A fear of dentistry is a fear of unknown for a child who visit the dentist for the first time. Well, I’ve got three types of parents who bring their children to see me.

First one would be, “Yeah, dentist, you will be fine, “and we’re just going to say hi to the dentist “and get your teeth checked.”

The second one would be, “Yeah, we’re going to the dentist, “you have to behave, okay? “You’re not gonna be scared, “you’re not gonna be worried. “You are cool! “Cool dude, you can do it!”

The third one. They’ll start sweating the previous day, “You know you’ve got this dentist appointment, “you’re gonna be fine, okay? “Don’t worry. “Don’t be scared. “I was so brave when I was at your age.” And then the child will look at you like, “Okay, so I can’t be scared. “Should I be scared? “Is there something that my Mom or Dad is hiding from me?” So those, the third type is something that I would say no.

Please, if you were or you are nervous at the dentist, please don’t pass that fear to your kids because fear is a very funny thing. If you’re scared of, say, for example, a spider, you know what you’re scared of and you avoid spiders, but if you are scared of something unknown, you don’t know what to avoid, you know?

A fear of dentistry is a fear of unknown for a child who visit the dentist for the first time. Please don’t pass your fear to your children. You take them to a very gentle dentist or caring dentist who talks through the procedure by tell-show-do technique, and your child will be fine. If you are scared of dentist, please don’t talk about dentist.

I’ve got a lot of patients come here pregnant and then I’m excited to talk about their oral hygiene. You can bring your kids to see me when they are in the tummy, I’ve got a lot of patients come here pregnant and then I’m excited to talk about their oral hygiene.

You know how when you talk to the mums, the kids start getting a little bit of sense about their oral hygiene, so that’s something that I always do. I jokes about you can bring your children when you come in for your dental visits every six month, but if you are not a regular visitor of dentists then the ideal time to go to a dentist with your child or take your child to a dentist would be when their first teeth come through just to get that checked, everything is okay and to get some oral hygiene instructions.

Once the child starts turning two, two and a half, they get their baby molars, so baby teeth are very easy to get decay, so it’s important to go to a dentist once they turn two years old.

Are x-rays necessary? Are mobile phones necessary? Is flying necessary? Is walking through the street in the city necessary? Are x-rays necessary? Are mobile phones necessary? Is flying necessary? Is walking through the street in the city necessary?

If those things are something that we can’t avoid, x-rays are definitely necessary. It, again, depends on the balance. Weighing the pros and cons of doing a treatment technique. I wouldn’t say, you don’t need x-rays every six months unless you are extremely high risk of dental cavities and you never brush your teeth.

So, we put patients at different category. High-risk cavity or high-risk case, they need the x-rays every two years to check if there is any new decays coming through. But if you are a regular visitor of dentist, and you brush your teeth twice a day and floss, I would say you can reduce having that x-ray to once every four or five years even.

Dental x-rays carry a very, very, very limited amount of radiation. It’s not even comparable to the background radiation that we get When we use our mobile phones or flying into state. So, one dental x-ray is less radiation than the environmental radiation that we get from flying from here to Sydney.

Smile, it’s the most important part of our personality. Ongoing maintenance is important for our body. As females, we know that better than anyone else. We go to nail salons to get our nails done.

We go get our hairdressers, visit our hairdressers every alternate months and we go and get facials done. We get our hair washed and conditioned every day. And we go to the doctor’s for checking our blood every year and it’s important to get your teeth checked every six months because smile is the most important part of our personality and the way people perceive us.

So, when you look at a person, the first two things that you look at a person’s face will be the eyes and the smile. So, there is the answer for you.

You have to change your toothbrush once every two months. I don’t think females would ask that question. You know, they want to change their toothbrush every week. It depends on who is asking me. If men ask me, I would say, “Once every year.” No, just a joke. It has to be changed about once every two months or three months would be ideal. It doesn’t matter, male or female.

You have to change your toothbrush, once every two months. If you’re changing you’re toothbrush once every week and it’s not going past a week, that means you’re brushing too hard. So, two months is a good time and you can prolong up to three months if you want.

A very good telltale sign of a toothbrush need to be changed is when it frays and when the toothbrush bristles looked chewed, messy and it’s flare out like that. You don’t want to go onto that stage. Probably then your partner or whatever already bought you a free toothbrush.

Your gums bleed when you floss because your gums are not healthy. I’ll tell you a typical clinical scenario which happens in my rooms all the time. A patient comes in and say … They know what my first question will be when they come to see me every six months, they’ve got that naughty smile on their face. I say, okay, Mr. Brown, have you been flossing? And he would go, Asha, when I saw you last time, you showed me how to floss. I tried flossing and my gums started bleeding and I stopped it. This is a common question that everyone asks me. My gums bleed when I floss. It’s like a vicious cycle. Your gums bleed when you floss because your gums are not healthy. That is the reason why your gums bleed, not because you’re hurting your gums by flossing.

It’s like your gums are inflamed, they’re swollen, so then when you try to put the floss through, the first reaction will be bleeding. But what I want to emphasise is when your gums start bleeding, when you floss, you continue flossing for about two weeks, every single day, and your gums will stop bleeding. Bleeding is a sign of disease and inflammation. Once your gums stops bleeding, that means your gums have come back to a very healthy, firm pink stage, which is the sign of healthy gums. So your gums should not bleed when you floss, when you floss every day.

Rinsing your mouth whenever you have a chance, especially after eating sweet, is a very good way of avoiding decay. We all live our life to enjoy life, okay? I like sweets too, and I always tell my patients I go to the gym so I can eat what I like. So I brush my teeth so I can eat what I like, which is sugar or sweet. As long as it’s balanced.

Life is all about balance. So I’d never tell my patients don’t touch sweets. I tell them you can as long as you include it a part of a meal, so that after a meal you like eating a chocolate, feel free to eat. And then make sure you exercise, brush your teeth, and drink some water. See, we have some cultures, including Indian culture, where I’ve seen my grandma doing rinsing her mouth with water after eating food. That’s the part of the ritual my parents, and they taught me to do as well, which we don’t follow.

We just eat food and then drink some water, and that’s about it. Rinsing your mouth whenever you have a chance, especially after eating sweet is a very good way of avoiding decay if you’re a sweet tooth. There you go.

I’m lazy so I use an electric toothbrush. Electric toothbrush or manual toothbrush? If you are lazy, use an electric toothbrush, if you’re not lazy, use a manual toothbrush. I’m lazy so I use an electric toothbrush. Because after a full day of dentistry, you know, I see about 20 patients a day and then when I get home, I’ve got other chores to do and then finally I’ve got time to brush my teeth.

I use my electric toothbrush because, electric toothbrush gets in between the area much better than a manual toothbrush, but having said that, there are some patients who does fantastic job with manual toothbrushes. So, depends on your personal taste or personal like, but if you are using an electric toothbrush, here’s the catch, you have to be very gentle.

Let the electric toothbrush do it’s job, you don’t have to brush or put a lot of pressure on the teeth. But when you are using a manual toothbrush, you’re relying on your hand skills to brush your teeth. But either way, you have to brush for at least two minutes.

It’s important to visit a dentist and ask the dentist how to clean the sensitive gums. If your gums start bleeding when you’re brushing, that means you have got gum disease, but you should still keep continuing brushing.

Use a soft toothbrush and use your toothbrush angle 45 degrees to the gums, and gently brush that junction between the gum and the teeth.

Definitely visit a dentist and it’s important to visit a dentist and ask the dentist how to clean the sensitive gums because you already know you have gum disease.