 Hello everybody, Andrea Mayesky here. So what do some people have their teeth cleaned every three months, others every four months, others every six months, and I even tell some patients that once a year is okay. So it does depend on your mouth and your oral hygiene. So if you're that person where you brush once a day and your hygienist tells you, oh, things actually look pretty good. You know, lucky you. If we, if you brush three times a day and your hygienist tells you, oh, wow, you have six cavities. Your mouth needs a little more, more help. Okay, so I just kind of want to show you guys a couple things. So this is a tool that I like to use for my patients. So I am going to show you guys on this side just because it's a little bit easier to look at. Okay, so healthy is when the gum is coming up to the neck of the tooth like this. So I tell patients, it's kind of like a turtleneck. You want the turtleneck to be up against your neck. If it's too, I guess, loose, well, that's not really a good turtleneck, right? So if the gums are loose against the tooth, that is not healthy. If that happens, then it tends to shrink away a little bit. Let me grab a pen or a pencil or something for you guys. Okay. Oh, here it is. There we go. So do you guys see this little here? I'll put it up here. Do you guys see this little like black area at the bottom there? That is tartar, okay? So sorry, you guys can't really see me, but that's okay. So that's tartar. And you guys see this yellowy like white area here? That is tartar too. So what's happening is if that tartar and plaque is there too long and not being taken off by your toothbrush and then having your teeth cleaned because your toothbrush can only take away plaque. When plaque becomes hard and forms tartar, your toothbrush cannot take it off. No matter how hard you try, you have to get your teeth cleaned for our instruments to actually take that tartar off. But if you leave that alone and don't have your teeth cleaned, that tartar starts to go even lower and then it turns black. I've seen it. Black, brown, not a good thing. Tartar harbors a lot of bacteria. So you don't want that bacteria sitting there in your mouth. That is when somebody might say to you, your breath is kind of bad. You want some gum or, oh, did you not brush your teeth today? You can kind of smell your breath a little bit. That's bacteria, you guys. Not healthy at all. Your toothbrush can't take that off. But let's just say, you still say, oh, you know, things don't look too, too bad. It will quickly turn into this, where see how the gum is nice and high up here. Here, I'll just kind of move that. Sorry, guys. You see how the gum is nice and high up here and here? Okay. Here. And then the gum becomes lower. And then look how low it is now, you guys. So this is the tartar and then it is now turning black. Look how low the gum is. Imagine how that looks inside the mouth. Not good. But the good news is, even if the gums look like this, book an appointment with your dental hygienist to get your teeth cleaned, because we can make this much healthier even up to here, up to here, in some cases, if you hurry up and have your teeth cleaned, because we have to take away this tartar here and here. And then your gum, it starts to become healthier and push up so that it can look a lot better like this. And hopefully, if we have caught it early enough, like this. But if you still don't have it looked at, it can become like this. So look at how low it is here, you guys. That's low. And your tooth, you can see the root of your tooth. This tooth, sorry, this tooth, this will start to become loose. Once your teeth become loose, I hate to say it, but there's not much we can do to make it better because the tooth is now loose. We can't make the tooth unloose because when that happens, you're, okay, sorry, where are we here? So pay attention to this one. So see how the gum is so low. If you turn it around, see how low it is. So your, the gum is the pink part. And your bone is down here. So the bone is low. We can't just bring bone back. The gum tissue, we can in some cases, but the bone, we can't bring that back, unfortunately. So you want to see us, but even if things look like this, it's not too late. Come in to see your dental hygienist so that we can clean all of this up for you and keep things from getting worse, okay? So this is why if somebody's coming in every three months, it's because we have to handle things quickly and often so that it does not become like this. So they might be at this stage, this stage, or you might be at this stage, this stage. Coming in every three months helps it to get back to this. If we're seeing you every year, when you should be coming in every three months, you will not be able to get back to this. Cause that's just too long for that bacteria to keep eating away, eating away, eating away. Cause unfortunately there is always new bacteria all the time, but the most harmful bacteria comes back every two and a half to three months. So that's why three months is critical for some people to keep that bacteria out of there so it doesn't get worse and then lead to this. Does that make sense you guys? Let me know if you have any questions cause I know it can kind of seem a little bit confusing, but I love this tool to just sort of help to show how quickly things can happen, but there's always things we can do. So even if all of your teeth are like this, okay, all of them, we can help you. So then that way things don't get worse, don't get painful and you don't lose any teeth. So let me know you guys if you have any questions, I'm so happy to help. Thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you in the next one.