Juggling dental health with your work and family commitments can present a challenge for some, but with the new year, it’s definitely worth doing an audit on your dental health habits.
Brushing and flossing twice daily, and getting a professional dental cleaning twice a year, are the best ways to keep healthy. But do you wonder what else you could be doing?
There are a lot of lessons learned from oral hygiene tips given to our patients using invisalign, that anyone can make use of for healthy teeth and gums. Because Invisalign requires maximum sterility for dental health, a patient who doesn’t wear anything in their mouth can benefit from following this advice even casually!
Healthy Teeth
Your teeth have several layers, and if they’re breached, your dental and oral health is at risk. Your teeth’s first line of defence is your enamel, so learning to care for the enamel of your teeth can go a long way, setting you up for good oral health.
Your Enamel
Your enamel is the top layer of your teeth, shielding two layers beneath it. It’s highly mineralized, hard, and translucent, often a pearl or off-white colour. Dentin is rigid, porous, and off yellow. Beneath that, lies your tooth’s pulp chamber, a mass of nerves and veins.
Many of the tips that can grant you dental and oral health involve preserving your enamel, and keeping your gums hanging on tight where they meet the enamel. Enamel can wear away, so preserving it makes the most sense.
Avoid Abrasive Whitening Gums
Some whitening chewing gums might tempt you, due to their convenience and whitening effect. But these chewing gums have abrasive substances, designed to scrape stains away as you chew. The trouble is, they take your enamel with them, weakening your teeth’s defenses.
It’s best to consider all options if you’re interested in teeth whitening, especially those that preserve your enamel.
Make Sure Your Toothpaste has Fluoride
Fluoride toothpaste helps with the cleaning process, and it can even help to remineralize your enamel, so strengthening it offers better protection. Your selection of toothpaste can form an important dental health factor, so feel free to ask your dentist if you need a recommendation!
Don’t Delay a Dental Emergency
The insides of your teeth, specifically pulp chambers, are alive. If they’re cracked or broken to their core, you’ve got a time-sensitive window to get it repaired. If there’s a lot of damage, the need for a root canal might be unavoidable. But with time, there’s an increased risk of complications, maybe necessitating a root canal specialist.
A cracked or broken tooth is a dental emergency, so please don’t hesitate seeing us when needed.
Brush Your Tongue
Especially before sleeping, brushing your tongue ensures bacteria is well under control before you go to bed. As you sleep, bacteria can thrive on your tongue and establish themselves on tooth surfaces in contact with your tongue.
Tooth decay is the result of rampant bacterial activity on your teeth, as they feed on whatever they can find. If you brush your tongue you remove both food and bacteria, which lowers your risk of decay.
Healthy Gums & Healthy Teeth
Some advice benefits your gums just as much as your teeth. Your gums’ health is just as important for your oral health as your dental health, so you’ll want to keep them healthy as much as possible.
Swish Your Mouth with Water After Eating & Drinking
Swishing water in your mouth grants a high chance of dislodging microscopic food particles where your gums meet your teeth. By doing so you keep bacteria off the base surface of your teeth, preventing tooth decay, as well as the gum line.
Drink Lots of Water Before Bed
Drinking water before bed can dramatically reduce bad morning breath, and halt dry mouth, which can result in a better environment for bacteria.
Don’t Eat After Brushing Your Teeth at Night
As you can probably guess, eating after you brush your teeth and going to bed produces the opposite effect you want. Existing bacteria have tons of food supply so they can dramatically reproduce. Tooth decay becomes likely if you make this a habit.
Only Chew Sugar-Free Gum
Sugar in gums you chew can reside in your mouth long after you’ve finished chewing them, becoming an ample food source where it settles. Your risk of tooth decay is much higher compared to sugar-free gums, which have artificial sweeteners.
Eat Crunchy Vegetables
Eating raw vegetables is great for your teeth and gums because it denies a food source to bacteria. Bacteria thrive most on carbohydrates, fats, oils, and sugars. But crunchy vegetables are not an easy target, and they struggle to break it down.
Good Dental Hygiene Habits Mean Easy Dental Exams
If you’ve noticed your dental health backsliding a little in recent months, there’s no need to worry yet; you might just need to implement a few tips to supercharge already good habits.
Without Invisalign, there isn’t as much need for sterility. So taking the advice to avoid hard, chewy candies, eating vegetables, and drinking mostly water goes a long way. That will certainly count for something at your next dental exam! Please book an appointment if you’d like to get a dental cleaning and advice tailored to you.
