Sorry that I can’t do a gift link–I am all out of them!
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Can you copy/paste the list?
Your gums should not bleed when you floss
As every dentist you’ve ever seen has probably said, you should floss daily. It’s true that if you slack for a while, you may see a little blood when you restart the habit, said Tien Jiang, an instructor in oral health policy and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. But stick with it. “It’s like starting to exercise when you haven’t in a while, and your muscles ache,” she said. “I encourage patients to push through that initial period because they need that debris to come out to get back to health.”
If your gums have been bleeding for a prolonged period of time, see your dentist, said Pernima Kumar, chair of the department of periodontology and oral medicine at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. “Would you be worried if any part of your body bled?” she asked. “Don’t normalize gum bleeding!”
Dr. Kumar also suggested that people who have gaps between their teeth use an interdental brush, a small, skinny, “absolutely fabulous” brush designed to reach the hidden places where bacteria grow.
Step away from the charcoal toothpastes
Toothpastes containing powdered activated charcoal, marketed as a natural teeth whitener, have grown in popularity in the past few years.
But a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association concluded that while charcoal toothpastes may be “fashionable,” they do not have a whitening effect. Instead, researchers found that the abrasiveness of charcoal toothpaste could cause tooth hypersensitivity; that particles of charcoal might lodge in gum pockets, causing damage and discoloration; and that few contained fluoride. (These toothpastes also leave “grey-black smears” on your towels.)
Tellingly, no charcoal toothpastes have received the A.D.A. Seal of Acceptance, a good resource for vetting products. Instead, Dr. Jiang said, whitening toothpastes that receive the seal are good to use every day.
You don’t need an electric toothbrush
Brush your teeth. Do it twice a day, against the gumline at a 45-degree angle, for two minutes. That’s all the A.D.A. says you need to do when it comes to brushing. Both electric and manual toothbrushes work.
That said, if you’re an enthusiastic brusher, said Dr. Jiang, an electric toothbrush with a pressure sensor to tell you to take it down a notch can be helpful, as brushing too forcefully is one of the leading causes of receding gums.
The health of your mouth is linked to the health of your body
The mouth and the rest of the body are intimately connected, but in health care, they are often treated separately, said Nezar Al-Hebshi, a co-director of the Oral Microbiome Research Laboratory at Temple University’s Kornberg School of Dentistry.
And a growing body of research shows how dental health can affect other parts of the body. Dr. Al-Hebshi listed five diseases for which there is “moderate to strong evidence” that periodontal disease may be a contributing factor, including diabetes, certain cancers and cardiovascular disease.
“So if you maintain very good oral health, you are at lower risk of developing cardiovascular complications, for example,” he said. People with diabetes who treat their gum disease may even be able to lower their blood sugar over time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Don’t get high before your dental exam
“I am seeing this in my office,” Dr. Quartey-Sagaille said. One reason patients may self-medicate, she noted, is that they are nervous. But, she explained: “You can’t consent to a treatment if you’re high. If patients have anxiety, it could make things worse, and I’m not able to numb people as effectively.” A 2019 study of cannabis users undergoing minimally invasive procedures found that a quarter of them had needed twice the anesthesia as patients who didn’t partake.
Inquire about options for pain control, if that’s what worries you, Dr. Jiang said. For teeth that are particularly sensitive, she added, start brushing a few weeks before your appointment with a desensitizing toothpaste that contains potassium nitrate, such as Sensodyne.
And if you did take a weed gummy before you arrived, tell your dentist. (You’ll join the 67 percent of patients in the same A.D.A. survey who reported that they were comfortable talking to their dentist about marijuana.) “You know, we’re not here to judge, just to provide you with the best care,” Dr. Quartey-Sagaille said.
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Thank you!
Bleeding gums were the norm for me. My dentist suggested I switch to an electric toothbrush, and it worked wonders.
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I don’t gloss. I’m honest about it with my dentist. It is self torture.
The ultrasonic toothbrush has changed my gums for the better. By a lot.
When I am gone from home and use a manual toothbrush, I can tell when I get home. My gums are sore.
Maybe I brush longer. Maybe the brush fits my small mouth better. Not sure.
I do floss often. And I never get high before my dental appointment 
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I wasn’t able to access the link, but people need to let their dentists know every medication and supplement they take. For example, Fosamax can cause jawbone problems. Heart meds may clue the dentist about issues that could be relevant (sometimes people will have to take antibiotics before a cleaning or dental work due to certain heart conditions). I would think that precautions may need to be taken for people who take blood thinners.
@kelsmom I posted the text.
I was talking to my dentist recently about the side effects of some of the Bisphosponates drugs for osteo. He said that every patient should have a dental screen PRIOR to starting the drugs to make sure there is no sign of ANY infection of any sort before starting the drugs. My doc (who is recommending osteo drugs for me) never mentioned that.
My hygenist is ALWAYS recommending an electric toothbrush. She is also a rep for one of the manufacturers apparently. 
But, I do have receeding gums and have had gum grafts in the past and need to be really careful with my brushing - which is hard - I want to get in there and get it done quickly! I finish bought a brush off Amazon that is not high $$ and has been working really, really well for me. Different pressure settings, rechargeable (only every few months its seems) and it pauses every 30 seconds so you sort of realize that when you think you should be done - you should probably brush a little longer!
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I wasn’t sure if that was the entire story, in case I was adding information that was in the story but that I couldn’t see.
Here’s the part before the list:
I don’t receive birthday cards from many of my friends, but I do from my dentist. A smiling tooth wishes me a happy birthday, along with a reminder to make an appointment.
Yet I’ve postponed my last three visits, having somehow convinced myself that, like cleaning the gutters on my house, I’ll just put it off until there’s a problem.
This is a mistake, said Tricia Quartey-Sagaille, a spokeswoman for the American Dental Association and a practicing dentist in Brooklyn. “A lot of people see the absence of pain as an indicator that nothing is going wrong and say, ‘My teeth are fine, I don’t need to go,’” she said.
The A.D.A. does not have a set schedule for checkups; some people need to visit the dentist once or twice a year, while others may require more trips. But what the three dentists I spoke to for this newsletter all agreed on is that you must go.
Often, Dr. Quartey-Sagaille pointed out, there is “no pain at all” with periodontal diseases, which are usually caused by an infection of the gums and the bones supporting the teeth and affect nearly half of adults 30 and older, potentially leading to tooth and bone loss. And the last thing you want is to have to make an emergency appointment when you’re in pain. For one thing, she said, when that happens, it is inevitably “on a weekend, or when you’re on a holiday internationally.”
OK, fine. I’m visiting my dentist next Tuesday (although I still haven’t made an appointment to clean out my gutters.) Here are five other things that dentists would like us to know.
I switched to an electric toothbrush years ago but before that the best advice I got was to hold the toothbrush like a pencil, not a hammer. Much less pressure on the gums.
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