Helpful Dental Tips Jensen Beach

08/28/2025

A kind greeting from Dr. Canepa, the dentist behind the website.

08/28/2025

A very interesting feature of antimicrobial mouthwashes are their abilities to reduce oral bacteria. Did you know, claims such as "kills 99.9% of bacteria" are technically true, however, they are logarithmic?! That means you can EVENTUALLY get to killing such a percentage of bacteria, however it takes time. In fact, when rinsing with any antimicrobial mouthwash, the first 30 second rinse doesn't kill that many microbes. It primarily breaks down the saliva and bacterial mucous layer that rests on your teeth, cheeks, gums, tongue, etcetera, typically insulating bacteria. Once the first rinse washes these layers away, the actual bacteria are exposed. Doing another 30 second rinse is when you kill most of the bacteria!

10/30/2023

Do you have a problem getting cavities? An extremely useful and underrated option that can help prevent cavities are fluoride trays. Fluoride trays are a set of clear trays you load with a high fluoride toothpaste and place over your teeth for five minutes at night before bed. The trays hold fluoride against your teeth, strengthening them much more than standard toothpaste alone. In fact, fluoride trays can make it virtually impossible to ever get cavities. Feel free to contact our office if you have questions about these or may benefit from them.

Sincerely,
Dr. Canepa

10/16/2023

A neat tip to stop cavities: Do you ever feel that floss just wipes the plaque around teeth, especially if you're trying to floss a dental crown or under a dental bridge? Know this: tie a knot in your dental floss. It will physically take the plaque off hard-to-reach areas of your teeth. It works great for getting stubborn foods out as well, such as popcorn kernels!

11/19/2022

Fluoride in childhood versus fluoride in adulthood: many wonder about the potential health effects. What may not be known, is that fluoride is actually a mineral, just like the other minerals that make up teeth and bones in the body: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, etc. In fact, fluoride is a mineral that children need for their GROWING adult teeth, because it is used to form healthy, hard adult teeth that replace the baby teeth. In nature, when children eat or drink anything with fluoride, it has importance in their diet. It just can't be consumed too much or too little, or the adult teeth will become brittle. As with any mineral excess or deficiency. So the proper amount is key. In adults, fluoride only works when it contacts the outside of the teeth, because adult teeth are already fully grown, and no further minerals get deposited from the diet. So adults have to get it from water or toothpaste directly touching the outside of their teeth. If they eat anything with fluoride, it circulates back into the saliva and prevents cavities by bathing the outside of the teeth. So don't worry if a small amount is not filtered out of your water - it is useful for teeth of all ages.

10/27/2022

Most people don't think of the mouth as an organ, but it indeed is the first organ that makes up the digestive system. Just as the kidneys clean the blood and the liver detoxifies the body, Teeth allow us to chew food that takes care of the rest of our body. Interestingly, teeth are the only organ in the human body that are incapable of healing on their own. A dentist has to place a filling in a tooth to restore it from a cavity. And there is nothing as good as the original, natural tooth. So treat the teeth like the essential organ they are, and make sure to care for them so they can continue performing the job they do.

10/19/2022

Survival tips with dentistry: Americans rate the toothbrush as a top 5 item they cannot live without. If you’re ever in a situation where you don’t have toothpaste, you can use regular table salt as an alternative. It tastes terrible, but salt kills bacteria, including cavity-causing bacteria in the mouth. If you don’t have a toothbrush, you can use a strip of cloth over your finger and brush it along your teeth, or you can chew the end of a stick until it has soft bristles and you can use this as a brush as well. Brushing without any toothpaste is completely acceptable, as plaque removal, rather than toothpaste use, is the key. My friend's mother used this method to save her teeth when fleeing Vietnam as a child. While hopefully never needed, these options may be useful in serious circumstances.

10/03/2022

Dentistry is still an incredibly unregulated profession. Advertising for low-cost dentistry is increasingly common. Dental companies will tell you they can afford this because they buy in bulk. Not true. The primary way this is done is with lower cost, lower quality materials: fillings, implants, crowns, etc.; A lot of crowns can be made in China and other countries for pennies on the dollar and imported to the USA. These labs have little to no oversight or quality control. Even in America, lab technicians are "Unclassified Labor" with no barriers to entry. This means ANYONE can technically make your crown. So a dental office using a tested, quality lab that costs a little more is essential for the long term predictability of your work. It never pays to cut costs up front, especially for your one set of adult teeth.

09/23/2022

How abrasive is your toothpaste? Check the chart. The lower the number, the less your toothpaste will wear your teeth away over time.

09/13/2022

Tip involving to***co: one factor associated with oral cancer is HEAT. Heat from burning to***co increases the temperature of cells in the mouth. Done chronically over time, heat adds to the various things that can cause oral cancer. While research is still new, electronic devices that deliver a cooled type of to***co mist reduces the problem with heat.

07/11/2022

How long does it take for a cavity to develop? The white enamel on the outside of a tooth is extremely strong. Several times harder than bone. It can take YEARS for a cavity to develop. Once the cavity breaks through the enamel, the inside of a tooth is softer, and the cavity moves quick. That's how they get big. Don't let too much time go by between dental checkups, as cavities can stay small and simple.

07/06/2022

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kZ5apBz-5E&t=296s

Going into detail about how to thoroughly and sufficiently brush the adult teeth. Dr. C**t Canepawww.helpfuldentaltips.com