Back to basics

By Angela M. Swatts, CDA, EFDA
President, American Dental Assistants Association

Very often we, the chairside dental assistants, are the front line of education for our patients. Not all patients are diligent about brushing and flossing, and sometimes they’re most receptive to suggestions about preventive measures when they have just finished restorative work on the only set of natural teeth they will ever know.

This is your opportunity to put forth some good dental prevention information, as patients are more receptive to you, the dental assistant. This is when you can reinforce the importance of brushing and flossing and make the point that flossing, in particular, is an adjunct to good health.

It’s easy to brush your teeth properly. Both children and adults could benefit from going to the New York State University College of Dentistry Web site at http://www.nyu.edu/dental/news/nyucdtv/index.html and watching a presentation by Dr. Neal Herman on how to floss properly. NYU also has released information on a study that shows that flossing significantly decreases gum disease and cavity-causing bacteria. The five-year study was published in the Journal of Periodontology and funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

According to the NYU dental researchers, "The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of dental flossing on the microbial composition of interproximal plaque samples in matched twins.” They studied 51 well-matched pairs of twins (each set was a case and a control) regarding their treatment responses to flossing over a two-week period. They found that "In a well-matched twin cohort, tooth and tongue brushing plus flossing significantly decreased abundance of microbial species associated with periodontal disease and dental caries after a two-week program."

If your goal is to help your patients live a longer, stronger life, the Gobble Green Web site (http://gobblegreen.com/blog/?p=31) reports that Dr. Kaumudi Joshipura, a professor of epidemiology at Harvard and the director of the Division of Dental Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico, conducted a famous 12-year study with 41,380 men ages 40 to 75. Subjects who did not floss regularly had 57% more strokes. In a separate study, Michael F. Roizen, MD, calculated that daily flossing adds an average of 6.3 years to a person’s life. In his book, “Real Age,” Dr. Roizen writes, “Flossing your teeth daily can make your arteries younger. The probable reason: Flossing helps keep your immune system young.”

Handing out interesting and helpful information might just encourage your patients to take better care of themselves and prolong their lives while enjoying optimum dental health.

With Halloween not too far behind us, you’ve probably encountered some young patients who are losing their battle with all the candy they got from trick or treating. Then along comes the holiday season with even more sugary treats galore, and both children and adults eat more sugar than usual. And let’s not forget how much sugar there is in those holiday drinks, folks.

So this is a great time to be really proactive and stress brushing and flossing, often and accurately. Bon appetit!