALTH LINK

So we're all aware of gum disease. But do we have it? How can you check?
It's difficult to know.
You can check your blood pressure and your BMI yourself, but you need the dentist or hygienist to actually measure your gums and record what we call the BPE.

The BPE is a screening system. And the figures that we take are relevant to regards to general health.
We know following COVID People who had high BPEs had poor outcomes with regard to COVID. and the reasons not to similar to this is that if your gums bleed, as the blood comes out, bacteria and viruses can go in. So whilst the virus has may have been inhaled with COVID. Mouth bacteria and viruses once in the bloodstream, will circulate and are related to heart disease, kidney disease, Lund disease, Alzheimer’s, that is all manner of diseases.

So why take the chance, because this is one of the things that you can improve by just spending a bit more time in the bathroom, cleaning your teeth with the normal brush. And for lots of us, these incidental brushes will be a big help too. And they'll help reduce the bleeding of our gums, which ultimately will improve our general health.

HABIT AND MOTIVATION

When it comes to improving your oral health habits, you just follow a set routine.
And it isn't that difficult, but it just needs a bit of structure.
When it comes to health, we just need a bit of encouragement.
For fitness, the cue could be your trainers by the front door.
Set out a structure using your preferred method, whether it's on your phone or on a piece of paper, and set a goal thats achievable.
Remember to reward yourself when you get there.
Now I'm going to hand it over to my colleague to explain how we can use this with teeth.

This video explains a simple method to improve your habits specifically with regards to maintaining a healthy smile.
Your oral health is directly linked to your general health. Use this simple habit loop of a cue, routine, and goal to keep your treatment to a minimum.
In all our lives prevention is better than cure.
Use your phone to set timely reminders to reinforce the routine until it becomes a habit. Personalise your app to monitor yourself and improve with the supporting animated videos. Reward yourself and your children if your goals are achieved.
Evidence shows it may take only six weeks per child or up to six months for an adult to set up any habit. It is best to start young

FLOSSING AND INTERDENTAL CLEANING

I tried to find a good video demonstrating how to floss, but there really isn't one. The simple how and why animation I made a while back is far better.

Never get your child to floss, they're going to cut themselves.
However, Interdental cleaning can certainly make you be more healthy. And this is how to floss. So you need to get the floss wrapped around your finger so you control it. And then what do you need to do is just to push it between the teeth as will be shown on the video here.
There are many types of floss, such as waxed floss, and tape. Generally, most hygieneists recommend to tape because it's easy to control. And often these are impregnated with fluoride so they have a nice taste to them. Often you have to force the floss down in between the teeth as often it's quite tight. Once you've got through the gap, you push it against one side of the tooth. And pull it on the other side of the tooth, then use an up and down motion, not a sawing motion, because this can do more harm than good.

So if you haven't done it for a while, like most things, there's a bit of a learning curve. So it's a lot easier if you just try on the front teeth first, and then gradually work your way around to the back teeth. videos within the app explaining why you need to do this and that the bleeding is either due to a poor technique, or is due to underlying gum disease. And like with all things you have to clean a little bit more rather than a bit less if this is the case.
Many of you are aware now there are interdental brushes. And in general most hygienist and dentists recommend them above floss. But the reality is sometimes you need both. As we get older, our gums mature a bit more and the gaps get bigger. And so generally, that's when we start using the brushes.

And for most people it's a one minute procedure, but for those of you who have periodontal disease can take up to 10 minutes. So make full use of this time using the modern technology. The phone Bluetooth headphones and podcasts. You can listen to some old Desert Island Discs, wherever you like.

DIET ADVICE UPFs AND SUGAR

THE YOUTUBE LINK MAY BE BETTER

A multinational worth over 200 billion pounds, has developed a gut hormone that could reduce our weight by 15%. Available for two years potentially costing our NHS billions for the foreseeable future.
The food industry has at best inadvertently manipulated processed foods in a manner that has detrimental effects on natural gut hormones. In 2019 research led by a physicist, Kevin Hall, with an unusual trial of 20 volunteers confined to a hospital for a month concluded limiting consumption of UPS may be an effective strategy for obesity prevention and treatment.
Shady lobbying by food and pharmaceutical multinationals put their profits before our health, with historic parallels to the tobacco industry.

So rather than wait for government legislation, let's keep ourselves healthy, reduce the financial burden on our NHS, and embrace the benefits of health prevention, rather than the more expensive and debilitating cures for disease.

HIIT

I've just been out cycling for about half an hour 40 minutes and I think you can see, I’m a bit hot. But I know I'm not going to lose any weight from that, but have been thinking as everywhere you look he talks about hit and as the hit H I T, high intensity interval training, I’m rubbish at remembering these things. But it's interesting, isn't it? Is that actually two minutes you know, leaning against a wall, well squatting against the wall is better for me if I want to reduce my blood pressure and probably lose weight, than spending all that time cycling and it gets to thinking am I gonna last two minutes in this position? I don't think so.
But anyway, yeah, during lockdown, which you know, in the distant past, thankfully, you had to do 10,000 steps. You know, so off we went to do 10,000 steps daily. And that worked quite well. You know, that was quite good. And I think it's very good getting out for mindfulness. But also I did 30 Days of Yoga. You know, I had the time, it wasn't at work. So I started doing yoga and about 20 minutes a day. And that was quite good. And then the other thing I did was, yeah, oh, yeah. I stopped drinking, I had three or four non drinking days. And I have to say at the end of that I was probably the fittest I've ever been. Well, you know, compared to a couple years before, but also the lightest I got down to 12 stone four and I felt good. Since then the weights crept up, but I'm still doing the exercise. And I used to ask my patients, the ones that come in, looking well, and honestly, you know, what was the secret? And I think I know their secret. There's no scientific background, it's just experience. But generally, they either played golf or walked the dog. And they had a little drink before they went to sleep of a night. And, yeah, I used to say, playing golf and whiskey. That was the best thing you could do for a long life. But actually, I've changed that I think it's playing golf and having a red wine glass of red wine. Anyway, I think that's my two minutes.

ADULT

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