Dental Blog - One Smile Oral Care

Taking good care of your teeth while wearing Invisalign in Kings Hill

Choosing Invisalign to straighten your teeth and bite is a wise decision. Not only are the aligners easy to use and comfortable to wear, but also you can take good care of your teeth and gums. Unlike regular braces which are difficult to clean properly and maintain, Invisalign aligners can be removed in case you want to brush or floss your teeth. This way you can always stay on top of your oral hygiene game.

At One Smile Oral Care, we offer Invisalign in Kings Hill and we can show you how easy is to take good care of your teeth when you are wearing your aligners. Following a few simple steps will ensure that your aligners will remain clean and effective.

Don’t eat with your aligners

One of the biggest differences between Invisalign and traditional braces is that Invisalign aligners can be taken out. However, you can’t keep your aligners out of your mouth for more than 4 hours per day as this can hinder the successful completion of your treatment. Only remove your aligners when you want to eat or drink – but it’s ok to have them on when you drink water. With Invisalign in Kings Hill you don’t have to change your oral hygiene routine – simply remove the aligners every time you want to eat and re-insert them into your mouth after cleaning your teeth.

Don’t forget to brush your teeth

At One Smile Oral Care, we recommend brushing your teeth at least twice a day while undergoing treatment for Invisalign in Kings Hill. However, ideally, you should rinse your mouth every time you eat or drink something so that your aligners won’t stain over time. Rinsing with water should do the trick.

Don’t leave your aligners dirty

Last but not least, it is equally important to clean your aligners so that bacteria do not survive on them. You can clean them either with lukewarm water or with a special cleaning solution (Invisalign has a branded one but you can also use a gentle denture cleaner).

If you are interested in Invisalign in Kings Hill and you would like to see if you can be a good candidate for this innovative teeth straightening treatment, call us today.

Learn the basics of children’s braces in Kings Hill

While some children can’t wait to have their braces fitted, others worry that they won’t feel or look good. At One Smile Oral Care, we advise parents to bring their children to the dentist early on, since structural tooth problems can develop into more serious conditions as they age. After all, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

As parents, it’s natural to have concerns of your own about braces in Kings Hill and how your children will adapt to them. To learn more, book a consultation appointment and don’t be shy with your questions. Here’s a basic introduction to children and braces in Kings Hill.

Why do children need braces?

Children may need braces for a number of reasons – whether genetic or other. If you suspect that your children have crooked, overcrowded, overlapping or gapped teeth, then it’s time to pay a visit to the dentist. A lot of children may also need braces to fix jaw problems. For instance, when the upper jaw is bigger than the lower jaw, problems with chewing and speaking can occur.

Tooth and jaw problems are caused by baby bottle tooth decay, accidents or bad habits such as thumb sucking. However, some children may be genetically predisposed to certain alignment and bite problems. Whatever the problem, chances are that braces can help fix it. The earlier your child starts a teeth straightening treatment with braces in Kings Hill, the better, since their teeth are constantly developing and it’s easier to manoeuvre their jaw into its correct position.

Their first visit to the dentist for braces

During a teeth alignment consultation, the dentist will examine your child’s teeth, mouth and jaw thoroughly to determine whether there is a problem. The dentist may take x-rays to see the extent of the problem, or may even take impressions of your children’s teeth. These examinations will help them determine what’s the best course of treatment for their misaligned teeth and/or dispositioned bites. Metal braces can correct so many types of problem and they are usually the best option for young children and teenagers. How long your child will need to wear them depends on their individual problem and your dentist’s recommendation.

Know more about cosmetic dentistry in Kings Hill

Modern cosmetic dentistry is constantly inventing new ways to improve peoples’ smiles. However, not many people fully appreciate how much their cosmetic dentist can do to improve their smile and oral health.

At One Smile Oral Care, we are dedicated to improving your smile and for this reason, we employ various cosmetic dentistry procedures that help improve the health and appearance of your teeth. Here are some things you may not know about cosmetic dentistry in Kings Hill.

Cosmetic dentistry is not only about aesthetics

Quite a few people believe that cosmetic dentistry is unnecessary, since it concentrates on the cosmetic aspects of teeth. For some individuals, cosmetic dentistry is very expensive, therefore not essential. This could is not necessarily true. Modern cosmetic dentistry treatments are increasingly affordable and offer many health benefits compared to the standard cosmetic ones.

