What Dental Products Should I Use?

The Best and Worst Drinks for your Teeth What Kind of Patient
Are You?

It’s an overwhelming sea of pastes and rinses, that oral hygiene aisle in the store. The dental product industry is huge, and of course everyone claims to be the best. But what’s really good for you? Here’s a list the products that we recommend in our office!

Toothpaste

Crest or Colgate Total: For the majority of patients we just want a solid, fluoridated toothpaste. We like both Crest and Colgate products in this category and are happy with the results of their basic toothpaste.

Sensodyne Pronamel: For patients who suffer from gum recession or are prone to sensitivity, we’ll recommend a toothpaste with an especially low RDA to make sure they’re treating their gums with appropriate care. Sensodyne is among the most gentle of the options available.

Clinpro: Some of our patients have trouble with cavities no matter how great they’re homecare. For those who need extra enamel remineralization help, we recommend Clinpro’s blend of tricalcium phosphate and 5000 ppm fluoride.

Antiseptic Rinse

Listerine: The gold standard of antiseptic mouth rinse - just make sure you get one of the varieties that says “Antiseptic” on the label. The rinses so labeled will help kill harmful bacteria in the mouth and protect the health of your gums - Listerine Total Care, on the other hand, can’t offer the same kind of protection.

Colgate Total Advance Pro-shield: If you suffer from dry mouth, frequent cold or canker sores, or are just looking for less exposure to alcohol, this is the antiseptic rinse for you!

Fluoride Rinse

ACT: When a patient has a higher risk of caries, we’ll often suggest alternating an antiseptic rinse with this fluoridate rinse at night to help remineralize and strengthen the teeth against decay.

Toothbrush

Sonicare Flexcare Platinum: If you make the decision to go electric, we strongly recommend the Sonicare brand in our office. An electric toothbrush is great for helping overly aggressive brushers control their speed and pressure, as well as encouraging a full two minutes of brushing (the magic number!).

Oral-B Pro-health: If you stick with manual, please, soft bristles!! We love this brand, which we give out in-office, but if you’re committed to another one, our chief concern is that it be soft to avoid abrading your tissues and damaging your enamel.

Floss

Oral-B Glide: To be honest, we don’t much care which floss you’re using as long as you’re doing it daily and properly! That being said, we do like Glide as it is unwaxed and tends to stick less in people’s teeth than some other brands.

Reach Access Flosser: For patients with less than average dexterity or harder to reach areas, we recommend this access flosser to ensure you’re hitting everything that needs it. Heads are one use and replacements are easily found in most drug stores.

Oral Health Adjuncts

Oolitt Tongue Scraper: we know, it’s not the most appealing name. But the tongue, like the teeth and gums, can be a harbor for bacteria and needs some attention! Use these as a supplement to remove bacterial deposits and keep your tongue looking and feeling healthy.

PerioSciences Gel: we’re excited to be adding this gel to our arsenal - PerioSciences can help patients with a variety of issues, including tissue healing after periodontal therapy, dry mouth, canker sores, and halitosis.

All Natural Alternatives

For those looking to avoid more industrially produced products, we get it! These are our recommendations:

• Toothpaste - Tom's with Fluoride (if possible! If you can’t do fluoride in your toothpaste, be sure you’re drinking tap water to get at least some of the fluoride your teeth need)
• Rinse - Oil Pulling with food grade Coconut Oil

Of course, the best products in the world can’t make up for the wrong frequencies and technique! Head over to our oral hygiene home care page for our tips.