If you have had problems with decay in your teeth, your dentist will have spoken to you about the importance of care with your diet (reducing intake and frequency of sweet/sugary/acidic foods and drinks) and taking care of your teeth (brushing twice daily with a toothpaste containing fluoride, spitting not rinsing after brushing, regular interdental cleaning).
There’s also a product that we recommend to a lot of our patients called Duraphat toothpaste. Produced by Colgate, there are two forms of this high-fluoride product, Duraphat 2800 and Duraphat 5000. The number refers to the amount of fluoride contained in the product (2800 part per million/ppm or 5000ppm). Most “normal” toothpastes contain around 1450ppm fluoride so these products have 2x and 3.5x the normal amount. Fluoride is a key component in better dental health as it hardens the teeth and makes them more resistant to decay.
Duraphat is a prescription-only product; your dentist has to recommend it for your personal use so if you’re having problems with decay or have been told that you are high risk (for example if you have a dry mouth, take several different medications etc.) then please make sure you ask your dentist about it.
Mike
