Taking care of your teeth is crucial for many reasons. Healthy teeth ensure that you chew food appropriately, which is the key to smooth digestion. Apart from that, if some of your teeth are missing or they are not in shape, you will have a hard time to speak clearly. These are just a few instances where healthy teeth come in handy, but the list goes on.
If you notice people around you with healthy teeth, mind you, it does not happen by chance. They look after their teeth with great care and caution. In fact, they are the people who mostly search for an emergency dentist near me.
Our lifestyle has changed so drastically that brushing twice a day is no longer going to guarantee a strong set of teeth. You should take the following measures to keep your teeth away from all sorts of decay and deformation:
1. Brush properly
Almost all of us know that brushing twice a day is essential for us. Many of us brush in the morning and don’t go to bed without brushing either. Yet, our teeth experience plaque and pain.
It is because we don’t know the protocols of brushing. No matter how many times you brush in a single day, if you are not aware of the right method of brushing, all your hard work just goes down the drain.
According to dentists, here is how one should brush:
- Select the right brush. Not all toothbrushes are the same. Depending on your age and condition of teeth, your dentist can tell you what sort of brush goes best for you. Remember, the standard age of toothbrush is 2 to 3 months. So avoid using a worn-out toothbrush.
- Your brush should be positioned at a 45-degree angle against the gum line. Rub it in a circular motion.
- Clean your tongue. It is surprising to learn that so many people skip this step. As a result, not only do they smell bad but plaque piles on their tongue.
- Cleaning the roof of your mouth and insides of your cheek will serve as extra protection.
- If you have a habit of brushing with too much force, abandon this practice right away. It will gradually damage your teeth.
2. Go for fluoride toothpaste
According to the figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when it comes to missing or decaying teeth in 12 years old children, 68 percent of decrease has been recorded in the 1990s as compared to the 1960s. The ratio has come down significantly because grave steps were taken by the concerned authorities to introduce fluoride at a broader scale.
Many oral products in America today contain fluoride. So if your toothpaste is deprived of this ever-important substance, it is probably the time to bid farewell to it in the greater interest of your oral health.
From preventing tooth decay to slowing down the loss of important minerals from our tooth enamel, fluoride provides an ideal defense mechanism to protect our teeth in the long run.
Some people indulge in activities like mixing fluoride in the water on their own. This could be a dangerous practice because you may mix too much fluoride, which can be unhealthy for your overall body. Toothpaste, on the other hand, carries a measured quantity of fluoride.
3. Use mouth wash
Many people assume that mouthwash is a tool to keep bad breath at bay. But in reality, it goes far beyond this, provided you use it consistently and follow the instructions of the respective brand. To be more precise, these are the prominent benefits you can avail by using mouthwash:
- Eases the cleaning: Some areas of our mouth are not easily accessible. You can’t clean them properly if you brush in haste, which is usually the case. Mouthwash conveniently cleans these portions. Mouthwash is especially beneficial for children and older people because their ability to brush is not up to the mark. You might be using a quality toothbrush, but at times it fails to remove particles from delicate places.
- Prevents decay: Bacteria are instrumental in causing decay. Using an antibacterial mouthwash frequently will kill them before they wreak havoc to your teeth.
- Strengthens enamel: Enamel is generally stronger than bone. But it gets roughed up with time and keeps getting weaker as the years slip by. However, a fluoride mouthwash can be very beneficial to restore its health and make it more resilient.
4. Be careful about what you eat
Diet is yet another important factor that has a lot to do with the overall health of our teeth. If you want to keep your teeth nice and tidy in the long run, you have to be somewhat selective about your food consumption.
For example, first and foremost, you have to limit the consumption of sugar. Sugar is prone to produce acids, and as a result, your enamel gets badly affected by it. So if you are fond of sugary items like pastries, candies, cakes, and similar desserts, eat them at your peril.
There is no need to stop eating them altogether but do so in moderation. The same goes for alcohol. Typically, a woman must not consume more than one drink in a day. For men, two drinks a day is the standard intake.
Moreover, you can eat fruits and vegetables. It includes a long list of items like apples, cucumbers, carrots, broccoli, etc. All these foods give a good massage to your gums and clean your teeth.
If you are a chewing-gum lover, your teeth are most likely to stay intact. The reason being, chewing gums are capable of extracting tiny food particles. If you don’t have access to sugar-free gum, avoid eating one.
5. Visit your dentist frequently
Well, if you happen to be one of those people who visit their dentists once in a blue moon, you should be mentally prepared for the surprises. Because of the communication gap between you and your dentist, bacteria will have the ideal time to destroy your oral health.
Even if you are following all the key instructions, it is good to get hooked up with your dentist twice a year, at minimum, as advised by the American Dental Association. Your teeth don’t always remain the same. As time goes by, their nature changes, and you might have to turn to different solutions from time to time.
The biggest benefit of frequently going to your dentist is that problems get identified in their early stages. We all know that the treatment is also affordable in the initial phase. As the disease progresses, it keeps going beyond your financial reach. So all those people who don’t see a dentist citing financial reasons, they are inviting a more prominent financial disaster.
Final thoughts
If your teeth are impoverished, you will miss out on so many things. So much so, your smile might turn you into a laughing stock in your circle. There is nothing complicated about the above measures. One can easily subscribe to them, but it all comes down to being consistent. Given the role healthy teeth play in our life, nothing should stop you from taking care of them.