Dr Ellie program?

[asag]

I've been reading about Dr. Ellie's oral routine (closys rinse, brush, listerine rinse, fluoride rinse, along with xylitol throughout the day) and I'm curious if anyone has tried it. If so, what results have you seen? For example, has your hygienist noticed a change?

I'd be willing to try this if it works but it seems expensive with all the required products. But, if it means improved gum and teeth health, I'm up for it.

[isthistaken]

Never heard of it. WaterPik and Sonicare has some of the best results though and might even be cheaper.

[mmkay]

I remember reading her website a while back. It may well be useful in limiting decay, but that doesn't mean it's any better than say adding in tooth mouse (mi paste) at night and a weekly fluoride mouthwash. It's just one person pushing their own system - and selling associated products. Orthodontists etc make recommendations based on scientific literature as well as their own experiences.

I see no reason to believe her system is better than anything a decent orthodontist will recommend, except she happens to have a website.

[TMJJill]

My Orthodontist is actually very anti-fluoride. He believes in being as holistically healthy as possible instead of introducing so many chemicals into the body. I brush, floss, waterpik, and use a Christmas Tree brush when needed. I'm almost finished with my treatment and after 2 years, I have no further decay or acid damage and my teeth have needed very little cleaning at my regular check-ups. My gum health had remained very good too.

I'd say that most of us are much more vigilant in our dental hygiene because we have the braces. All that cleaning and flossing do really work.

I'd say that unless you have some specific dental issues, that routine seems like a bit much.

[asag]

Yeah, I was thinking her program was a bit of overkill (and expensive!). I'll stick to the waterpick and sonicare, with daily flossing - it seems to be working so far and so there's probably no need to change things. I also rinse with fluoride daily (I live in Portland, which has non-fluoridated water...).

[sirwired]

My Orthodontist is actually very anti-fluoride. He believes in being as holistically healthy as possible instead of introducing so many chemicals into the body. I brush, floss, waterpik, and use a Christmas Tree brush when needed. I'm almost finished with my treatment and after 2 years, I have no further decay or acid damage and my teeth have needed very little cleaning at my regular check-ups. My gum health had remained very good too.

I'd say that most of us are much more vigilant in our dental hygiene because we have the braces. All that cleaning and flossing do really work.

I'd say that unless you have some specific dental issues, that routine seems like a bit much.

An anti-fluoride dentist? You have a very strange dentist. It has well-proven, easily understood benefits when exposed to tooth enamel (it bonds with the enamel and stray calcium ions to form a cavity-resistant layer of fluorapatite) with a risk of side effects of essentially zero. Yes, certainly cavities are not inevitable with proper and meticulous oral hygiene, but given the higher risk experienced by orthodontic patients in general, avoiding all forms of fluoride therapy (at the least, OTC fluoridated toothpaste) is unusual by a dentist, to say the least.

Fluoride occurs completely naturally in many water supplies (indeed, this is how the anti-cavity benefits of water fluoridation were discovered) and the only adverse effect at anything even vaguely resembling dental doses is the chance of visible staining. (And this still takes doses well over and above anything cleared for OTC or municipal water use.) Unabsorbed Fluoride at dentally therapeutic doses is readily excreted by the kidneys.

Incidentally, it's also present in many foods/beverages, most notably tea.

[isthistaken]

Given that tea is the national drink of some areas with well-known proclivity to dental problems, I don't think that last bit helps your argument much.

[TMJJill]

My Orthodontist is actually very anti-fluoride. He believes in being as holistically healthy as possible instead of introducing so many chemicals into the body. I brush, floss, waterpik, and use a Christmas Tree brush when needed. I'm almost finished with my treatment and after 2 years, I have no further decay or acid damage and my teeth have needed very little cleaning at my regular check-ups. My gum health had remained very good too.

I'd say that most of us are much more vigilant in our dental hygiene because we have the braces. All that cleaning and flossing do really work.

I'd say that unless you have some specific dental issues, that routine seems like a bit much.

An anti-fluoride dentist? You have a very strange dentist. It has well-proven, easily understood benefits when exposed to tooth enamel (it bonds with the enamel and stray calcium ions to form a cavity-resistant layer of fluorapatite) with a risk of side effects of essentially zero. Yes, certainly cavities are not inevitable with proper and meticulous oral hygiene, but given the higher risk experienced by orthodontic patients in general, avoiding all forms of fluoride therapy (at the least, OTC fluoridated toothpaste) is unusual by a dentist, to say the least.

Fluoride occurs completely naturally in many water supplies (indeed, this is how the anti-cavity benefits of water fluoridation were discovered) and the only adverse effect at anything even vaguely resembling dental doses is the chance of visible staining. (And this still takes doses well over and above anything cleared for OTC or municipal water use.) Unabsorbed Fluoride at dentally therapeutic doses is readily excreted by the kidneys.

Incidentally, it's also present in many foods/beverages, most notably tea.

I still use general toothpaste with fluoride, but I have been reading up on the pros and cons of fluoride. Naturopathic doctors and holistic dentists all cite a lot of research on the cons of fluoride. If you are interested, there are some interesting articles by the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology.