Your oral health is as important as the other aspects of your wellbeing. With poor oral health, you can anticipate facing numerous health concerns. With that, you should ensure that you allow your mouth to be clean and healthy all the time.
As you take care of your oral health, you should look after plenty of things. While it might be a small added work on your end, it’ll allow you to have the perfect smile, making you feel confident and happy at any given time.
Moreover, listed below are the daily habits that can keep your oral health on point:
1. Follow Your Dentist’s Instructions
If you have a specific oral health concern, your dentist might give you thorough instructions on how you can take good care of your teeth. With professional advice, you should never skip following such to ensure you can have a good and healthy set of teeth.
Depending on your oral health issues right after your wisdom teeth extraction or any other dental procedure, you shouldn’t force your mouth, gums, and teeth to do the things they can’t do. While it might sound delicious to devour a steak, eating solid and hard foods might not benefit your oral health at all. Even if they might taste bland, you should follow your dentist’s instructions about what foods you can only eat and what habits you should avoid.
2. Brush Your Teeth At Least Twice A Day
One of the oldest rules when it comes to maintaining good oral health is to brush your teeth regularly, at least twice a day. This will involve brushing your teeth in the morning, right after you had your breakfast or before run off to work, and one session right before hitting the hay. This way, you can ensure that you remove all food particles and plaque away, reducing your risk of developing cavities and other oral issues.
Moreover, you can always maximize your brushing habits by doing it at least three times a day. This way, you can guarantee that you keep your mouth thoroughly clean for the entire day.
3. Don’t Forget To Floss
Brushing and flossing your teeth come hand in hand. Ideally, you should consider flossing right after brushing your teeth to remove any plaque residue that your regular toothbrush can’t reach.
Some people choose to floss their teeth only once a day, right before their bedtime. While that can work, you can actually floss your teeth at the same time as you brush your teeth. As long as you’re flossing correctly, it shouldn’t be harmful at all.
To ensure that you’re flossing right, it shouldn’t be too painful nor should it bleed. Be gentle as much as possible, and use a mirror to ensure that you’re not hitting harshly on your gums.
4. Drink Lots Of Water
Drinking plenty of water is a holistic approach to taking care of your health, especially your oral health. As you consume food or any sugary beverage, you can anticipate that there’ll be plenty of residue left in your mouth, which can harm your teeth, especially if you allow it to stay for too long. With the help of water, you can flush out food particles, keeping your mouth clean.
Additionally, drinking water will help refill your hydration needs. While drinking sugary beverages might sound delicious, their components might not give your teeth a good treat, leaving them with plaques and cavities instead. With that, going for water would be the best decision to make.
5. Brush Your Teeth Properly
Brushing your teeth isn’t just about using toothpaste, swiping it onto your mouth, and spitting out your toothpaste. To ensure that you keep your teeth clean, you should learn how to brush your teeth properly.
Ideally, you should brush your teeth in a circular motion, and try to reach every corner of your teeth as much as possible. For better cleaning results, you should consider switching your regular toothbrush with an electric one. It produces a soft vibrating motion that can help sweep any food particle or plaque buildup carefully.
6. Store Your Toothbrush Properly
Proper toothbrush storage can affect your oral health as well. While it might sound amazing to brush your teeth two to three times a day, but if you’re not able to keep such tool clean, you might not be delivering outstanding benefits to your mouth at all.
Your toothbrush gathers as much moisture as possible, which could attract molds and other pests inside your toothbrush. To keep it clean and hygienic all the time, you should ensure that you, first, tap the brush to remove any excess water before placing it inside a well-ventilated area. Ideally, you should keep it away from toothbrush caps or inside your cabinets as every bristle could attract molds.
7. End The Night With A Mouthwash
While this might be more optional, you should also consider ending your night with a mouthwash right after your brush and floss your teeth. This way, you can ensure that you thoroughly clean every corner of your mouth, putting you at peace, knowing that you’ve covered all bases.
There are plenty of mouthwashes you can choose from. You may opt for antimicrobial ones so you can further prevent the development of plaque and gingivitis.
However, you should note that you can’t replace brushing and flossing with just using a mouthwash as it can’t physically scrape any dirt away, no matter how much and strong you gargle. Moreover, it’ll be a great addition to your oral habits. Also, ensure that you only use it twice a day as it can harm your mouth once you go overboard.
8. Clean Your Tongue As Well
When it comes to taking care of your oral health, you shouldn’t focus your entire attention on your teeth and gums alone. You should also pay more attention to your tongue as food and bacteria can get stuck inside them as well.
To clean your tongue, you can use a scraper and gently clean your tongue at least twice a day with it, preferably at home, if you’re not comfortable bringing one outside. Alternatively, if you don’t have a tongue scraper with you, your regular toothbrush can work fine as well. Just ensure that you do it gently; otherwise, it can harm the surface of your tongue.
