Parents are usually very attentive to the care of their babies’ teeth: they track the appearance of the first teeth, their change, and help children brush their teeth. Teenagers receive much less attention, although this is also important for them – proper care will ensure dental health in adulthood.

I will tell you how to properly care for the teeth of adolescents.

Choose the right toothbrush

Taking care of dental health always starts with choosing a toothbrush, because it is the main tool of daily care. When choosing a brush for a teenager, it is especially important to pay attention to the type of bristles.

Soft bristles are suitable for teenagers with gum disease, bleeding gums and high sensitivity of the teeth. Medium – the best choice, suitable for almost all adolescents without problems with gums and teeth. Hard bristles are only suitable for teenagers with strong gums and increased plaque formation that cannot be removed by medium-hard bristles.

When choosing a brush, it is important to pay attention to the type of bristles. A brush that combines several types of bristles will be most effective: the long bristles along the edges actively clean the areas around the gums, and the shortened ones in the middle – the chewing surface of the teeth.

If a teenager needs additional strengthening of teeth or remineralization of enamel, it is worth buying a brush with additional substances, such as calcium, added to the bristles. Good for cleaning teeth and brushes with bamboo charcoal.

If a teenager develops plaque on his teeth and cannot be removed with an ordinary brush, I recommend buying an electric or ultrasonic brush, which is more effective than usual to deal with plaque.

Consider the peculiarities of oral health when choosing a paste

In stores you can find a large number of pastes: fluoride and fluoride free, antibacterial and whitening, anti-caries and anti-odor, for hypersensitive teeth and for gums that need special care. There are separate pastes for those who wear braces.

Many are wrongly afraid of fluoride in the paste. Fluoride is completely safe for humans and their teeth in low concentrations. Fluoride pastes strengthen teeth, but may indeed be contraindicated in some dental diseases. For example, some teens have fluorosis, a dental disease that is caused by excess fluoride. They need a fluoride-free paste. It can be replaced by a substance theobromine, which is obtained from cocoa beans.

Floss gaps

Floss, or dental floss, helps remove plaque and food debris from the interdental spaces where the bristles cannot reach. It is imperative to use the thread for both adolescents and adults so that plaque and food debris do not provoke the development of caries and inflammation of the gums.

There are also flossers — small cleaning devices with a taut thread. It is easier to use them: you do not need to wind and fasten the thread on your fingers. They are more expensive than regular floss packs, but they are excellent at cleaning dental gaps.

Flush the interdental spaces with an irrigator

An irrigator is a device for home use that delivers a thin stream of water under pressure of various strengths, which cleans the teeth and interdental spaces. It can and should be used not only for adolescents, but also for adults. It is especially important for those who wear braces, because without its help it is almost impossible to clean teeth properly.

Irrigators are available in the form of a large “station” for the whole family with 4-6 different nozzles, and in the form of small compact devices for individual use. A teenager is likely to do just that.

Use mouth rinses and balms after brushing your teeth

After all hygiene procedures, rinse your mouth with mouthwash or balm. The mouthwash will soothe the gums, reduce the sensitivity of the teeth, kill the remaining bacteria, and help get rid of bad breath.

It is important to understand that a rinse aid is the final stage of hygiene procedures, which cannot replace a complete cleaning.

For many people, going to the dentist has turned into obsessive fear. At one thought, the heart begins to beat faster and the specific smell of drugs seems. This is a subconscious reaction that became entrenched in adults during a period when there were no good painkillers and methods of dental treatment were rather primitive. 

To understand how not to be afraid of the dentist and overcome the fear of a visit, you need to seek advice from a psychologist or look for an answer yourself, replacing negative impressions with positive ones by visiting a modern, well-equipped clinic.

WHAT IS DENTOPHOBIA

Toothache is considered one of the most severe and it is impossible to cope with it without a doctor. Delaying the trip to the dentist, a person often only aggravates the situation.

Dentophobia is the fear of contact with the dentist and the very visit to the dental office. The most common cause of phobia is emotional upheaval. At the same time, any, the most innocuous procedure, causes a subconscious reaction, manifested by somatic disorders, up to loss of consciousness. Abstract advice on how to stop being afraid of dentists and overcome fear will not help in this case. We’ll have to identify the species, the source of the fear and deal with it purposefully.

TYPES OF DENTOPHOBIA

There are 3 options, depending on the occurrence and symptoms:

• Congenital. The rarest and most difficult to correct. It is based on a general fear of medical procedures, from examination to testing.

• Acquired. It is observed in most people who have a negative experience in the treatment and extraction of teeth. The violation lends itself to therapy, but first you have to understand the causes of the appearance of the phobia and understand how to overcome the fear of the dentist – on your own or with the help of a psychologist.

• Imaginary fear is more common in children. They have never been to a doctor, but they have come up with many horror stories about this, which they themselves are afraid of. But this problem is the easiest to fix. It is enough to visit a qualified specialist in a relaxed atmosphere with your parents. In adults, an imaginary phobia develops with prolonged non-attendance at dentistry.

POSSIBLE CAUSES OF FEAR

Many begin to give different advice, hearing from friends the phrase “I’m afraid of the dentist and dentists in general, but I don’t know what to do.” They are correct in the general direction, but do not take into account the specifics of the origin of fear. To successfully overcome it, it is required to find the prerequisites for its appearance. Most often they are:

• high sensitivity of the oral cavity to any manipulation, leading to a subconscious expectation of severe pain;
• a recent negative experience with a doctor visit;
• panic attacks regularly occurring in a person against the background of a labile nervous system or in case of hormonal imbalance;
• gag reflex at the sight of dental instruments;
• irrational fear of contracting an infection through mirrors and probes;
• fear of the need for course treatment;
• child psychological trauma.

SIGNS THAT YOU ARE AFRAID OF A DENTIST

Regardless of the form of dentophobia, the symptoms are almost the same. The main ones are reflex muscle tension, increased sweating, increased heart rate when the clinic is mentioned or the need for examination by a doctor. Depending on the individual characteristics of the psyche, there are dilated pupils for no apparent reason, slight tremors of the extremities, diarrhea, surges in blood pressure, intestinal colic.

When a specialist approaches, unmotivated aggression, vomiting, and refusal of any contact may appear. With the awareness of relative helplessness before the need for examination, a pre-fainting state sets in, turning into a full-fledged fainting, accompanied by severe headaches.

You will need to give a person the skills of psychological self-regulation to relieve stress. There are many ways, the main thing is to choose an effective one and test it in practice, getting rid of a negative reaction.

HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR FEAR OF THE DENTIST

Dentophobia refers to painful conditions. A person is really bad on a physical level and persuasion is indispensable here. The earlier the problem is recognized, the more successful and faster the condition will be corrected. It is recommended to use a combined approach, where medication support at the level of sedatives is combined with other methods of stabilizing mental balance.

But remember that the use of any medication should be supervised by a doctor.

• Peoples council
• Psychological attitude
• Breathing techniques to relieve stress.