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Starting the New Year off right for your Oral Health · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking Facts and thank you for tuning in to Kentucky Smiles on Talking FACS,
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  a podcast collaboration between the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry and the UK College of Agriculture,
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  Food and Environment Cooperative Extension Service.
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  Kentucky Smiles offers listeners information on maintaining oral health advancements in dental treatments,
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  research and more.
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  Hello and welcome to Kentucky Smiles on Talking FACS.
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  This is your host,
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  Doctor Jennifer Hunter,
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  Assistant Director for Family & Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.
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  Today,
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  I'm pleased to be joined by Doctor David Devito in Oral Medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry.
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  Welcome Doctor Devito.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  So today we're going to be talking about our oral health and specifically,
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  we're thinking about the New Year and New Year's resolutions.
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  And I always think that a few weeks into the New Year is kind of a,
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  a good time to reevaluate.
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  We've all maybe gotten a little bit more realistic about our resolutions at this point in the year.
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  But we're really gonna,
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  I think so often.
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  We,
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  we think about our,
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  especially at the beginning of the year,
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  our diet and exercise and today we're really going to focus in on oral health.
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  And so let's kick off with why should improving oral health be on everyone's New Year's resolution list.
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  You know,
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  it's important that you set New Year's resolutions.
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  You know,
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  uh it's an opportunity to sort of refresh and rebuild for a New Year.
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  And oral health is one of those things that some people may neglect because they just don't incorporate it in their mind as part of their general health.
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  But it can be just as important as your heart and your lungs,
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  your teeth and your mouth are linked to your whole body.
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  That includes how you consume foods and what foods you're able to consume as well as more complex.
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  Things like oral health can be a a sign of diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
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  And so there are numbers of studies that link diabetes and and things like Paradorn disease.
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  Uh In addition,
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  you know,
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  changing your oral health can help with some of your other New Year's resolutions,
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  reducing your sugar intake,
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  lowering your tobacco use,
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  reducing the amount of alcohol you take in all of those things have negative effects on your mouth as well as your whole body.
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  So that really is an important part about improving your oral health for the New Year.
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  So when we think about generally,
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  we make the statement,
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  we should improve our oral health.
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  What are actionable steps or ways that we can improve our oral health.
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  Well,
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  from the dentist perspective,
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  the number one thing that we would recommend every person is to make sure that you're brushing twice a day and flossing once a day.
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  I know that's hard.
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  I know that's challenging for a lot of people and I'm just as guilty as any other person of,
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  of not necessarily always following through.
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  But I would recommend if you got the opportunity,
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  try and create some way for you to remember that this,
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  this is the time of day to,
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  to engage in these activities.
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  So it can be as simple as setting a reminder on your phone.
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  If you like posted notes,
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  you could put a posted note near your uh your vanity in your,
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  in your bathroom.
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  One of the other little uh side things is that uh I sometimes tell people put the floss in the shower and while you're in the shower,
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  waiting for the water to warm up,
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  go ahead and floss your teeth while you're in there.
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  You don't have to.
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  That's a tip.
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  I've not heard before.
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  You don't have to worry about anything getting on your mirror or anything else.
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  You're just sitting there,
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  you got nothing going on.
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  You're still waking up from the day or getting ready to go to bed at night.
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  And then we always recommend that you,
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  that you floss when you wake up in the morning and right before you go to bed.
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  And that's primarily because the salivary flow the the saliva in your mouth,
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  that helps to keep your teeth kind of clean from bacteria drops as you go to sleep.
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  So getting rid of the bacteria right before you go to bed and that sa saliva drops and then right as soon as you wake up so that you can wash all that bacteria away.
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  And the first thing in the morning that helps for a lot of things.
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  So that would be just some basic guidelines on,
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  on what I would suggest for most people to do.
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  Now,
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  on top of that,
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  we really recommend that you go ahead and come in and see a dentist at least every six months.
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  That way we can take a look at you,
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  we can get you cleaned up with a hygienist and make sure that you don't have any other diseases or complications that may be needing to be addressed.
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  And especially obviously,
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  if you have any kind of urgent needs,
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  uh broken tooth,
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  something that's hurting,
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  definitely go ahead and give a dentist a call and try and get in.
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  So you can get those things addressed when we talk about brushing and flossing.
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  You know,
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  one of the things that you might want to think about is making sure that the products that you use have the American Dental Association Seal because that's gonna be helpful in making sure that those products are appropriate for oral care.
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  So that was one thing that I was going to ask you about.
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  So actually,
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  when I go to buy a new toothbrush or dental floss that I'm looking for that ad,
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  a label on the package,
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  is that correct?
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  That is correct.
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  That means that the ad A has evaluated the product and they've taken a look at the research behind what is going into the product and making sure that they've gone above and beyond even the simple classifications of what the food and drug administration require.
