Pregnancy Tips For Oral Health - Video

Dr Vanessa Creaven answers gives us her top tips for oral care health before and during pregnancy from our Instagram Stories. 

Be sure to follow us at @spotlight_oral_care on Instagram for more oral health tips as well as promotions and discounts. 

Oral Heath Pregancy Tips:

1. Book in with your dentist before you become pregnant
2. Have a professional clean every trimester.
3. Invest in your oral care regime at home
4. Buy a Sonic Toothbrush
5. Don't worry if you experience mobility of your teeth
6. Avoid whitening strips   

Vanessa Creavan: 
I hope everyone is keeping really well today. So our top tooth tip this Thursday is all about pregnancy and oral health. We had a live Instagram last week on it, but we said we just round it out this week with a few top tips. We'll save it on our Instagram highlights. If you do know anyone who is pregnant or is soon to be pregnant, you can pass it on to them, we'll save it on our highlight as pregnancy and oral health.

Tip 1 - Book in with your dentist before you become pregnant

So the first thing we would say is if you're planning to conceive in the next three to six months, we would recommend to get your dentist and your hygienist is to have a full checkup completed and have a cleaning done. And the reason why we would say this is very often when you are pregnant, we won't take x-rays and we won't actually do any active treatment while you are pregnant. But before you're pregnant, it's really nice time to have any work that needs to be done, done prior to actually conceiving

Tip 2 - Have a professional clean every trimester

The next tip is 'congrats you are pregnant'. Very often in the first trimester, you'll find that your gums will become very tender and sore and may bleed. And then this may happen if you've never had bleeding gums before. And the reason this happens and can happen generally starts at about week seven to eight is because of the change in progesterone and estrogen levels in your body and your gums and your gum health is really really sensitive to any hormonal changes. So while you are pregnant, we would really encourage you to have a professional cleaning with your hygienists or your dentist, every trimester. And the reason this is, it helps reduce the bacteria load in the gums and it also makes the gums much stronger to tolerate any change in hormone pressures.

Tip 3 - Invest in your oral care regime at home

It's a really good idea while pregnant is to invest in your oral care regime at home. So brush twice a day with a fluoride base toothpaste. Toothpastes that I'd recommend while pregnant are the toothpaste for gum health and the toothpaste for rebuilding teeth. The reason I would suggest these two toothpastes is because, number one your gums are going to be a little bit more inflamed while you are pregnant. And number two, the toothpaste for rebuilding teeth is because if you are in any way prone to nausea or vomiting, with morning sickness while pregnant, that contains the active ingredient Hydroxyapatite which is really, really helpful for any rebuilding of early enamel erosions that you might tend to get with a lot of reflux or vomiting.

Tip 4 - Buy a Sonic Toothbrush

And the other thing that I would really suggest you invest in at home while you are pregnant is a sonic toothbrush. And this will help you massively with any gum inflammations, or any bleeding gums. And it would also prevent you getting any gum recession from scrubbing or over brushing your teeth.

Tip 5 - Don't worry if you experience mobility of your teeth

The last couple of things are sometimes pregnant women can experience mobility or loosening off their teeth while pregnant. This is something that really worries pregnant women and obviously it's very concerning when you feel that way. That is entirely due to the progesterone and an estrogen levels that change while you are pregnant. I often say - don't worry, it will revert back to normal and they'll feel like they'll tighten up after you've had your baby. But it's entirely due to the hormone changes and fluctuations while you are pregnant.

Tip 6 - Avoid whitening strips

And the last I would say is that we don't recommend use the whitening strips while pregnant or breastfeeding. But every other product is suitable to use while pregnant or breastfeeding. I hope they're some helpful tips. If you do know of any pregnant patients or any pregnant people, do you let them know about it because often as a pregnant woman, I find it really helpful to know some of these tips. They're really easy tips and they might put some woman's mind at ease.