9. Avoid Sugary And Acidic Foods And Drinks
Having a sweet tooth means that you may crave and indulge more in sugary foods and beverages. While it might help to put you in a good mood, it won’t benefit your mouth and overall health very well. Apart from the high possibility of developing diabetes, it also heightens the risk of gingivitis and cavities, which might requiring serious medical procedures to cure or get rid of.
Ideally, you should limit your sugary food and beverage intake to at least once a day, combined. Moreover, as you consume one, you should ensure that you drink a full cup of water immediately afterward to flush out remaining food particles in your mouth. If you could brush your teeth, the better it would be for your oral health. While there would be more work on your end, it’ll allow you to maintain a healthy set of teeth if you make it a habit.
Moreover, you shouldn’t forget to avoid acidic foods as they can quickly wear down your tooth enamel. This will include limiting your coffee, tea, carbonated drink, and acidic food intake. Additionally, you can always splash the acid away with a glass full of water.
10. Consume Crunchy Fruits And Vegetables
Another way to take good care of your oral health is eating crunchy fruits and vegetables daily. Apart from adding them to your meals, you should also consider having them as your snacks, giving you a stronger set of teeth and, at the same time, a healthier body.
As you eat crunchy fruits and vegetables, you’re allowing your mouth to have a proper workout, which can help remove plaque and bacteria from your mouth. Here are the crunchy fruits and vegetables that you can consume any time of the day:
- Broccoli
- Apple
- Pear
- Carrot
- Celery
- Bell pepper
As you consume them during the day, you may want to end them with a glass full of water to flush away food particles and other unwanted materials inside your mouth.
11. Use Fluoride Toothpaste
Brushing your teeth will never be complete without using toothpaste. While there are plenty of toothpaste options at supermarkets, you should ensure that you use the right one for your mouth. This way, you won’t only be cleaning your teeth, but also provide good protection that can allow your teeth to be safe from plaques, cavities, and other oral issues.
To provide maximum protection for your teeth, you should look for a toothpaste that contains fluoride as it can act as the first defense against tooth decay and other health concerns. Moreover, it can also help fight germs, keeping your mouth clean and hygienic all the time.
12. Quit Smoking
Smoking can bring numerous health concerns to your body. Apart from damaging your lungs, smoking can also raise major oral health concerns.
If you continue to smoke, you’re more prone to issues such as bad breath, tooth discoloration, tartar buildup, leukoplakia, gum disease, inflammation of the salivary gland, and oral cancer. With all of the awful things that can happen to your body, it pays to quit smoking as early as possible.
If you’re having trouble quitting smoking, you should consider asking for help from a counselor or joining a support group. While the process might be lengthy, it’ll benefit your oral and overall health thoroughly.
13. Use Fluoride Toothpaste
What should be part of your daily routine in order to have a healthy set of teeth is brushing your teeth two to three times a day. Apart from using a toothbrush, you’ll also need to have toothpaste handy as it provides maximum protection for your teeth. With just a toothbrush, it’ll be like simply rubbing your teeth. With toothpaste, on the other hand, you’re adding a protective layer, allowing your teeth to be safe from plaques and cavity development.
When it comes to toothpaste shopping, the first thing that you need to ensure is that it contains fluoride. This will help guarantee that your teeth have full protection from cavities and tooth decay.
Moreover, before giving your children their fair share of fluoride toothpaste, ensure that it holds an amount their young teeth can handle. You can check the label on the toothpaste to see the recommended age. This will ensure that you provide maximum protection for your little one’s teeth.
Why Oral Health Is Important
While there’s added work on your end, the benefits that great oral health can bring to your body would be worth it.
With good oral health, you can avoid major oral concerns, such as tooth decay, gingivitis, cavities, and more. While they might sound harmless, the medical procedures to address them can be excruciating, especially when the anesthesia wears off during your recovery, not to mention the fact that these can be quite expensive.
Moreover, bad oral health can affect your overall health as well. It can contribute to endocarditis, cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, and birth complications during pregnancy, among many others.
Visit Your Dentist Regularly
You shouldn’t forget to visit your dentist at least once every six months for a proper checkup and teeth cleaning procedure. This way, your dentist can thoroughly check the condition of your mouth and have you undergo appropriate treatments.
By going to the dentist, you can immediately prevent possible oral health issues, which could become serious problems if left untreated. With a dentist’s thorough examination, you can ensure that your oral health would be in its best condition at all times.
Conclusion
Your oral health is vital as it can cause major health concerns. With that, you should ensure that you practice good oral habits from day to night. Apart from regular brushing and flossing, you shouldn’t forget to use mouthwash as well. Moreover, you should avoid bad habits, such as consuming too much of sugary and acidic foods.
While quitting bad habits and developing a healthy oral routine can be tedious, the benefits these practices can bring to your body would be worth it.