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  So that it's a verification step that the ad A takes to make sure that the products that you're using really have some scientific backing and aren't just,
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  you know,
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  some kind of knockoff brand that,
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  that wouldn't be beneficial to you.
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  So this might be an off the wall question,
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  but is it common to find products out there on the shelves that do not have the ad a seal on them?
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  It is um there are a number of products that are sold around the country that are used by people um that do not have the ad a seal.
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  Um There are things everywhere from toothpaste to tooth filling materials.
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  So we really recommend that you come into the dentist when you have a cavity or holding a tooth um and not just fill it up with something that you can buy over the counter because you haven't addressed the underlying cause,
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  which is the bacteria that are destroying the tooth.
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  And so when you just kind of fill it up.
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  It's a little bit like uh having a wall in your house that has mold behind it.
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  If you just paint over that mold,
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  that's not really getting rid of the problem.
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  And it's certainly not gonna help the wall.
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  The same is true for your teeth.
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  If you just fill them up or cover the,
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  the bad spots,
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  that's not really addressing the underlying cause.
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  And so that those kinds of things with the ad,
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  a symbol,
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  we really want them to be uh to be looked at.
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  I had no idea that there was even filling material out there.
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  That sounds like,
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  you know,
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  a patch for your tire.
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  That's not a good,
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  a good idea.
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  I didn't,
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  I didn't know those products existed.
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  But also I think important to note that all toothbrushes are not created equal,
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  which I,
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  I probably wouldn't have thought about before either.
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  Absolutely.
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  So,
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  one of the things about brushing your teeth,
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  I think most people don't realize it.
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  We really recommend that you brush for two minutes.
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  That is a very long time if you've ever cat it for yourself for two minutes.
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  The other thing that happens with most people is they start out and they brush really well in that very first quarter of their mouth.
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  And it's because they've got the energy,
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  they're like,
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  I'm brushing my teeth and by the time they get to the last quarter of their mouth,
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  they're just like I need to get done with this.
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  I'm ready to be over.
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  It's time to spit all this stuff out.
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  I got,
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  I got things to do with my day.
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  So one of the advantages of things like mechanical toothbrushes,
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  even the battery counting that you can buy uh at the store or the,
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  or the fancier ones that charge is that they don't get tired,
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  they brush the same strength the whole way through.
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  And so for the most part,
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  we recommend that that folks uh go ahead and get some kind of mechanical toothbrush because it tends to do a better job than most people could do.
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  Now,
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  that said they're not as cheap and you can do just as good a job,
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  but you just need to be a little more diligent in making sure that you're using the brush the whole way through and not just short cutting the last part of your mouth.
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  Excellent as we wrap up today,
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  one last question.
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  So if an individual feels like that they already have good oral health habits,
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  I know you mentioned earlier on in the podcast,
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  the importance about,
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  um,
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  seeing your dentist regularly and going at least twice a year for checkups,
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  is that still important for someone that's doing all the other steps that you've described.
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  Absolutely.
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  One of the things about coming into the dentist is that we're going to look for things that aren't available.
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  Most people don't even notice things like maybe a small red spot on the side of your tongue.
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  No one sticks their tongue out and looks at the side of their tongue or a little patch on the inside of your cheek.
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  Those kinds of things can be a sign of other diseases and things that we're very concerned about.
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  Additionally,
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  things like gum disease.
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  A lot of people don't understand that that's a progressive disease that usually doesn't cause any pain.
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  And so as it progresses,
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  you may notice a little bleeding,
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  but you may not notice that you're losing a lot of supporting structure around the teeth.
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  And so those kinds of things are why you need to come in to see a dental professional to make sure that those things are being addressed early and not becoming a chronic problem or unfortunately,
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  sometimes a catastrophic issue with things like cancer uh where we don't want to see that become something that really is detrimental to that individual.
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  So,
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  Doctor Devito,
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  thank you so much for joining us today.
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  I do want to point out to our listeners that you have provided us with a few websites if they want to learn more about the ad a seal or oral health in general or good oral health tips that those will be linked in our show notes so that it's easy for them to follow up for more information.
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  Thank you so much for having me.
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  I,
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  I really appreciate it and I,
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  I hope that your listeners go ahead and,
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  and follow through and take a look at some of those links and please come and see your dentist uh for your care.
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  Well,
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  and I'm just gonna say,
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  as we think about steps that we can take in the new year that the oral health tips seem to be really quick and easy and things that we can implement in our daily lifestyles changes that are easy to make.
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  Yes.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Thank you.
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  Thank you for listening to Kentucky.
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  Smiles on Talking Facts.
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  Our goal is to provide you with knowledge to support your oral health needs.
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  If you have suggestions for future topics,
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  please message us on the UK College of Dentistry Facebook page at facebook dot com forward slash UK Y dentistry or visit our website at UK healthcare dot UK Y dot E D U forward slash dentistry.
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  For more information.