Can I Brush My Teeth After a Fluoride Treatment?
Fluoride is a natural mineral that builds strong teeth by preventing cavities. Fluoride supports healthy tooth enamel ad helps fight bacteria that may harm your teeth and gums. The tooth’s enamel is the outer protective layer of each tooth.
Fluoride treatment for teeth is very helpful if you are at a high risk of developing dental cavities or caries. Cavities occur when bacteria build up on your gums and teeth and form plaque.
This plaque produces an acid that erodes the gums and teeth tissue. If this plaque breaks down the enamel layer, the bacteria can harm and infect the nerves and blood at the core of your teeth.
One can floss and brush their teeth after the procedure, but it cannot immediately. You have to wait for some time.
Read on to understand why you may need fluoride treatment, the aftercare procedure, and when you can brush your teeth after the treatment.
Why is Fluoride Treatment Needed?
Fluoride treatment has several benefits, and these include:
1. It helps the body better use minerals like phosphate and calcium. Your teeth reabsorb these minerals, thus repairing your weak tooth enamel.
2. Fluoride treatment also helps join the tooth structure when your tooth is developing to strengthen the enamel of the teeth, thus making them less vulnerable to cavities and bacteria for life.
3. It also slows or even reverses the development of cavities by harming bacteria that may cause cavities.
When taken together, these benefits help slow the growth and reduce the risk of cavities, prolong the life of baby teeth, slow the need for expensive dental work, or even reduce the amount of money and time a person has to spend at the dental office.
By slowing the growth of bacteria and preventing cavities, a fluoride treatment may also reduce tooth pain and prevent gum disease and premature loss of teeth. It can also improve your oral health. Poor oral health may cause other conditions such as oral cancer or cardiovascular disease.
When Can I brush my Teeth after Fluoride Treatment?
A dentist near you will advise you to wait between 4-and 6 hours before resuming your brushing and flossing routine. One should therefore wait for six hours before resuming the oral care routine. When you wait for at most six hours, the fluoride will protect and cover your teeth better.
Explain the Fluoride Treatment Aftercare
One should follow several aftercare procedures for fluoride treatment. This ensures that the treatment fully penetrates your tooth’s enamel and yields the desired results. During the aftercare, you are advised not to eat, smoke or drink for about 3o minutes to an hour after the fluoride treatment.
You may experience nausea if you mistakenly swallow the fluorides. This is normal and temporary and will go away within 24 hours.
Fluoride can also be dangerous when taken in large quantities, so your dentist must be careful in administering the right doses during your treatment.
Fluoride, when taken in high amounts, may cause:
- Pitting and staining on teeth
- White specks on your mature teeth
- Very dense bone, which may not be very strong
- Problems with bone homeostasis
On the other hand, acute toxicity of fluoride can cause nausea, tiredness, excessive sweating, diarrhea, or even death. Therefore, you should always keep fluoride supplements pills out of reach of children.
You can consult our professional dentists at All American Dental to handle your treatment. Our specialist will carefully administer a safe level of fluoride for your teeth whitening treatment.
If you have undergone the paint-on varnish fluoride treatment, this treatment will remain on your teeth for at most six hours. You are advised to follow the following aftercare procedure:
- Do not floss or brush your teeth for at most six hours after the treatment
- Avoid taking crunch or hard foods
- Refrain taking any product that may contain alcohol
- Stay away from hot beverages
- Don’t use an over-the-counter fluoride-containing mouthwash, toothpaste, or rinses.
However, after the six hours of treatment is over, you can thoroughly floss and brush your teeth. This will help remove any fluoride that may have remained from your teeth.
You can also resume your normal diet after six hours. You are also advised not to use any prescription fluoride medications for three days after the treatment.