Using a good quality toothbrush and toothpaste can help keep your smile bright!

When we talk about dental care many people think about that trip to the dentists every 6 months. You DO go to the dentist regularly don’t you? OK, may of us don’t because of the time involved or expense. The second best way to protect your teeth is to follow a regular dental care regimen at home. This would include not only brushing your teeth with a quality toothbrush but also using some type of dentifrice or toothpaste and regular use of dental floss. Flossing is probably the least used but most effective way to clean areas of your teeth that cannot be reached with brushing alone.

Toothpaste is a paste used, almost always in conjunction with a tooth brush, to clean teeth. Good oral hygiene demands consistent brushing on a daily basis preferably after each meal. The first reference to toothpaste was found believe it or not in Egyptian writings. Toothpaste back then was probably a mixture of spices like sale and peppermint and probably some herbs. Although not exactly our idea of good tasting, it was most likely very effective for keeping down the decaying food particles and was considered good basic dental care of the day.

In the late 1800′s, toothpaste and dental care become a growth industry for many smaller companies. Oral hygiene of the day was a mixture of chalk and various salts designed more as an abrasive to scrape off plaque than make your mouth clean. We now know that these types of toothpastes or powders actually damaged teeth because of the abrasive nature of the ingredients. The abrasiveness scraped and damaged the enamel coating that protected teeth and left them more vulnerable to decay and plaque build up.

By 1900, baking soda made it’s way into commercial toothpaste products along with a small amount of hydrogen peroxide solution. This was probably the very beginnings of teeth whitening products for the mass market. Although actual tooth cleaning pastes were first marketed in the 19th century, it was not very popular until the mid 1900′s. The Colgate & Company manufactured toothpaste in the first collapsible tube, similar to the tubes we use today. These were actually the first products that had the basic compounds to brighten and whiten teethHydrogen peroxide, although in higher concentrations is being used today to remove staining and whiten teeth. Although tooth powders, a pre cursor product to toothpaste didn’t show up on the market until this time, it wasn’t until the mid 1950-1960 that modern toothpaste that we recognize became the teeth cleaner of choice.

Fluoride started to be added to toothpastes in the 1950 and 1960′s. Fluoride is still controversial due to the claimed “dangers” of anything chemical. Although fluoride is not good for people in large quantities, it’s a fact that as fluoride has been added to the nations water supply, the number of cavities in children has dropped dramatically. Of course, there’s little doubt that fluoride has been instrumental in lowering the number of dental cavities.

Like many shampoos, healthier ingredients (such as baking soda, pseudo-mouthwash etc) are often combined into base mixes of varying qualities and marketed as being beneficial. Toothpaste is most commonly sold in flexible tubes, although one may also purchase it in hard plastic containers with pumps. Packages designed to stand straight up, so as to allow more of the toothpaste to be used, are a relatively recent innovation. You only need a little toothpaste to get the job done however. Remember that the toothpaste manufacturers have an interest in getting you to overuse their product, making more purchases likely. A pea sized amount is more than enough to do a good job brushing your teeth.

Toothpaste comes in a variety of flavors, with those marketed to kids! Tasting like orange, cinnamon and bubblegum. Taste has nothing to do with the quality of the product however but may get some people and children to brush longer. So for a good brushing, use a quality toothpaste and soft bristle brush. Your teeth and gums will thank you!

While teeth whitening procedures performed in a dental practice office and teeth whiteners that can be applied at home are a fantastic way to improve one’s smile, the latter mentioned methods are not a quick method. According to circumstances, if you are looking to get and maintain a healthy smile with beautiful white teeth, you must take some stain preventing measures. There is a sequence of actions that you can do to ensure your teeth whiteness.

In the pluses of applying teeth whitening products, you will want to minimize the habit patterns you have that produce teeth stains automatically. Smoking is not only catastrophic for your well been, but it’s bad for your bright smile. The nicotine in cigarettes stains teeth to the extent that teeth whitening products have to work overtime: the amount of time it takes to accomplish the desired result from teeth whiteners nearly takes two times more if the individual using the product is a smoker. Further, if one is applying teeth whiteners and keep on smoking, the act of smoking defeats the purpose of whitening the teeth in the first place.

