petitefrancaise

I have yet to see ANY independant research showing that an electric brush is any better or worse than using a manual one. Almost all "research" I've seen is somehow influenced by the manufacturers. It just comes down to what you will actually use and which works best in your hands. Just be aware that you do not use an electric toothbrush in the same way as a manual one.

A soft/medium soft manual toothbrush will NOT damage your teeth, even after eating or drinking citrus fruit or even worse - fizzy, sugary drinks or even worse, orange juice. it's the drinks that will do the damage.

Jerseygirl

I feel the opposite. If I use a manual tooth brush my teeth do not feel clean.

uk_grenada

Where did you get the info that strong citric acid wont erode enamel? Because thats cra... Eating a few jungle oranges will make your teeth rough and cause the inside of your mouth - the surface of the gums - and the surface skin of your lips to later fall off in shreds. It does recover if left alone. Less strong fruit and acidicdrinks causes lesser but real temporary issues. My dentist says your saliva carries some calcium back and allows the rough surface to rebuild - just dont further damage things and remove more enamel by brushing it off while still soft.

SanDiegogirl

Yes.... I had cow bone too....... what they can do these days!

SanDiegogirl

Haven't most of us given you this information in various responses.

How to choose an American dentist. Recommendation or trial and error.

SanDiegogirl

Oh yes....... its similar to a gingivectomy

Carried out by a periodontist usually.

Required because of very poor dental hygiene.

dc koop

Why not just have the tooth extracted? If it aches then there's a serious underlying cause and a troublesome tooth doesn't just go away does it? Later on the tooth can be replaced with an implant.

petitefrancaise

I didn't say that.
the citric acid most definitely will cause damage if done frequently enough over a longish period of time.

What I WROTE was that the toothbrushing will make bugger all difference.

petitefrancaise

because implants are not teeth and they fail more often than dentists like to admit. To put it bluntly, implants need really good looking after to succeed/survive and people that need implants have already proven that they can't look after their own teeth.

Whether your own restored tooth is better than an implant is a hotly debated subject even amongst dental professionals. Me? I'd go for the root canal/crown option any day of the week. I've assisted with implant surgery and root canals/crowns and I'd avoid the surgery.

steveq

I ended up losing 4 front upper teeth due to infant number 2 son butting me in the mouth, they were already crowned because I had powerful antibiotics when I was little, and that buggered the development of the enamel on them. The shattered roots on two of them led to a severe infection in my upper jaw.

I had my first tranch of implants done in Belgium by a Surgeon who is also a professor of reconstructive surgery, and did a lot of work with bone replacement adhesives. He rebuilt the damage in my jaw with it, and on subsequent X-rays, the bone has completely regrown. Total cost 600 quid for two.

The last two I had done nearer home, and they cost about 1000 quid each.
My first two have been in place for over 15 years.

petitefrancaise

yep. tetracycline staining amongst our age group. Difficult to cover the brown horizontal staining with the materials available ?20+ years ago.

+1 for having a professor do the surgery for the implants and bone grafting.

You're obviously looking after them really well. Steveq.

But you're not the average implant patient (not caused by neglect) and you obviously didn't have the average dentist doing it.

My family and I have perfect teeth -
no fruit juice in the house
no sugary drinks (I told the kids they didn't like fizzy drinks and it worked until they were about 5 and then they really didn't like fizzy drinks....)
no sweets
very little eating between meals and then cheese
normal toothbrushes
FLOSSING!

scrubbedexpat091

Its not always neglect exactly that cause people to have tooth issues.

Frankly dental care in US and Canada is a luxury and one many cannot afford even with insurance.

Just look at the prices quoted here not exactly affordable.

I would love to have regular dental visits but the cost is beyond my ability to pay for most of my life and and now even with insurance max per year is 750 or so and up to 75% paid out of pocket.

Technically it might be neglect but only due to lack of dental visit due to cost of said visits being beyond the means to pay.

Dental work is a luxury for those with money or a job with superb insurance.

petitefrancaise

Well I worked with special needs kids in France so I can absolutely agree that not all teeth issues are caused by neglect.

Most problems are caused by diet and not brushing/flossing though.

Proven time after time that if a nation's intake of sugar increases then about 2 years later the incidence of dental decay follows the same curve and then about 5? years later, the incidence of type 2 diabetes goes up.

Nutmegger

The “quadrants” are done to correct periodontal pockets around the teeth. It isn’t always poor dental hygiene—I always brushed and rinsed regularly at least twice a day — but flossing is the big essential and I blew it there.

Jerseygirl

Exactly J. My husband has always looked after his teeth...brushes 3 x per day, flosses, 6 monthly check ups...now every 4 months. Unfortunately when he was a child the dentist extracted too many of his teeth...which allowed the rest to become twisted and crooked.

The NHS dentists we used were hopeless and had no idea how to fix the problems and discomfort he was experiencing.

Of course when we moved to the US...the dentists had a field day!! He had root planing, bone grafts, an extraction, braces...then an implant.