Maintaining Your Dental Health in These Times

These days it seems the coronavirus is affecting all areas of our life and that includes our dental health. With all dental offices unable to see patients, other than dental emergencies (such as pain, swelling, or bleeding), due to federal and state mandates, your dental home care routine is now more important than ever!

Some things you can do at home that will help you prevent problems until you are able to return to your dentist:

  • Brushing Your Teeth Twice A Day: whether you use a manual toothbrush or an electric one, the bristles only clean the areas they touch. You should spend at least 2 minutes each time you brush. That's how long it will take to clean all the exposed surfaces of your teeth. Remember to use a soft touch! Your goal is to remove the sticky, gelatinous plaque that's on the tooth. Brushing too hard will only damage your tooth structure or your gums. 
  • Floss At Least Once A Day: Flossing gets into those areas where your toothbrush bristles can't reach. Try to make a "C" shape around your tooth with the floss as you move it up and down the tooth. This will allow the floss to clean below your gumline. If you know you won't floss, consider buying something like a WaterPik Water Flosser or an Air Flosser. Using either of those is better than not flossing at all.
  • Fluoride Rinses: rinses or mouthwashes that contain fluoride are helpful to prevent cavities between your teeth. The fluoride can help strengthen areas that are just starting to break down. (Note though that regular mouthwashes that do not contain fluoride are mostly for freshening your breath and removing surface food debris. Many will not remove the amount of plaque that good brushing and flossing will.)

At Dr. Robb's office, we're committed to your oral health now and in the future. For non-emergency care, we'll be in touch with you as soon as we can after dental offices reopen.

If you have pain, swelling, or bleeding, we can see you as a dental emergency to get you comfortable--you can call the office at 440-960-1940 or the office cell phone at 440-787-9674. 

Stay safe and healthy! We'll see you on the flip side!