Also, in addition to applying teeth whiteners, you should also avoid ingesting stain producing liquids and foods. Coffee and tea are some of the biggest culprits: coffee stains accumulate rapidly and lengthen the time period that a teeth whitener must be applied to reverse the results of staining. If you want to have your cup of coffee, be sure to brush your teeth just after to minimize the appearance of coffee stains.

Development of tooth is the complex process, involves formation of teeth from embryonic cells and starts growing slowly erupting into the mouth. For human to have a healthy oral environment, cementum, dentin, and the periodontium are the essentials that must develop during the stages of child tooth development.

Primary teeth of a baby will begin to form normally between the fifth and eighth weeks in utero and then permanent teeth will start to form during the twentieth week in utero. Moreover if teeth do not start developing at or near these times, then they will not develop at all. Significant amount of in-depth research has been carried out to determine the processes that primarily intiate development of tooth. It is accepted widely that there should be a factor within the tissues or the group of cells of the first branchial arch that is considered to be necessary for tooth development.

Tooth Bud

Tooth bud, otherwise called as tooth germ also is basically an aggregation of cells that forms the teeth. These aggregation of cells are derived from ectomesenchyme of neural crest and also derived from the ectoderm of first branchial arch.

This tooth bud is primarily organized into three organs. They are as

o Enamel Organ

o Dental Papilla

o Dental Follicle

Enamel organ is composed of inner enamel epithelium, outer enamel epithelium and stratum intermedium. All these cells gives rise to ameloblasts that normally produces reduced enamel epithelium and enamel. The location where the inner enamel epithelium and outer enamel epithelium join is called to be as cervical loop.

Growth of this cervical loop cells into the tissues forms hertwig’s epithelial rooth sheath, this sheath determines the root shape of the tooth.

Dental papilla normally has some cells that finally grows into odontoblasts which are dentin forming cells. To this the junction between the inner enamel epithelium and the dental papilla determines the tooth’s crown shape. Tooth pulp is formed as the result of mesenchymal cells which is present within dental papilla.

Another tooth bud organ is the Dental follicle which gives rise to three vital entities.
They are as osteoblasts, cementoblasts and fibroblasts. Tooth cementum is formed by the cementoblasts, osteoblasts give rise to a special bone called as alveolar bone around the teeth root. Last entity called fibroblast develops periodontal ligaments that connects alveolar bone to the teeth through cementum

Tooth Bud Development Stages

Child tooth development is divided into 4 major stages. They are as follows

o The Bud Stage

o The Cap Stage

o The Bell Stage

o The Crown Stage or Maturation Stage

Bud Stage

Bud stage is characterized by the tooth bud appearing without a clear arrangement of cells. This Bud Stage technically starts the epithelial ells proliferate into the jaw ectomesenchyme.

Cap Stage

Cap stage is the second stage in tooth bud development. During this Cap stage the first signs of the proper arrangement of cells in tooth bud occurs. Group of ectomesenchymal cells stops its production of other extracellular substances which generally results in aggregation of dental papilla cells. Here at this stage the tooth bud starts to grow around the ectomesenchymal aggregation taking cap appearance and becomes enamel dental organ. Enamel organ eventually produces enamel, and then the dental papilla produces pulp and dentin, finally the dental follicle produces the supporting tooth structure.

Bell Stage

Bell stage is generally known for the morphodifferentiation and histodifferentiation that takes place. During this stage the dental organ is bell shaped, the majority of its cells are called as stellate reticulam, this is because of their shape appear like a star. Other structures that appear in the tooth development in this stage are enamel cords, enamel knots, and enamel niche.

Crown Stage

During this next stage of tooth development hard tissues including dentin and enamel develops, this stage is called the maturation or the crown stage. Important cellular changes takes place at this time.

The development stage of tooth is an attempt to categorize major changes that takes place along the continuum at the same time it is difficult to make any kind of decision like what stage must be assigned to a particular developing of tooth. This child tooth development research is further complicated by the varying histologic sections and appearance of the developing tooth which can often appear to be in different stages.