Chipped, cracked and damaged teeth, are more susceptible to decay. Eventually, if they are left untreated the risk for gum disease increases dramatically. Fixing problem teeth with fillings, dental veneers or dental implants greatly reduces the risk gum disease and other serious oral health problems.

At the same time, misaligned teeth can cause severe headaches. Not to mention that they are very difficult to clean, accumulating dental plaque and bacteria over time. Straight teeth are easier to clean and remain healthy for longer.

Dental veneers are a viable alternative to braces

People with moderately crooked or gapped teeth may think that braces are the only solution to their problem. However, dental veneers are often viable alternatives to braces. This is because they are minimally invasive, considerably less expensive and can be fixed in as little as one dental appointment. Unlike braces, dental veneers do not require adjustments and are entirely painless.

Dental implants are completed in two stages

Most people considering dental implants don’t know that the procedure involves two steps. During the implant operation, the dental implants are fixed into the jawbone with the aid of titanium posts. These are fixed into the jawbone and will eventually support the dental implants, which can take the form of crowns, bridges or even dentures.

Interested in cosmetic dentistry in Kings Hill? Give us a call to learn more.

Are bottles and pacifiers harmful to baby teeth?

If you are a new parent, you probably have enough challenges to face already without the potentially controversial topic of oral care of your little one adding to your stress levels. However, we think you need to know that, while some well-meaning friends and family will advise you to use bottles and pacifiers, newer dental research suggests that babies who cling on their bottles and pacifier for a long period of time are more likely to develop cavities.

Milk is the primary source of nutrition for all babies, especially during their first year. At One Smile Oral Care, we know that the use of bottles can adversely affect a child’s oral health, yet not using them altogether is not a solution. Your dentist in Kings Hill will give you advice on how to use bottles and pacifiers, ensuring that your child’s teeth remain healthy and strong.

Encouraging good habits with the bottle

Most dentists agree that children should not be fed from a bottle once it is no longer necessary for their nutrition. Deciding when to quit is different for each child and if you feel overwhelmed you can discuss it with your dentist in Kings Hill. To ensure that your child is not going to have any problems while using a bottle, do not allow them to take a bottle to bed with them during the night. Sipping from a bottle creates a pool of bacteria around their teeth and gums that leads to tooth decay. Even if you clean their teeth carefully in the morning, some damage may have already been done. If you notice white lines and spots on your child’s teeth, arrange an appointment with your dentist in Kings Hill immediately.

Pacifiers can also cause dental issues

Pacifiers are very convenient during the few months after birth, keeping babies calm and giving parents some peace. However, many children and parents abuse pacifiers. It is really important to understand that once wearing a pacifier becomes a habit, children cannot quit this habit easily. Unfortunately, the long-term use of a pacifier can cause the front teeth to become misaligned. Moreover, pacifiers should never be covered in sugar or honey because they can cause gum disease.

Yes, you can get straight teeth without looking odd

Ask anyone if they’d like to get their wonky teeth straightened and they’re almost bound to say yes. Ask them if they’re prepared to go through a few months of looking odd because they’ve got braces on their teeth and it’s surprising how many say no. People are very sensitive to how their teeth look and wearing braces as an adult is not something many are willing to do. It’s understandable really. Braces are indelibly associated with being an adolescent; not a look a career-minded adult is after. However, there is a way round this conundrum and we have it here at One Smile Oral Care in Kings Hill: Invisalign.

You may never have seen people wearing Invisalign in Kings Hill. That’s because this way of straightening teeth is so discreet as to be as good as invisible. Hence the name: Invisible Alignment.

Why so hard to see?

Invisalign is different from traditional brackets and wires fixed onto the front of the teeth. These devices look more like ultra-thin mouth guards when you hold them in your hand. They hug the teeth very snugly, coming all the way up to the gum line and because the plastic is so thin, only 0.3mm, once they are in situ, they are very hard to spot. They also don’t interfere with speech or with eating.

Why so easy to eat?

