Your teeth help us in eating food, speaking and maintaining our appearance. However, it is much easier for them to deteriorate therefore, you should find ways to maintain healthy teeth for life.
We all want to know the secret of how to keep teeth healthy naturally for a long time. However, it does not involve any extensive practices but minor additions to your daily life and lifestyle can be extremely beneficial for your teeth.
Keep reading this article to know how you can incorporate a few practices and habits in your life to maintain strong teeth.
Tip 1: Brush Properly
This is a no-brainer that you need to brush properly if you want your teeth to last longer.
Brushing helps to remove bacteria and plaque from your teeth that accumulate due to eating and drinking.
Furthermore, it prevents plaque from hardening and becoming tartar.
Therefore, brushing two times a day is crucial to your oral health.
Though, you may miss out on brushing before sleep. Don’t do that!
Brushing your teeth before sleeping helps to clean off all the bacteria and plaque that gathers in the mouth for the entire day. Leaving it unclean will harden it overnight and tartar is much more difficult to remove.
Besides brushing twice, you also need to brush your teeth properly. You need to move the toothbrush in circular motions rather than horizontal and vertical.
Keep the toothbrush at a 45-degree angle and clean the insides and front of your upper and lower teeth thoroughly for 2 minutes.
Most people brush only for 45 seconds, hence put on a timer or use an electric toothbrush to completely clean your teeth for a full 2 minutes.
Another important thing is to remember to change your brush every 3 months. If the bristles are worn out then they no longer work correctly.
Moreover, you should also brush your teeth gently. Some people believe that harsher brushing removes plaque more effectively. That isn’t true.
Brushing harshly will only damage your enamel and once your enamel wears down, the stains on your dentin will become more visible.
Hence, make gentle, circular strokes at a 45-degree angle with a toothbrush with soft bristles.
Also, don’t forget your tongue. Your tongue contains lots of bacteria.
This can lead to bad breath, hence clean it with a tongue scraper or the back of your toothbrush during your brushing routine.
Healthy Teeth Tip 2: Brush Using Fluoride Toothpaste
Now you know how to use your brush properly but you still need toothpaste to use with it.
It is better to go for toothpaste containing fluoride. Fluoride strengthens the enamel and protects your teeth from decay.
It can also prevent cavities inside your mouth hence, it is better to use toothpaste with fluoride.
In fact, you should not immediately rinse the toothpaste with water but spit it out so that the fluoride stays on the enamel for some time and isn’t wash out immediately.
Moreover, you can also add fluoride to your routine by using a mouthwash containing it.
Mouthwashes can prevent plaque, gum disease, bad breath and provide strength to your teeth.
They contain antibacterial agents and essential oils that can complement your oral hygiene routine.
Hence, brushing using a fluoride toothpaste and using a fluoride mouthwash can give you double the benefits.
Tip 3: Eating A Healthy Diet
As long as you eat a healthy diet, you can avoid many problems with your teeth.
Eating good food will keep the teeth strong and healthy. Moreover, it will reduce the chances of cavities and decay.
Hence, you will not have to spend on extensive dental procedures such as teeth whitening, dental fillings and dental implants if you take good dental care of your teeth from the beginning.
You should eat fruits and crunchy vegetables. Also, make your children eat hard-to-chew crunchy foods. Do not give them processed foods that are mushy because this will only weaken their teeth and not strengthen their jaw.
Also add proteins such as lentils, eggs, meat and seafood alongside wholegrains.
Though you should clearly avoid or limit intake of:
- food rich in fats
- drinks full of sugar and fat such as carbonated drinks, fruit juices and smoothies
- syrups, jams, honey and sweet sauces
- starchy foods like bread, pasta and crackers
- chocolates, icecreams, biscuits, cookies, cake, brownies or other desserts
- adding table sugar to drinks such as tea and coffee
All of these foods can cause tooth decay and cavities. Hence, limiting their intake and choosing to eat more healthy fruits and vegetables will help your mouth health.
