Hi,
Sensitive tooth effects most of us. It is painful and makes us superconscious of what we eat or drink, in another word it takes our little peace of mind away. Here we address one of the causes of it and tell you how to deal with it. After all, eating is one of the little pleasures left of life.
Tooth sensitivity can be caused by aggressive brushing. You heard me right, too much of brushing and/or too hard of brushing is damaging. Remember the old saying which goes something like this: Life is walking on an imaginary line , too much or too little of something, anything, causes us loss of balance…actually I don’t know if such an idiom exist or not but if it does, it makes total sense.
Therefore brushing should be done in moderation, being in the sense of force we are putting in it while brushing or frequency of doing it. Our teeth are sculpted somehow that they are concave at the neck, when they meet our gums. If we brush our teeth back and forth, we let bristles sit on that concave area and rub it away. We end up with the ledge on our tooth first and then a notch and eventually tooth will break at the neck. ( I have seen it!!) It is like sawing a tree. It happens over long period of time but it does happen if we brush harshly or if we use hard brush (not meant for human beings!) or soft brush. Yes, soft brush can harm too because with them we tend to brush harder!!
Anyways, by sawing our teeth, first we remove the protective enamel layer, which is thinner as we go closer to our gums. It causes exposure of dentin which is composed of tubules. In these tubules we keep fluids. And when we drink something cold or eat something sweet, the fluid moves and send a sensation of pain to our brain. Hence tooth sensitivity.
Now what should we do?
We have got to change our brushing habit. We have to brush our gums towards our teeth. When brushing top teeth, then brush down. When brushing lower teeth, then brush up. Hold the tooth brush in 45 degree angle with the teeth and move it down when on top and move it up when on the bottom.
Use medium bristle tooth brush and change the brush when bristles are not good anymore.
Easy, eh?
To be continued…
