While you may exercise and eat right to take care of your general health, are you doing the same to improve your oral health? You don’t have to go to great lengths to keep your teeth and gums healthy; a few changes or additions to your daily routine can do wonders for your dental health care.
Gain insight on how to bring out the best in your smile to save your teeth, save money, and save yourself the frustration that comes with learning you need a major dental procedure.
Follow these dental health care tips if you want to maintain your teeth and gums in a perfect condition:
Eat More of This and Less of That
Besides maintaining a healthy weight, you should also think about the number of carbohydrates you consume to take optimum care of your teeth. By eating a lot of carbs, you risk gum disease, also known as gingivitis.
Foods like mashed potatoes, white rice, white bread, and sugar have a high glycemic index. What this means is that such foods are likely to raise your blood sugar and insulin levels, which, in turn, cause inflammation of your gums.
Left untreated, gum disease can cause pockets to form between your gums and teeth, which can become infected. Not only that, but gum disease can also eat away at gum tissue and bone.
What’s worse is that you could have gum disease and not even know it, allowing the detrimental effects to persist longer than necessary. To combat gum disease, eat more vegetables, nuts, and beans, all of which have a low glycemic level and don’t trigger gum inflammation.
Drink Plenty of Water
Water is great for your body in multiple ways, including improving your oral health. When it comes to your teeth, what’s so great about water is that it can rinse away food debris clinging to your teeth before it breaks down and starts eating away at your teeth.
Drinking water also aids in the production of saliva, which has minerals that help protect the enamel on your teeth. If you drink or eat anything with sugar, do yourself a favor and follow your beverage or food up with a glass of water. That way, the water has a chance to wash away sugary particles clinging to your teeth and gums that can lead to oral health problems later on.
Brush at Least Twice a Day
Brushing at least twice a day is common advice, but it most certainly deserves a spot on this list. Brush in the morning after eating breakfast, and again at night before going to bed. The less time food debris has on the surface on your teeth, the less time it has to break down into harmful, enamel-eating bacteria.
If you really care about your dental health, take this tip one step further by brushing your teeth twice a day with an electric toothbrush. Regular toothbrushes are great, but they can still leave behind particles.
Electric toothbrushes are better able to scrub your teeth fully clean, taking your dental health care routine to a whole new level. Even better, electric toothbrushes can come with a number of different brush heads for deep cleaning, whitening, and taking care of sensitive teeth.
You may also like the fact that electric toothbrushes are better for the environment.
Avoid Acidic Drinks
Do you drink a lot of soda, coffee, and alcohol? If so, your teeth could be a lot worse off because of it. Such beverages contain a lot of acids, which can wear away at protective tooth enamel.
One of the worse things about decayed tooth enamel is that once it’s gone, it can’t be restored. Enamel doesn’t have any living cells, which means it doesn’t grow back. After tooth enamel erodes due to acidic drinks, the exposed dentin underneath can make your teeth more sensitive, among other such related issues.
If you just can’t give up drinks that arebad for your enamel, you should at least eat food with the beverage. Eating can dilute the acid, as can rinsing your mouth with water after an acidic drink.
Because your teeth can be sensitive soon after consuming acidic drinks, wait at least 30 minutes after drinking before brushing your teeth, so you don’t do accidentally harm to your teeth while trying to care for them.
Avoid Over-the-Counter Mouthwash
Not all mouthwashes are created equal. Specifically, over-the-counter mouthwash can contain acid, which was touched on above. Additionally, you have to watch out for mouthwashes that have alcohol.
All that alcohol may feel as if it’s scorching your mouth and teeth clean, but in reality, all it’s doing is drying out your mouth. When you have dry mouth, you’re more likely to have bad breath. Also, alcohol can lead to tooth sensitivity.
Ask your dentist to recommend a mouthwash. That way, you don’t have to worry about damaging alcohol, or some of the harmful ingredients found in mouthwashes that don’t contain alcohol, such as tooth-staining ingredients.
Floss at Least Every Other Day
Admit it, you likely don’t floss as often as you should. To keep your dentist and your teeth happy, you should floss every other day…at least. It’s so easy to feel as if you’re doing plenty to take care of your dental health by brushing and using mouthwash, but even then, you may not take care of all the debris that may linger between your teeth.
By flossing, you help prevent gingivitis, control diabetes (by balancing blood glucose levels), reduce bad breath, and even prevent heart and respiratory disease.
When you do floss, it’s essential that you proceed gently. By using gentle strokes, you don’t have to worry about accidentally hurting your gums. If your gums bleed during or after flossing, you’re likely flossing a bit too hard.
Visit Your Dentist Regularly
Of course, no article on oral health is complete without mentioning regular trips to the dentist. Just like you should take your vehicle to the mechanic for routine maintenance, the same applies to your teeth. You can save a lot of money by taking action on minor issues before they have a chance to worsen or cause irreparable damage.
Doing what’s best for your smile is much easier when you’ve got the right daily routine. If you care about your dental health, see for yourself how the above tips work for you and your teeth.
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