Dr Bhavin Bhuva of Blue Sky Dental offers some advice for patients in this situation.

As the summer is finally here, many of our Chelmsford patients will be flying off to warmer countries for their family holiday. Most will go through their holiday with no dental problems, of course, but they can strike, and when they do can really spoil your holiday.

With your own Chelmsford dentist so far away, what should you do if this happens to you?

There are many permutations of dental issues that could potentially strike, but in today’s blog, we take a look at some of the more common scenarios.

UK holidays

Whatever the dental issue is, if you are on holiday in the UK, you should be able to find a local dentist that will examine you and recommend the best course of action to take. For minor instances of tooth decay, a small filling may be given for example. For more complex issues, they may offer a temporary treatment to relieve your discomfort and recommend that you see your own dentist. In fact, depending on where you are holidaying, it might be worth considering returning to see your own dentist. If you call our receptionist, we will do our best to see you as quickly as we can so that you can return to your holiday afterwards.

Holidays abroad

It can be worrying when you have a toothache or damage a tooth when you are abroad, especially in the more remote parts of the world. In a European country, you should be able to find a dentist to treat you, perhaps with a little help from local people. Where the treatment required is not too significant, this should be relatively straightforward and not a major concern. Where the problem is more complex, or when you are in a less developed country and are reluctant to trust their health system, this does pose problems. A bad toothache or a broken tooth can really spoil a holiday and you may spend the rest of it wishing your time away so that you can be treated.

Whilst prompt professional treatment is usually the best choice, for those who are unable, or unwilling, to access this, there are a few options available to help you get through the rest of your holiday.

Be prepared

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How to help avoid this common dental problem.

Gum recession is quite a common problem, especially amongst older Chelmsford patients.

It is one of the side effects of growing older, although it can also happen to younger people too if they don’t look after their oral health correctly. Unlike say, our knees, where skin will grow back if we fall and cut or graze them, once our gums have receded, they will not grow back.

There are two key issues with this. Firstly, an aesthetic one. As the gums recede, they expose more of the teeth and can make your teeth look longer than they are. This can have a ‘horses teeth’ effect and is probably where the saying ‘long in the tooth’ comes from, where it applies to older patients.

The second issue can have more serious consequences. As the gums recede, the root of the tooth that is exposed, is less well protected than the enamelled part of the tooth which shows above the gum line. As the root is not protected by enamel, the risk of tooth decay and sensitivity is much higher.

What causes receding gums?

This is a problem that we see at Blue Sky Dental from time-to-time. It has a number of potential causes, some of which can be avoided, whilst others less so. The following are some of the main reasons why people suffer from receding gums.

Ageing

First of all, let us start with three reasons that we have no real control over. Getting older means that things start to change with our bodies. We may pay little attention to our gums amongst the aches and pains and wrinkles that are commonly more pronounced as we get older, but recede they do. All that we can really do at this stage is to take care of our teeth well so that the risk of tooth decay is minimised.

Family genes

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Your local dentist offers some timely advice for Chelmsford patients.

Much dental care is simply common sense. Most of us know that whatever we eat, we need to keep our teeth clean, as residual sugars, acids and bacterial build-up will soon start to destroy our teeth if we don’t.

Sometimes though, even simple advice can get lost in the storm of information that we are bombarded with each day of our lives.

Dental care is very important though, and we offer some essential tips for our patients which will hopefully help them to keep their teeth and gums in good health for many years to come.

Clean your teeth well

We don’t want to cover old ground too much on this one, but it is the most essential thing that you can do to keep your teeth healthy. Make sure to brush your teeth both morning and last thing at night for at least 2 minutes using a toothpaste that contains fluoride. Don’t spit afterwards so that the fluoride comes into contact with your teeth for a longer period of time. Also, make sure to use dental floss to clean the areas between your teeth. For further advice on how to improve the way that you do this, we recommend that you arrange an appointment with the hygienist at Blue Sky Dental.

Act quickly if you suspect there is a problem

Few people enjoy having dental treatment and this can lead to some putting off a visit, especially where they suspect there might be a problem. Whilst most people will keep their regular check up appointments, they may defer making an additional one when they have minor discomfort in a tooth or have noticed some inflammation or other relatively ‘minor’ issue.

Although this might be understandable, to do so would be a very bad move. In almost all circumstances, any ‘minor’ dental problems that arise will get worse if they are not treated. Especially if you are a nervous dental patient, it is to your benefit to have any treatment done as soon as possible. A problem such as a small throbbing sensation in a tooth may indicate that decay is present. If you act quickly, this may well be rectified with a simple filling. However, if you leave it for any length of time, the decay will spread and you will need to have a larger filling at best, and possibly even a root canal procedure or extraction. If you suspect anything is wrong, see one of our Chelmsford dental team as soon as you can!

Avoid dental fads

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Our Chelmsford children’s dentist looks at this basic, but important, piece of dental care equipment.

As a parent, there are many things that we have to teach our children, almost from the moment that they are born.

It is widely believed that children learn much about the world around them within the first few years of their life, refining this as they grow up.

Because of this, it is important that we enable them to understand the importance of looking after their teeth from an early age. Some of this is within our immediate control, such as making sure that they don’t eat too many sweets, but some will depend on them learning good habits from their parents.

One essential area which we can teach them as soon as possible, is how to clean their teeth well in the morning and at night. Whilst young children should be supervised until we are sure that they are doing this correctly and efficiently, it is good to encourage them to take the bulk of responsibility as early as is practical.

Baby gums and bacteria

Before we look at buying a toothbrush, parents should be aware that, even before they have any teeth, oral care is important. Whether being breast or bottle fed, bacteria will accumulate on the baby’s gums and these should be cleaned, after feeding, with a clean damp cloth. Once the first set of teeth come through though, it will be necessary to buy a toothbrush for them, in order to keep their teeth clean and healthy.

Below, the children’s dentist at Blue Sky Dental offers some thoughts for parents with children approaching this age.

What toothbrush to buy for young children

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Our Chelmsford dental team offers their advice on patient co-operation.

Dentists and their teams are highly skilled people. Not only have most spent many years at university, studying to enter the profession, but many also go on to do extra years of intense study in order to be able to carry out more complex procedures such as dental implant placement and endodontic care.

Contrary to the opinion of some, we don’t actually enjoy having to perform sometimes uncomfortable procedures, and like a doctor would, we would much rather that patients look after their teeth so that these procedures become almost redundant. Sadly, in this high sugar diet world, the likelihood of that happening is probably a long way off. There are though, many things that patients can do to help us, and in turn, help themselves.

General care

The most obvious thing that you can do is to take responsibility for your own oral health. This is a topic that we have covered previously, but essentially, and briefly, means eating a sensible tooth friendly diet and brushing your teeth effectively twice a day. Also using dental floss at the end of the day for better gum health and making sure that you receive regular professional care at Blue Sky Dental.

In addition to the essentials above, there are a number of things which will enable us to take good care of you when you visit our Chelmsford practice.

Please keep your appointment

We understand that there may be occasions when you need to cancel an appointment for a genuine reason. All we ask are two things. Firstly, do make sure that you re-arrange, preferably at the same time that you cancel. If you intend to do so a little later, there is always a chance that you may forget, or simply not get around to it.

Secondly, if you need to cancel and re-arrange an appointment, please give us a minimum notice of 48 hours wherever this is possible. This will allow us to fill that spot, possibly with someone who is in real pain with a toothache. We know that you would want a fast appointment if you were in this situation, so please be considerate and help others who may be too.

Arrive on time for your appointment

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