#FlossingFriday #DontForget2Floss #DF2F #MWDH #ReduceYourRisk #OralHattrick #OSC

Imagine if you could reduce your risk of getting sick?  This is a question a lot of us are paying attention to these days.  I’m sure many of us are thinking of ways to reduce our risk of coming in contact or falling ill with COVID-19.  Allow me to offer my Dental Hygiene opinion.

Dental Hygiene is a health care profession founded on prevention.  When one thinks of prevention, something that is often overlooked is the topic of risk reduction.

As a dental hygienist of today, I routinely tell my patients during cold and flu season that they can reduce their risk of getting a cold or flu bug if they keep their mouth clean.  A simple analogy could be that if you have ‘bad bacteria or viruses’ in your mouth, it is an easy opportunity for their friends to invite themselves to the party.  During my education at UBC, I encountered much research existing/supporting that a dirty mouth increases ones risk of a cold, the flu or even oral cancer!  The details of ‘why’ are still being investigated and I am eager to get to the why, however, what we know for sure is that there is a correlation between a dirty mouth and an increase in ones risk of disease.

If a flu virus is more likely to find a place to reside in your dirty mouth, a similar line of thought could be applied to COVID-19.  There are a lot of unknowns with a Coronavirus but we do know that COVID-19 is present in saliva.

Reducing your risk of COVID-19 could include establishing a good oral hygiene routine.  As a Canadian Dental Hygienist, I always appreciate good oral self-care (OSC) hat-trick: Brush, Floss, and Rinse.

With a global pandemic on our hands, my hopes for Canadians could be similar to ones desire for a strong hat-trick during game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs!

My fellow Canadians, go for a daily hat-trick!
Brush! Floss! And Rinse!
Reduce your risk of illness today!

Due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns an important detail not to overlook: WASH (& dry) YOUR HANDS BEFORE and AFTER you do the brush/floss/rinse routine…..  When you put your hands in your mouth you don’t want to introduce any foreign pathogens or microbes.

Thank you for taking the time to take a moment to hear me from a dental hygiene perspective.  Remember that as a primary care provider your dental hygienist cares about your mouth and thus your overall health.  The oral-systemic link is real and the mouth is connected to your body.  Please take care of your teeth and gums and don’t hesitate to contact your dental hygienist if you would like to investigate the oral-systemic link further.

Disclaimer: Although there is no definitive research about COVID-19 specifically at this moment in time, some transference of knowledge can likely be applied here.  More research is needed to prove the information shared above to make it ‘fact’,  but if you feel it is appropriate to make inferences and apply existing knowledge we have in regards to ‘cold and flu bugs’ to COVID-19, please do so at your own risk.  MidWest Dental Hygiene can not be held responsible for any incorrect oral hygiene measures you perform at home; please perform oral self-care safely and appropriately.  -Dayna Nipkow, RDH

Dayna for MidWest Dental Hygiene Inc
Suite 201 3200 30th Ave
Vernon BC V1T 2C5
250-241-4867
[email protected]