5 Shocking Facts About Plaque You Must Know!

What is black? So plaque is that sticky thing. Whenever you get up in the morning and you literally put your finger on your teeth, you feel that sticky layer. That sticky layer is black. Even by the time you go to a pond in the morning walk, you see that there is a sticky substance on a rock that makes you slip. That basically is the biofilms. That is exactly similar to what black is. So biofilms is a mechanism which the bacteria use to make their own igloos. And there's a lot of dead bacteria, there's a lot of food particles, all that mess that is there gets collected. And that's how they make their own straw homes, so called biofilms. And behind the biofilms they feel secure and they thrive. So biofilm on top of biofilm on top of biofilm, that's the way they keep growing. By the morning when you wake up, it really is a, a lot more. If you're sleeping with your mouth open, if you're not a nasal breather, and if you're like sleeping like that and breathing, you're drying your mouth, that means you're helping the bacteria for more plaque. And more plaque means plaque after plaque, after plaque could become tarter. So what is the way you remove it? Daily oral care, hygiene habits, something that you need to do for your own sake. Self care, self care is the most important because the entire body health depends on your oral care. So let me give you the regimens that you have to follow. First of all, choose a good toothbrush. A good toothbrush has to be a soft toothbrush, possibly a compact toothbrush that easily can remove that plaque. Number two, when you brush, you always brush with a toothpaste. And the toothpaste has to be either a fluoride toothpaste. In case you're not comfortable with fluoride, you can use a hydroxyapatite toothpaste like guru Nanda makes one. The fluoride has several variations of fluoride. There could be sodium monofluorophosphate, there could be stannous phosphate, there could be sodium fluoride. I personally feel sodium fluoride is one of the best variations of, of fluoride because it is very close or similar to the sodium chloride, which is common table salt family. Now brush twice a day because as important as it is to brush in the morning, in the evening it is even more important. Number three, if you can afford it, there are certain people who would actually do much better using an electronic toothbrush. Back in the day when the, the monopoly was with Sonicare toothbrushes. It used to be 100 plus. Nowadays there are many options. Guru Nanda makes one too, where you can get a good quality sonic toothbrush for under $20 or under $30. Number two, floss. There is a saying. I don't know who wrote it, but it's true. Floss only the teeth you want to keep. Because when you floss, there is a lot of that biofilms that are in between the teeth. And most of the cavities, don't forget, get formed between the teeth, most of them. The reason is because the biofilms are actually not taken out by plain brushing alone. Brush cannot go between the teeth and those biofilms become a thriving ground for the bad bacteria. And now once you're eating, let's say junk food, processed food, sugar, what happens is these bacteria, especially the streptococcus mutants, the family that is known to cause cavities, they thrive on sugar. They thrive and they produce a lot of acid in return. What happens is acid causes demineralization. So there becomes a little cave, little cavity, little one, and they go inside the cavity and they form their own colony and they thrive even more, even more, even more. And that little cavity becomes a bigger cavity, bigger, bigger, bigger. Till that cave goes all the way till entire root, it penetrates your top enamel, goes into the dentin, and once it reaches there, you have to get drilled and filled. There's no return. So that said, flossing, don't forget, is one of the most important aspect of oral care. And now there are several variations you can floss with. You can use either the old variation of flossing with a tape floss or with a thread floss. Guru Nanda came out with one that is actually a sponge floss that's kind of blows up a little. It fluffs up so it gets more area and it entangles more of the plaque that is lying between the teeth. Now that is one way. The other way is you can use the flosspics. And if you use the flosspic, especially people with dexterity habits love to use flosspex. That's a great way. Number three, you can use interdentals that can go between the teeth. So that's another way. Number four, you can also use electronic floss. That's the last other way of flossing. A novel way, if you can afford it, is water flossers. They again used to be owned the business used to be very monopolized by water pick. And it used to be over $100. Nowadays, they have reduced their price. A lot of other companies, including Guru Nanda, is there where you can buy a good water flosser anywhere below $30. And that is mind blowing for me. If I had to always carry one tool, that would be the one water flosser. So water flossing is an amazing way to flush out all those biofilms that you have already dislodged with the floss. So that said, third practice, which is not common in the United States, is oil pulling. Now, oil pulling is very popular in Ayurveda oil pilling. What it does, it, it loosens those biofilms. It loosens the biofilms. And oil by its nature traps the bacteria. It's sticky, it traps it, the bacteria. Their outer membrane is also lipid. So lipid attracts. Lipid like, attracts like. You have heard of that theory. So that way