That’s the other big plus with Invisalign in Kings Hill. These devices come out. In fact, you have to take them out to eat food and drink anything that is not plain water. If you didn’t, the plastic would become discoloured and therefore visible over your teeth. This means that you can eat whatever you want without having to worry about picking food out from behind brackets and wires, or indeed, breaking your device. Then you just brush your teeth and put the aligner back in. As long as you wear your aligners for at least 20 hours a day, you will stay on track with your treatment.

Why not book a free consultation with us at One Smile Oral Care to find out more about Invisalign in Kings Hill?

Will your child need braces in Kings Hill?

Having straight teeth not only looks great but it makes it easier for people to keep them clean. Being able to easily clean the plaque off teeth makes them far less prone to tooth decay and gum disease and therefore they tend to last longer. These days, dentistry is all about helping you find ways to keep your natural teeth for life, and one way to do that is to make them easy to keep clean. So, if you’d like to give the gift of teeth for life to your child, you need to make sure they have straight teeth.

Unfortunately, wearing braces in Kings Hill has tended to coincide with the onset of puberty, which is well known as the time when kids tend to suffer from the most excruciating self-consciousness. Having to suffer the taunts that teens can throw at each other can be a nightmare for many kids, especially in these times of cyber-bullying on social media. Wouldn’t it be great if your child could get their braces treatment out of the way before all that teen stuff sets in? Well, they can, if you bring them along to One Smile Oral Care.

Here at One Smile Oral Care, our braces dentist is Yasmin George. She is a great believer in assessing children for braces in Kings Hill early. Early treatment can help the face develop properly. If teeth are crowded, having them straightened out can mean that your child develops a broad jaw, which is what is wanted.

Yasmin George can assess children for braces in Kings Hill from as early as 5 years old, thanks to advances in dental technology which mean that we can now look inside the jawbone to see how the adult teeth are lining up behind the baby teeth. Bring your child along for an assessment before they are 7 years old, and we can make sure they get the treatment they need to get a properly developed face and jaw. Changing the shape of the jaw can only happen when your child is under the age of 18, before the bone sets hard. The earlier this treatment is carried out, the more plastic and malleable the jawbone is.

Ways to make your smile even more lovely

There is no accessory as good at making you look wonderful as a great smile. It’s classic, it’s timeless and you wear it every day, all day. So, if your smile is not looking its best, maybe now is the time to ask friends and family for a new one for Christmas.

Here at One Smile Oral Care, we love seeing how cosmetic dentistry in Kings Hill can upgrade someone’s smile and enhance how they feel about themselves and their life. Smiling is such an important thing to be able to do well and to do so, you need to have teeth worth showing off.

Cosmetic dentistry in Kings Hill can help improve the size, shape, colour and position of your teeth. At One Smile Oral Care, we offer a number of treatments that changes things for the better.

Teeth whitening

Whitening is the most popular treatment when it comes to cosmetic dentistry in Kings Hill and also around the world. We think this is because it is so easy to do and also because it does not alter the shape or structure of your teeth. We use Zoom! whitening here at One Smile Oral Care. We can carry out whitening in around one hour. Zoom! uses hydrogen peroxide gel to gently lift out stains left by tea, coffee, red wine, smoking and highly pigmented foods.

Veneers

Veneers are tiny sheaths of porcelain that we make to cover over imperfections on your teeth. You can use veneers to hide chips, cracks, worn edges, gaps, slight twists and leans and stains that whitening can’t remove. Veneers are also great for making teeth that are too small appear larger. We custom-make veneers to match your teeth, and once they are in place, no one will be able to tell they are not your natural teeth.

Gum contouring

If you have too much gum covering your teeth and making them look shorter than they are, we can carry out cosmetic periodontal surgery to remove the excess tissue. This is done with a laser and there is very little bleeding.

Why not have a consultation to find out how cosmetic dentistry in Kings Hill can brighten up your most important non-verbal communication tool?

You only have one smile

The thing with teeth is that humans only get the one adult set and they have to last us for as long as possible. Back before we started cooking foods and eating sugary things on a regular basis, taking care of teeth might have been very easy. But now we have to contend with a daily onslaught of sugary snacks and drinks, especially when we are children.

So, with only one set of teeth, it’s important to take extra good care of them and part of that is making regular visits to your dentist in Kings Hill at One Smile Oral Care.

Here at One Smile Oral Care, we recommend that everyone visits their dentist in Kings Hill at least twice a year for a check-up. Certain people may need to come more often. We also recommend that everyone gets a session with our hygienist at least twice a year to remove any build-up of plaque.

