Many of us still remember how in childhood they cleaned their teeth with tooth powder stored in a plastic jar. Then the country gradually switched to toothpastes, but everyone forgot about the powder. Well, or almost everything. After all, dentists still consider this tool effective for daily cleaning of teeth.
Composition of tooth powder
Even before our time, people were looking for a means to clean their teeth of food leftovers. Several millennia ago, the ancient inhabitants of the Earth already knew that if you crushed corals or seashells, as well as gypsum or pumice stone, you can get a useful powder, from which the teeth become clean and smooth.
Closer by today, more precisely several centuries ago, tooth powders were made from ground salt, egg shell and chalk. It is still the chalk that is the basis of any modern powder for cleaning teeth. In addition to chalk, various fragrances and active additives are added there:
- soda;
- dry clay;
- sea salt;
- Red pepper;
- crushed herbs;
- oils (mustard, clove, mint , etc.);
- minerals.
Dental powders vary in composition, but their name most often echoes the odors added to them ("Mint") or with functional features ("Whitening", "For smokers"). The bleaching properties of powders are usually associated with high abrasiveness of the latter. After all, particles of powder perfectly clean teeth from stains, plaque and food debris. And the essential oil of lemon, usually added to such powders, enhances the whitening effect.
How to use tooth powder?
The use of a powder for cleaning teeth, in truth, is not very convenient. A wide can usually open the whole powder on the surface, it is easy to turn, and access to air and moisture does not benefit the product. Again, the powder can not be used for babies, because they can inhale the substance.
How to brush your teeth with tooth powder? It's quite simple. The toothbrush must be moistened with water, apply the powder to the bristles and start cleaning. Some powders start to foam during cleaning, which makes the process easier. Do not get carried away by cleaning for more than three minutes because of the high abrasiveness of the powders. For the same reason, the brush should not be rigid. After cleaning, the mouth should be thoroughly rinsed.
Tooth powder is good and bad
Nevertheless, it is not for nothing that tooth powders lost their popularity with the arrival of toothpastes on the market. To the disadvantages of powders dentists include:
- High abrasiveness. Systematically carried away by the process of using a powder for cleaning teeth, you can damage the tooth enamel, which leads to the development of various non-carious lesions (hypersensitivity teeth, erosion of the enamel, wedge-shaped defects, etc.).
- Inconvenient packing. A wide jar is easy to drop, scatter. It can get moisture and dirt, which worsens the properties of powders.
- In tooth powders, it is difficult to add many therapeutic additives used in toothpastes.
And yet, before you choose that it is better to have tooth powder or toothpaste worth listing the advantages of using the first:
- qualitative cleaning of teeth from stains, stones, plaque and food debris;
- polishing teeth;
- bleaching;
- normalization of acid-base balance of the oral cavity;
- prevention of periodontal disease;
- decreased manifestations of gingivitis ;
- reduction of the risk of caries development;
- strengthening the gums.
In the absence of problems with teeth and gums, you can choose a powder in the pharmacy for personal preferences. To prevent dental calculi and stains, it is sufficient to use dental powder for cleaning 1-2 times a week. And if there are problems with the teeth or gum disease, it is better to entrust the choice of funds to a dentist.