Cleaning the in-between and hard-to-access areas first is fundamental for thriving health in our mouths.
Oral health is closely related to the health of the entire body and overall wellbeing. Working as a dentist in multiple dental offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dr. Matias Fontanetto has been closely observing the synergies between oral diseases and other systemic illnesses. In this interview, you will also get familiar with the golden rules Dr. Fontanetto encourages his patients to follow for perfect oral health care.
What routines do you find most critical for maintaining proper oral health?
Effectively communicating how to properly take care of one’s oral health can be challenging, but in my opinion, we need to teach oral hygiene instructions clearly, consequently, and personally.
I give our patients ‘tips’ on how to control specific movements and advise them to get used to brushing in front of the mirror to be able to map their mouths. I try to teach them how to be able to recognise various defects, orthodontics apparatus, and gingival recessions themselves.
Following Curaden’s main philosophy ‘touch to teach’ and approaching each client individually, we report outstanding results in oral prophylaxis.
What does the word prevention mean to you?
Prevention happens in the now and by acting it out we indirectly take care of the future, too. Taking care of the teeth on a daily basis is much healthier than fixing what we neglected in the past. Health begins in our mouth and is closely related to the health of our entire body and overall wellbeing.
Of course, a healthy mouth alone does not guarantee a healthy body, but we can say with confidence that no one is able to enjoy perfect health if something in the mouth is wrong. And in that way, healthy mouths mean healthy humans.
Furthermore, there are many examples where we observe synergy between periodontal disease and another systemic illness, for instance diabetes. If we could stop the prognosis of one of them, the other would get better. The objective is clear: oral prevention.
Today, we have a lot of resources and oral care products by Curaden which we can motivate our patients with, and improve their routines.
What is your golden rule or advice that you tell your patients often?
When talking about oral health care, I’ve summarised my advice into 10 easy and useful points:
- Focus on the right technique, with the correct dental and interdental brushes, and start with the most difficult places.
- Brush every day, and every hard surface in the mouth.
- Brush in front of the mirror, especially when doing different types of dental brushing.
- Brush thoroughly, with minimal pressure, softly, slowly, moving in small circles and closing your eyes to feel the bristles and filaments move inside the gingival sulcus.
- Replace your toothbrush approximately once every three months. Replace the interdental toothbrush (IPS Prime/Perio) once you see it running out of filaments.
- Rinse all dental tools after use.
- Use a soft toothbrush instead of a hard one.
- Clean the interdental spaces every day because interdental areas are the most important.
- Pick the right toothpaste, as most of them contain aggressive agents that are unhealthy for our tissues.
- After an illness such as a cold or any other infection (for example COVID-19), replace your toothbrush immediately.
What’s the biggest challenge of your job?
What I love most about my job is when I see my patients switch their mindset and the overall approach to their dental routine. I feel blessed if I see my clients motivated, asking questions, and then observing the positive change. I realise that every changing process is a little revolution.
What’s the thing that you like about your job the most?
I like taking photos before and after the clinic treatments, and I also love recommending all Curaprox products because I truly believe they are the best I’ve ever tried.
Lately, I found something very interesting in my professional activity. Triggered by the situation around the pandemic, I started editing educational videos, generating oral care content, and communicating with fellow colleagues and people who want to connect with oral care tips more than ever. I learned new concepts through online webinars or zoom courses, and through social networks, which I haven’t done before to such an extent.
Welcome to the Billion Healthy Mouths Club
Proper routines in prevention are the future of dentistry – that’s why we at Curaden launched the Billion Healthy Mouths Club – a community of dental professionals committed to the idea of having proper routines in prevention and a holistic approach to dentistry. , and we proudly share his experience and thoughts with other like-minded people from the field. Keep reading our Gently magazine to discover more interviews with forward-thinking professionals from around the world.
What’s the most important thing in the terms of an oral care routine, from your point of view?
Cleaning in-between the teeth first should be a statement known all over the world. Interdental cleaning has to be a part of our brushing ritual because we have to clean all surfaces, especially the inter-proximal areas. And if we clean all surfaces, we’ll do a much better job.
What’s the biggest oral health myth that you need to explain often?
Many people wet the bristles before brushing. This may be because they think it is a good way to increase the effectiveness of the dental technique by generating more foam. Toothpaste behaves like soap, and just like every soap, once you mix it with water its concentration decreases. Therefore, I recommend brushing with dry toothpaste and dry toothbrush.
Matias Fontanetto has worked as a dentist in multiple dental offices and clinics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is based now. He studied dentistry at Facultad de Odontologia of Universidad Nacional de Rosario, took the endodontic course at Universidad Maimonides, and now continues to study Periodontology Ph.D. at Pontificia Universidad Católica Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires. Dr. Fontanetto holds various postgraduate courses on dental aesthetics and is also trained in the oral prophylaxis. Recently, he lectured during webinars for Sociedad Española de Periodoncia y Osteointegración (SEPA). If you would like to know more about his work, you can follow him on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, and Tik Tok @drmatiasfontanetto.
