Improve Your Oral Health by Doing This!

Healthy teeth cannot be maintained without some work! But all it takes to attain a lifetime of good dental health is to start and maintain a few healthy habits. Because oral health is so closely linked to general health, taking care of your teeth will also help you avoid illnesses elsewhere in your body.

Here are four simple ways to enhance your dental health:

Drink water and chew sugar free gum after each meal

It seems like there is someone advising you to drink more water everywhere you go. While we all agree that everyone should drink lots of water, we’d like to focus on the best time to do so: after a meal. Drinking water after each meal helps to wash away the acid from food and drinks from our teeth in between brushing intervals, thus protecting our teeth enamel and keeping our smiles great. Best yet, there are many studies that have linked chewing sugar free gum (eg Xylitol containing gums) after each meal and reducing the chances of you getting newer cavities. This has been hypothesized that this is due to helping mechanically self clean teeth while chewing and due to increase salivary flow which also leads to the benefits mentioned above.

Make it a habit to brush your teeth before bedtime

There is a reason why brushing twice a day is recommended by almost all dentists, but the most essential time to brush is at night after you’ve stopped eating for the day. This is because you’ve acquired a day’s worth of bacteria, plaque, and food fragments during the day. If you don’t brush your teeth on a regular basis, germs in your mouth can grow out of control causing cavities and spreading to other parts of your body, causing illnesses. Brushing your teeth every night is a major step toward bettering your oral health. Plus, it just takes a few minutes to complete.

Never neglect flossing

You’re not alone if you don’t floss on a regular basis. After a thorough brushing, your mouth may feel so clean that flossing is unnecessary. Flossing, on the other hand, isn’t simply for getting rid of food caught between your teeth. It also stimulates gums and aids in the removal of plaque, which helps to prevent tooth decay and gum disease. And there’s good news: flossing isn’t required every time you brush. Even if you only floss once a day, your dental health will improve tremendously.

See your dentist twice a year

Regular dental checkups are beneficial to even the most dedicated brushers & flossers. Getting a full cleaning from your dentist twice a year will help you maintain good dental health. It also helps to look for cavities or other minor abnormalities that, if left unaddressed, might develop to greater problems down the line. This will end up costing you much more in terms of money and time to take care off, as Benjamin Franklin once said “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.