that bacteria that is actually causing the cavities gets trapped and debris gets trapped. The bad stuff in your mouth gets trapped. Number two, when you brush, you can actually flush out all the biofilms much more easier. So oil polar is another third way to ensure that there is a way to remove plaque. Number four is healthy diet. If you're eating junk food, nothing that you do would matter. You have to eat a healthy diet, which includes fruits and vegetables. And apart from the healthy diet, you also ensure that you're not snacking all the time. If you're snacking all the time, you're ensuring that that bacteria keeps coming. Even if you eat something, you have to go wash your mouth thoroughly with plain water. And if you have a little pinch of salt, that would even be better. Lukewarm water works even better. And if you have a mouthwash like Guru Nanda has one called concentrated mouthwash, you can put a couple of drops of that. That will make your breath fresh as well. Nothing like processed food and sugar is ever going to help you. So if you're eating that, try to stop it right away. If you can't, then make sure you're taking care of your oral health after eating that. Dentist. Visiting a dentist is the most important thing. Every six month you have to visit your dentist. Because when you visit your dentist, there always could be situations where you're night breathing, where you're grinding, you're doing something that this plaque is actually hardened up and calculus is formed, which is also called tartar. Now, this calculus can create bigger problems. When you go to the dentist, the hygienist would probably end up giving you a total mouth clean. They'll have to break it with their instruments. And once that is gone, because that won't go away with just plain brushing and flossing. So you have to go to a dentist to get that cleaning. Plus the dentist would maybe a yearly or buy yearly, take an X ray as needed upon your particular mouth health. And when they do the X ray, they can see if there is anything systemic going on. Because don't ever take gum disease not seriously. Because there's tons of cases where people ignore mouth health. There is a gum disease and that can end up causing even infections that can go into your blood, reach your heart, cause sepsis and even cause death in certain instances. So you want to be very alert. If there is a little smoke, you want to make sure there is no fire. So going to a dentist cannot, cannot be ignored. It is very important. The next thing to ensure that there is no plaque is chewing a gum, especially the gum with xylitol. And that's always sugar free. So if you chew that, especially after you eat lunch or dinner or snack, wash your mouth and chew one of the xylitol gums. It's amazing. It changes your mouth health. Because the xylitol gum, what it does is the xylitol is a kind of sugar alcohol that the bad bacteria love to eat. But most of the bad bacteria can't thrive on it. They can't thrive, they can't metabolize it and they end up dying. So what happens is you're left with a much better microbiome. Xylitol also helps with salivary production because it's stimulates the salivary glands. And the result is the saliva is a fluid that is gushed with lots of good minerals, hundreds of minerals that are going to remineralize your teeth. They are better than any remineralizing toothpaste. In case you are using hydroxyapatite, which we produce in guru Nanda brand or any fluoride toothpaste. Nothing compares to your own good healthy skill. Saliva. Having a healthy saliva is very important. And having exercising well, eating the right kind of foods, living a good lifestyle, meditating, having a good sleep, sleeping with mouth open, nasal breathing, all these things also help with healthy saliva means less plaque. Saliva not only goes and dissolves all those acids, dilutes them, it also remineralizes. It does a double whammy. The best thing for you is a healthy saliva. Some people use dental tools. They are optional. You have to always ask your dentist before you use any kind of dental tool. And apart from all of the things that I told you, the number one and the most important thing is avoid smoking. Avoid smoking. Smoking is not only injurious to your heart health, it's injurious to other problems. It's very injurious to your mouth, it causes dry mouth, it messes up the blood flow in your gums, it and your mouth and ultimately you'll get start getting lots of disease, not just your gum diseases, your teeth will start to rot and just stream that's going down. So I would tell you to avoid smoking at every cost. All that said, a couple of things that most people ignore is when you drink a cup of coffee, always remember coffee is acidic. So drink it in one go in like next 15 minutes and go wash your mouth or xylitol chewing gum, but don't leave it alone. If you're drinking a glass of wine, drink it in 15, 20 minutes. Don't keep sipping it for the next five hours. Same thing with coffee. Like I've seen a lot of people carrying a coffee mug with them. Everywhere they go, they have a coffee mug. They're probably sipping it all throughout the day. That is a big recipe for getting mouth disease. Because coffee causes not only dryness, the acidity will cause erosion of your enamel, which can lead to lots of other problems of your mouth. So I hope I was helpful. Watch out my other videos that I've been doing and if you haven't yet subscribed, please subscribe to my channel. Please share and this will really incite me to keep bringing you good content week after week after week. Thank you.