It’s all about the plaque

Plaque and your teeth, well, they live together, and are locked in a constant battle for survival. You are fighting on the side of your teeth, twice a day spending 2 minutes to remove as much plaque as possible with your toothbrush and floss. The plaque lives in your mouth and it doesn’t mean to harm your teeth, but when it eats the sugars in your food, it gives off acids. It’s the acids that damage teeth, causing holes through which decay-causing bacteria can enter. The acids also irritate and inflame your gums, and then, when they pull away from your teeth, get underneath and start to corrode your tooth roots and jawbone.

Check-ups

During your 6-monthly check-up, the dentist in Kings Hill is looking for early signs of decay and gum disease, as well as for any damage to your teeth. Teeth do wear out, and as you get older, we need to be vigilant in checking how fillings and crowns and other restorations are holding out. If we can catch problems early, we can deal with them before they require extensive and expensive treatments.

Join us in making your teeth last longer, book that check-up today.

More than 4 million people chose Invisalign

When you are about to invest a lot of money in something, you want to know it is going to be money well spent. You need to read reviews, talk to other people who have used that service or product, get a general feel for the thing. And that’s kind of hard when the thing you want to use is invisible. You can’t see how many other people are using it. That’s the trouble with Invisalign in Kings Hill, it’s big selling point is that it’s a way to straighten your teeth without anyone knowing what you are up to.

It’s not like say, an Audi or a Skoda. You see those in the supermarket car park and you can, in theory, go ask their owner all about them as they unload their shopping. With Invisalign, there is bound to be someone you interact with on a casual basis, who is using it, and you will never know. It could be the person at the supermarket check-out. It could be your best mate’s mate that you had a laugh with in the pub the other night. It could be that Skoda driver you just talked to about their car. You will never know because unless they choose to inform you that they are using Invisalign in Kings Hill from us at One Smile Oral Care, you won’t spot it in their mouths.

What is Invisalign?

Invisalign in Kings Hill is a tooth-straightening system made of amazingly thin, clear plastic mouth guard-style aligners that fit over your teeth like a second skin. Once in place, you really can’t see them, they hug the teeth and the gum line so snugly.

Inside each aligner are precision-placed bumps and ridges that press on your teeth to move them into alignment. You wear your invisible aligners for at least 20 hours a day. At first, the pressure from these ridges makes them feel as if they don’t really fit, and they don’t. The pressure moves the teeth over the course of the next 7-10 days, gradually wearing off. Once your aligner seems to fit well, it’s time to move onto the next one in the series.

Things to consider about braces in Kings Hill for your kids

If you are a parent, you will be very keen to make sure that your children have the best breaks when it comes to getting good teeth for life. That means making sure they learn how to brush well and bringing them to us at One Smile Oral Care from an early age so that six-monthly check-ups become a lifelong habit.

We can also help protect your children’s teeth against decay with treatments to harden their enamel and also to create a barrier on the back teeth, which are the ones mostly likely to get dental decay.

So that’s decay taken care of, but what about alignment? Having teeth and jaws that line up well against each other is essential for several reasons. Let’s explain the benefits of braces in Kings Hill by looking at what happens to people who need braces but don’t have them, ie. looking at the negatives.

What happens when you don’t get the braces you need:

More decay and gum disease

Decay and gum disease are both caused by the acids that bacterial plaque gives off. The bacteria love to hide out and proliferate in the nooks and crannies in the mouth, so if you have wonky teeth, they will be building up in all the places it’s hard to reach with your toothbrush. Thus, having wonky teeth increases the chances of early tooth loss from decay and gum disease.

Crumbling away

When only a few teeth are taking all the strain from eating instead of the powerful forces created by chewing being spread out evenly around each arch, those teeth will probably start to split and crumble after a few decades. The world of replacement teeth is a series of choices between expense and efficiency.

Pain

If your teeth or jaws don’t fit together properly it can lead to a lot of unnecessary pain. People find their teeth ache from grinding at night, their jaw joints start to play up, they get headaches, neck aches, shoulder and back aches. Living in pain is debilitating.

The way to avoid all this is to bring your child in for a consultation for braces in Kings Hill when they are aged 7 years and upwards.

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