 Hello everybody, Andrea Myeski here with Dental L Mobile Hygiene. So patients ask me often, especially after the fact. So patients ask me after I tell them they have gum disease. They say to me, what's that? And how did I get it? Oh my gosh, ew, how do I get rid of it? So patients do ask me that quite often. And the answer is not as simple as, well, you have to brush and floss. There's actually more to it. But yes, that's the best thing to do is to brush every day twice a day and to floss every day. So we're not just saying that to be annoying. We're not just saying that to make the job easier for us. Because when you come in to see us to get your teeth cleaned, the less plaque and tartar you have is just easier for us to clean. But the appointment's easier for you too because we don't have to dig as much to clean away plaque and tartar if there's not enough or a lot there and you're able to maintain it at home. Because what plaque is? So plaque pretty much forms on the teeth after eating and drinking anything. Plac is that like off-white sticky stuff, okay? That if you were to go like this on your teeth, if something comes off, that is plaque. Whereas if plaque stays on the teeth for 12 to 24 hours, it depends on the person. So if plaque stays on the teeth for 12 to 24 hours, it becomes hard. So it becomes calcified. So that hard stuff that you may or may not be able to see. It can be like an off-white yellow brown. That's called tartar and also called calculus. That you cannot take off with your toothbrush. And the only way to get that off is to see your dental hygienist to clean it off with their instruments. But the bad thing about tartar is that plaque can now form on top of tartar making it worse and making it harder to take off. But ultimately, plaque harbors a lot of bacteria. And the simple answer is that is what causes gum disease is all of that bacteria in the mouth. Your mouth does not like bacteria either. So when that sits there, your gums become inflamed. They become red and they probably start to bleed a ton. They bleed a lot. They're not happy. But things have to get better before they get worse. Think about if you had a cut on your arm and it started to bleed. You would be concerned. You would want to cover that up, clean the area so then that way it does heal properly. So that is what dental hygiene cleaning is, is when you have gum disease, the gums are red. The gums are bleeding and maybe even painful. So the dental hygienist gets in there, cleans away everything. Same as if you had that cut on your arm. You have to clean it out first. Yes, it might be a little sore. But the nice thing is for a cleaning is that I do have numbing agents that I can apply over the gums so it's not sore. So it's perfect. People love that. So I clean them. And then things are able to start to heal. Same as if you're cleaning your arm, things can now start to heal. So gum disease doesn't have to stay. So just because you have it, you only need a really good cleaning to get rid of it. But if you don't have your teeth cleaned and you have gum disease, it will only get worse. And that is where people start to lose the teeth, unfortunately. But please keep in mind that it's never too late. So even if you were told you had gum disease five years ago, it's never too late to come in to get your teeth cleaned because I can stop that from now happening. And I can stop it from getting worse. Even if you've lost teeth, you don't want to lose all of them, right? So it is entirely possible to stop things from getting worse. And of course, brush and floss, that does help so much. Mouthwash helps, too. But yeah, you guys, those are kind of the main things, you know, brush and floss and use mouthwash and come in to get your teeth cleaned and you will be fine. That's where things start. But the sooner, the better, of course. But it's also never too late. So let me know if you have any questions. I hope this helped. And happy Monday, everybody. I will see you in the next one.