What Is Good Oral Hygiene?
Good oral hygiene results in a mouth that looks and smells healthy. This means:

• Your teeth are clean and free of debris
• Gums are pink and do not hurt or bleed when you brush or floss
• Bad breath is not a constant problem 

If your gums do hurt or bleed while brushing or flossing, or you are experiencing persistent bad breath, see your dentist. Any of these conditions may indicate a problem.

Your dentist or hygienist can help you learn good oral hygiene techniques and can help point out areas of your mouth that may require extra attention during brushing and flossing.

How Is Good Oral Hygiene Practiced?
Maintaining good oral hygiene is one of the most important things you can do for your teeth and gums. Healthy teeth not only enable you to look and feel good, they make it possible to eat and speak properly. Good oral health is important to your overall well-being.

Daily preventive care, including proper brushing and flossing, will help stop problems before they develop and is much less painful, expensive, and worrisome than treating conditions that have been allowed to progress.

In between regular visits to the dentist, there are simple steps that each of us can take to greatly decrease the risk of developing tooth decay, gum disease and other dental problems. These include:

• Brushing thoroughly twice a day and flossing daily
• Eating a balanced diet and limiting snacks between meals 
• Using dental products that contain fluoride, including toothpaste 
• Rinsing with a fluoride mouthrinse if your dentist tells you to 
• Making sure that your children under 12 drink fluoridated water or take a fluoride supplement if they live in a non-fluoridated area.
  

Proper Brushing Technique Tilt the brush at a 45° angle against the gumline and sweep or roll the brush away from the gumline. Gently brush the outside, inside and chewing surface of each tooth using short back-and-forth strokes. Gently brush your tongue to remove bacteria and freshen breath.

Proper Flossing Technique Use about 18" of floss, leaving an inch or two to work with. Gently follow the curves of your teeth. Be sure to clean beneath the gumline, but avoid snapping the floss on the gums.

What is Proper Nutrition?
Proper nutrition means eating a balanced diet so your body can get the nutrients needed for good health. Every day, your body renews itself, building new muscle, bone, skin and blood. The foods you eat provide the building blocks for these new tissues. If your diet is low in the nutrients your body needs, your mouth may have a more difficult time resisting infection.

If children do not eat a balanced diet, their teeth may not develop properly. In order for them to develop strong, decay-resistant teeth, children need a balanced diet with emphasis on calcium, phosphorous, and proper levels of fluoride.

What are the Different Types of Nutrients?
A balanced diet consists of the following nutrients:

• some carbohydrates
• the essential fatty acids (found in fats)
• the essential amino acids (found in proteins)
• fifteen vitamins
• approximately twenty-five minerals
• water

Since our bodies are not able to manufacture all the nutrients we need, especially certain vitamins, we must get them from food or supplements. The U.S. Department of Agriculture advises eating the following each day for the general population:

• 6 to 11 servings of bread and cereals
• 3 to 5 servings of vegetables
• 2 to 4 servings of fruit
• 2 to 3 servings of dairy products
• 2 to 3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans or nuts

Why is it Important to Eat Right?
A poor diet can lead to gum disease and tooth decay. Foods high in carbohydrates, sugars and starches greatly contribute to the production of  plaque acids that attack tooth enamel. Eventually, these acids can cause tooth enamel to break down, forming a cavity.

If you must eat foods high in sugar or starch, try to eat them during meals rather than between meals, and avoid any foods that stick to your teeth as these can produce more plaque. Most meals already contain acid-producing ingredients so, the less you expose your teeth to these ingredients, the less plaque acids attack your tooth enamel. Also, saliva production rises during meals, helping rinse food from the mouth.

*The Complete Guide to Better Dental Care by Jeffrey F. Taintor, DDS, MA and Mary Jane Taintor, 1997.