Taking Care of Your Teeth and Gums: 7 Ways to Elevate Your Oral Hygiene
When it comes to taking care of your mind and body, you shouldn’t neglect the importance of your oral health. Maintaining healthy teeth and gums is essential for preventing tooth decay, gum disease, and keeping bacteria under control. However, if your teeth are misaligned, keeping them in good condition can be hard work.
Because of this, getting familiar with effective oral hygiene home care practices is essential to maintain oral health. Oral hygiene practices and other lifestyle behaviors, such as food and beverage consumption and tobacco use, are important to consider when identifying oral health risks for individuals. Remember, when you care for your oral health, you can enjoy a happier and healthier life without serious oral issues.
Hence, to elevate your oral hygiene and keep your teeth and gums in check, here are some tips that can help.
USE THE CORRECT BRUSHING TECHNIQUE
Sure, you may be brushing your teeth twice a day, but who’s to say you’re doing it correctly? Even if you set aside time in the morning or evening for this, if you’re not using the correct brushing technique, all sorts of food and plaque can be left behind. Make sure you’re positioning your toothbrush at a 45-degree angle to the gums.
Next, gently move your brush back and forth in short strokes. Also, ensure you’re brushing the inner, outer, and chewing surfaces of your teeth. If you’re still not sure what technique is best, it pays to check out a YouTube tutorial.
INVEST IN AN ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSH
If you’ve always used a manual toothbrush to keep your pearly whites healthy, you may like to stick to what you know. However, to truly boost your oral hygiene, it makes sense to invest in an electric toothbrush. This is because an electric toothbrush can reach more areas of the mouth and they are far superior at removing plaque.
Moreover, an electric toothbrush can provide a more thorough and prolonged cleaning. It can also help prevent bad breath by removing all the food particles stuck in your teeth, even after manual toothbrushing. Lastly, using an electric toothbrush reduces strain on your gums and enamel.
REMEMBER TO FLOSS
While you may be brushing your teeth correctly, are you remembering to floss? If the answer is no, your oral health will be affected as a result. Food and plaque can quickly form between the teeth, which can lead to gum inflammation and severe gum disease. You don’t want to be dealing with this, so ensure you start flossing!
Generally, flossing has several benefits to your overall oral health. It can help remove plaque around your teeth, minimize the risk of cavities, help protect your mouth from gum disease, and reduce bad breath.
That said, regular flossing is essential in elevating your oral hygiene. Also, whether you use flossing string, flossing sticks, or purchase a water flosser to do the job, when you floss daily, your teeth and gums will thank you for it.
But if you want to get the most out of flossing, it’s highly recommended to floss your teeth once a day and before brushing them. When you floss, you can loosen the plaque and food particles between your teeth. After that, toothbrushing can help eliminate the particles you’ve loosened up with flossing.
GET YOUR TEETH STRAIGHTENED
For those who have misaligned teeth, no matter how much attention you pay to your teeth and gums, it may feel impossible to keep them clean and healthy.
Therefore, now may be the time to straighten your teeth. You can look into teeth aligners from ALIGNERCO that can do just that. ALIGNERCO can help you get straighter teeth in as little as 6 months.
Aside from teeth aligners, you can also use braces to straighten your teeth. Although braces are less popular, they’re still a perfect solution if you have a complex tooth condition.
Since they can’t be removed easily, you’ll get your desired outcome, like an improved smile, within a specific time.
Remember, once your teeth align, this will make it much easier to clean and floss them, which will boost your oral health.
PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR TONGUE
You may be surprised to learn how much bacteria sits on the tongue. Should you not clean your tongue, the bacteria will stick around, which can lead to bad breath. Now is the time to consider buying a tooth scraper.
Alternatively, you can purchase a toothbrush that features a scraper on the back. Once you start brushing your tongue, this will enhance your oral hygiene routine, improve your breath, and leave you with a cleaner mouth.
GIVE UP SMOKING
Whatever the reason you took up smoking, if you really want to give your teeth and gums some TLC, it’s time to pack the habit in for good. We’re all constantly informed of the downsides to smoking, especially for our oral hygiene. Smoking can cause bad breath, tooth discoloration, and lead to gum disease. Therefore, now is the time to say goodbye to the habit. Once you give up smoking, your gum health will drastically improve, which should spur you on to keep going. If you’re struggling to stop smoking, there are helplines and resources you can use.
LOWER YOUR COFFEE INTAKE
If you fall into the bracket of the 150 million Americans who drink coffee daily, you may not be aware of just how damaging it can be for your teeth and oral health. Whatever cup of joe tickles your fancy, dark-colored drinks like coffee can become embedded in your enamel’s ridges and cracks, which can result in yellowish, unsightly stains on your teeth. Coffee also contains acid, meaning it can wear out your enamel quickly.
You don’t want to be dealing with tooth decay, so if you’re able to, it may be time to give up coffee for good. For those who need a cup to kickstart their morning or get them through the day, try changing how you drink it.
Using a straw, for instance, will mean you can enjoy your coffee with minimal exposure to your teeth. Non-invasive dental procedures, like silver diamine fluoride treatment, are another effective way to slow or prevent tooth decay.
You only have one set of adult teeth, so to keep them firmly in place and free from decay or extraction, there are lots of ways you can boost your oral health. Once you start doing any of the above, you should notice a positive difference in your teeth and gums.
