Dr. Patel Debunks Dental Myths

Hi, I'm Dr. Ricky Patel from the Boutique for Cosmetic Dentistry, and today I will be debunking some dental myths. Patients will often ask, "Is flossing necessary? I thought you didn't have to do it." Well, the truth is flossing actually helps greatly in improving your oral hygiene. Teeth are actually really tight together and the toothbrush just can't get in between those teeth to help clean them. So, when the toothbrush doesn't get in there, decay starts to form, gum starts to get puffy and they start to bleed. So, one way to help reduce that significantly is getting that floss in between all those teeth. So that way, no plaque, and no bacteria form and build up in between the teeth.

The second myth is, white teeth are healthy teeth. Now, although white teeth can look very beautiful and very clean, it's not always true that they're healthy. There's oftentimes where cavities are formed between the teeth or the foundation itself, the bone, the gums are not healthy, they'll bleed and won't be healthy enough to support those white teeth. So, although teeth that are white can look very nice, it's very important to still get a dental exam so that way we can evaluate all the gum tissue. Because there may be cavities hiding underneath these pretty pearly whites.

And our last myth is, charcoal toothpaste is better than regular toothpaste. Now, although charcoal toothpaste can make teeth look really white really quickly, the drawback is, it's a very abrasive toothpaste and what it's doing is removing a lot of the same from the teeth, that's also removing small amounts of tooth structure. So, with continued use, it can actually cause more damage long-term.

Thanks for watching, everyone. And I'm Dr. Rick Patel, if you have any questions or any concerns, feel free to drop in and we're happy to answer those questions for you.