 Hello everybody, Andrea here with dental L. So let's talk about a good overall, how everybody can really keep their teeth and gums as healthy as possible in this lockdown. So if you don't feel comfortable going to a dental office or you don't have the money because you have lost your insurance necessarily because we will always tell you guys it's good to go see your dentist, see your dental hygienist every six months. We do a full cleaning, take X-rays, exam, whatever you need. But if you just can't do that, let me teach you guys how to really have the best teeth and gum health you can at home, not having to spend a lot of money. It just might mean you need to buy a different toothpaste, a different mouthwash, depending on what I'm about to tell you. So it does depend. So number one is everybody should be using a fluoride toothpaste, okay? Because what fluoride does is that will help to remineralize any of those spots on your teeth. So your teeth have something called enamel. That is that white outer layer. It could be stained in some people, but you get the idea. So a fluoride toothpaste will help to remineralize any thinning enamel that might be happening. Thin enamel can happen from eating, drinking, if you're clenching at night, even if you're brushing too hard. I have thin enamel, okay? We have it. A fluoride toothpaste is best. A fluoride toothpaste, a higher strength fluoride toothpaste is even better, especially if you might have a couple little cavities in there. Look inside your mouth right now. Do you see any light brown spots, light black spots, even something that might not look quite right? It might be a cavity that is starting to form. And let me tell you, if it's small enough, you can reverse a cavity, but the key is you need to be brushing really well, drinking lots of water and really limiting sugar because sugar feeds a cavity, it does. But if you're using the right toothpaste, even the right mouthwash, that sugar doesn't have a chance to really attach to the teeth to cause a cavity because it's constantly being washed away. In a perfect world, I tell my patients, brush three times a day, meaning after breakfast, brush some time in the afternoon, whether it be after lunch, as soon as you get home from work, whatever it might be, just do it because those healthy ingredients in toothpaste really help to protect your teeth. And of course, brush at nighttime after you eat everything the last time you do, the last thing you do before you go to sleep because your mouth, you don't wanna sleep with a dirty mouth, okay? You don't want all that food in there, attacking the teeth with the sugar, so you want it as clean as possible. If you want cavities, the best thing to do is not to brush at nighttime because that food will be sitting there for eight hours or whatever, even if you think there's no food in there, it's kind of hiding, it's trying to attack the teeth and that's what happens. So if you didn't eat any sugar ever, you truly can't get cavities by the way, but there's sugar in everything. You might be surprised to hear this, but there's sugar in everything. What if you're that person that does get a lot of cavities? What if when you go to the dental office in the past, they've kind of said to you every time, okay, you have like five cavities or there's little spots that they're keeping an eye on. I might suggest something more than just a fluoride toothpaste. So what we have now is there are toothpaste with fluoride and xylitol. I'm happy to leave some links for you guys on the bottom of products that I personally recommend and that I use for myself and give to my patients. You can order them online. So one that I have here, so what you want to do is if you're cavity prone, you want to look for a toothpaste, so let's focus here camera with xylitol in it, the top one, and fluoride, oh sorry, fluoride, the big one, but xylitol as well. So some of us need a xylitol and fluoride toothpaste. So if you haven't heard of xylitol for your teeth before, let me tell you what it does. Xylitol is needed with the fluoride in some cases because xylitol actually helps to limit the pH, or sorry, not limit the pH, but it makes the pH in your mouth a neutral seven. As soon as sugar happens, the pH gets lower, more acidic, but xylitol with constant brushing helps to keep the mouth at a neutral level so it's harder to get a cavity. And then the fluoride in the toothpaste helps to come in and really protect those areas that are cavity prone, so thinner enamel. If you have little spots that are potential cavities or could become cavities, if you have deep pits, if you have gingival recession, all of those are cavity prone areas, but a toothpaste with xylitol and fluoride work together to really help to protect the teeth. So you might be wondering after I just said all of that, do I need a xylitol toothpaste? Do I need a fluoride toothpaste? Do I need both? I suggest xylitol and fluoride for everybody because it can't hurt. For some people, if you're just using a fluoride toothpaste that might not be enough because fluoride can only work with what it's given. If the mouth is highly acidic, some people do have acidic saliva. If the mouth is highly acidic and you're using a fluoride toothpaste, that will help you, they can only work so far. You need the xylitol in the toothpaste first to help to give the mouth a good palate to work with and then the fluoride can easily go to those areas. And there's mouth washes too. Not everybody needs a mouthwash, but a mouthwash can't hurt. It just does even more. A mouthwash works really good for protecting the gums and keeping them healthy. If you have bleeding gums, you need to use a mouthwash and toothpaste. If your gums bleed all the time and that's normal, don't tell me that because that means the gums are not healthy. Healthy gums do not bleed, okay? So believe me on this, use a mouthwash, use a toothpaste, I'll leave some links for you guys down below, try them out. Don't try them out for two days and then say it's not working, forget it. You need to keep using them, you need to be consistent. It's like if you were to go on a diet, if you eat healthy for two days, that's gonna do nothing. You're not gonna lose weight. You need to keep getting at it. Those that are developing habits and they do it all the time, they notice a big difference and their teeth are so much healthier. Their teeth feel better, their gums feel better, last but not least, invest in a water pig. I say invest, it's maybe $40, maybe $60. Get a water pig to really get in between those teeth. It's high pressure water, not too high that it hurts you but I think it actually feels pretty good. Invest in a water pig, I'll leave a link down below the exact one that I use. I use a water pig after I eat every single meal if I'm home of course. I use the water pig before the toothpaste just to make sure everything's really clean before I use the toothpaste. So a water pig is amazing. Of course, you're probably wondering why hasn't she talked about flossing? Definitely floss too, but 90% of my patients admit they don't wanna floss. So then I say, that's okay. Use the water pig, it's better than nothing and it does do an amazing job. So I hope that helped you guys. Please let me know if you have questions, comment below. I am trying to answer back every single comment. It might take me time, I apologize but please comment below. Even some of my other YouTube watchers might be able to answer them for you too. So let me know, have a great day and start buying some good toothpaste, some good mouthwash, you'll notice a big difference. Thank you guys, bye for now.