If you cannot fully avoid it then you can at least lower it down to 5 to 10 percent of your daily calorie intake.
Starchy and sugary foods contain simple sugars. These breakdowns in the mouth produce an acid that feeds the bacteria inside. Hence, it increases your chances of getting decay.
Therefore, opt for less fat and fewer sugars in your food and dairy products while eating fiber and protein-rich foods.
Healthy Teeth Tip 4: Don’t Forget To Floss
Now that you have had your meals it is time to brush and floss.
You should ideally try to brush 30 minutes after every meal. However, if that is not possible then brushing twice is fine.
That said, you should floss once a day. It removes, the food particles stuck in between your teeth and gums.
It not only removes food debris but also plaque and bacteria from places where the toothbrush cannot reach properly. Hence, it saves the teeth from cavities and halitosis.
You can use a string floss from the teeth through the gum line in a C-shape and angle.
It may be difficult to understand at first but flossing is essential for your dental health as the food particles may remain stuck in your mouth otherwise.
Do not snap it up and down as that will only cause pain. If you feel that the string floss is hard to use, especially for children or people with arthritis, then you can try the water flosser.
The water flosser may not be as effective as the string floss but it will still help keep your teeth and gums healthy by removing the plaque and food debris.
Hence, do not miss out on flossing regularly daily if you want good teeth.
Tip 5: Quit Smoking and Alcohol Use
Smoking has more than one bad effect on your teeth. It not only affects your oral and gum health but also your general well-being and physical condition.
It weakens the immune system, hence it hinders healing and slows it down. This also means that it can slow down the healing of oral tissues.
Firstly, it stains your teeth dark yellow. It is quite difficult to remove these stains by only using home remedies, hence you may have to go for Dental Zoom Whitening instead.
Furthermore, it also causes bad breath to come out of your mouth. Both of these factors can affect your oral health and appearance.
It also happens to put you at risk of developing gingivitis which can ultimately lead to tooth loss.
Similarly, alcohol also has detrimental effects on your health. Heavy drinkers may go through enamel loss as it can erode it over time. You will have to go for fillings in Dubai to heal it properly.
Moreover, a combination of both alcohol and smoking can be even worse for your teeth and health.
People who both drink and smoke are 38 times more likely to get mouth cancer than those who do not.
Regularly drinking alcohol alone can also cause damage to your liver and cause mouth cancer.
Moreover, drinking red wine can also heavily stain your teeth.
Therefore, stay away from both of these and avoid them as much as possible if you want your teeth to last well your entire life Also to decrease the risk they pose generally to your health and wellbeing.
Tip 6: Make Regular Visits To The Dentist
You should schedule a dentist appointment every 6 months.
Visiting a dentist or dental hygienist twice a year helps to keep your oral health and dental hygiene in check.
They can look for any signs of gum disease, cavities and even cancers before you detect them.
Moreover, you can get a teeth cleaning or a deep dental cleaning at every visit. You can also get a dental X-ray once a year to look for impacted wisdom teeth or signs of oral cancer.
Your dentist can also guide you about oral health and hygiene practices that you should include in your life to keep the health of your teeth.
Furthermore, you can take your children for a dental visit. The dentist can assess their baby teeth and emerging permanent adult teeth in their dental clinic.
Parents should also make sure that they instill good oral habits in children. Once they start having teeth, they should start brushing them even if they fall off later.
Starting dental visits earlier also builds a friendly relationship between the dentist and the child which eases the work of the dentist and reduces fear in the child.
Therefore, regular dental visits are essential for you and your children so that your teeth remain strong and healthy for your entire life without the need for dentures or other dental procedures.
Conclusion
You can maintain healthy teeth if you follow these tips regularly.
It does not take as much effort as you may think, in fact, these are just minor lifestyle changes.
These lifestyle changes can overall improve your quality of life as well as reduce any expenditure spent on dental treatments.
