BUT HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT, DEAR FRIENDS AND PATIENTS , WHAT A WONDERFUL GIFT NATURE HAS GIVEN US BY GIVING US , SHORTLY AFTER BIRTH, OUR TEETH?
Each living species has particular teeth, adapted to its feeding aptitudes: super-specialized, super-hard elements. With sharp canines in carnivores, sharp incisors in predators, and well-squared premolars and molars in herbivores.
Man, being omnivorous, has all these characteristics.
Very hard elements, I said, and very durable! Just see how long they last despite all our daily mistreatment, often our excessive disregard of the most basic notes of hygiene. Crucially important elements in nutrition to chop up food in the best way and prepare it for gastric digestion.
Elements of great beauty, distinctive and particular in giving beauty to the whole face, and, to my way of thinking, extremely more beautiful when natural, of the natural color, typical of each individual, and particular in the different breeds, whether white, yellow or black.
How distinctive and glamorous was Whitney Houston at the height of her career? Even for her wonderful teeth!
Retouched? And we understand very well how important they are when, after some years, we lose some or all of them in some cases. We are extremely lucky to have, in Italy but also in the world, particularly good and prepared dentists. Prepared now also in the purely aesthetic as well as functional field.
But how much better our natural teeth would be anyway! Perfect, functional and aesthetic! Why then not do everything we can to keep them healthy and beautiful? Shouldn’t that be one of our main interests?
This is the reason that prompted me to make this brief excursus to remind everyone of the great importance of teeth, both aesthetically and functionally, although I am not a dentist for sure, but attentive to all the details of the human body as a physician!
And the very first way to keep our teeth healthy, remains thorough cleaning when we get them dirty, exactly as we would do with our hands! My dear friend and colleague Mammoth as I call him, dentist for 40 years Gigi Limardo, from Lodi, and my brother-in-law, also a dentist for many years, are always teaching me and videotaping me on how to brush my teeth and how to floss.
This is not the easiest thing: you have to put in a little effort to learn. On how to hold your fingers with the floss, on how to pass it between the teeth to remove that dental plaque that then becomes tartar and inflames the gums, creating more and more empty pockets where germs accumulate, creating the dramatic problems we all know.
When? But of course every day!
Obviously after you have soiled your teeth, especially if you have eaten sugary foods! Immediately a quick rinse, but as soon as possible a passage with the toothbrush with a careful movement from the bottom to the top and opposite, from the gum to the tooth, also on the inside, on the lingual side and especially for molars, teeth a little far away and more difficult to clean and which suffer a lot from the accumulation of plaque, accumulation of germs and bacteria!
Then you have to floss, of utmost importance!
But how many of you use it correctly? As with anything, you have to learn and you have to put effort into it! Roll it between your two hands on your index fingers and carefully pass it between tooth and tooth right from the true base under the dental papilla in an anchor motion from the base of the tooth to the apex, cleaning especially the part under that small gum margin where the toothbrush struggles to reach.
So in conclusion, if you see easy bleeding, swollen gums, if you have unattractive breath, it could be the beginning of the end of your in your teeth. Know that this often happens after years of neglect, after years of plaque never removed and tartar. You need to think about this when your teeth are healthy. When they start moving it is too late!
Final recommendations
- Visit your dentist regularly and ask him or her for advice
- Brush your teeth thoroughly after eating, but whenever they have been soiled, just as you would your hands!
- Learn to floss well. Put effort into it, and you will see that it will become a natural and very fast movement.
- Teach it well to your children and grandchildren. Like all things if learned at a young age they remain executed perfectly well, without flaw!