Practicing proper dental hygiene requires a lifetime commitment. Even if you’ve been told you have a nice smile, you need to stay on top of maintaining your pearly whites. Every day, patients ask about steps they can follow to keep their smiles bright and beautiful. Even if you don’t see immediate effects, realize that most dental care is all about daily habits and prevention. This involves getting the right products for you and creating healthy habits that will last. Let’s take a look at the top 5 tips for achieving better oral health.

Brush your Teeth Twice a Day for Two Minutes

Let’s start with the basics. The ADA (American Dental Association) recommends that you brush your teeth for around two minutes at least twice a day. This is to help prevent plaque from forming on your teeth. If you spend less than two minutes brushing, you simply won’t remove as much plaque. In fact, a recent study showed that simply increasing your brushing time from around 45 seconds to 2 minutes can help remove up to 26% more plaque.

When it comes to choosing the brush that’s right for your teeth, make sure to stay away from hard bristles. Try to select a toothbrush that fits your lifestyle needs as well. If you’re on the go more often, use a manual toothbrush and brush your teeth with small, circular motions across all of your teeth and gums. If you’re in one place more often, go for the electric toothbrush with a rotating brush head. Remember to switch out your brush whenever the bristles become stiff, frayed, or discolored.

Floss After you Eat

One of the most important habits to start and maintain is flossing. It’s not fun and it takes patience to master, but the rewards are definitely worth it. Basically, flossing helps keep the in-between, hard-to-reach areas of the mouth clean and debris-free! Think of floss as the fun attachments that come with your all-in-one vacuum cleaner that helps you clean baseboards, reach corners on the ceiling, and clean underneath sofas. To keep your teeth healthy and clean, floss at least twice a day or after every meal to ensure all food particles are removed.

Most people brush their teeth first and then floss afterward, but the reverse is actually the best way to go about it. If you floss your teeth first, you’re removing the harder-to-reach particles from all the crevices in the mouth. Then, when you brush your teeth, it’s easier to remove everything from the mouth, including what you just flossed out. Make sure you talk to your dentist about proper flossing methods before building an incorrect habit. If hand-held flossing isn’t working, speak to your dentist about using other methods of flossing.

Don’t Smoke

Put simply, smoking increases your risk for gum disease by over 50%. Not only does it completely ruin your oral health, but it also leads to other serious illnesses like multiple types of cancers, heart disease, and diabetes. The most common problems smoking causes to your dental health are: bad breath, tooth yellowing, increased build-up of plaque and tartar on the teeth, and delayed healing after all types of oral surgeries. The more serious problems smoking causes are bone loss within the jawline, increased risk of leukoplakia and gum disease, tooth loss, and a significantly increased risk of developing oral cancer.

Since smoking is one of the most addictive habits to break, the ADA informed patients that once they stop smoking, they can see immediate restorative benefits in their oral health. For instance, smokers who reduced their smoking amount by half had immediately decreased their risk of gum disease by 50%. A separate study showed that leukoplakia had completely resolved within 6 weeks of over 96% of patients who stopped using all tobacco-related products (including smokeless). Ask your dentist immediately for resources that can help you kick your smoking habit today!

Manage your Stress

In today’s society, stress seems like another progression of life. So, the idea of ridding yourself of stress seems like a fairytale image. However, being mindful of stressful situations as they arise and practicing stress-relieving techniques can actually make a huge difference in your oral health. In short, stress can make it harder for your body to fight against infections. Gum disease is essentially an infection of your gums that causes painful bleeding gums, tooth loss, and bad breath. Stress can also cause you to develop unhealthy habits like clenching your jaw or even pick up smoking.

Some ways to help you relieve your stress include: managing your sleep schedule to get 8 hours of sleep, exercises that help you practice breathing, meditating on things that bring you peace, and shaving off any bad habits or people from your life that cause any sort of wrongful treatment to you or your mental health.

Schedule Regular Dentist Visits

Most everyone has heard that we’re supposed to visit our dentists twice a year. While this is certainly a great start to a healthy habit, this rule of thumb doesn’t count for everyone. It’s important to remember that you and your smile are unique and will require customized care. To figure out how often you should visit your dentist, you’ll need to sit down and discuss your oral health needs.

Some people who may require more visits a year include:

• Women who are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant
• Smokers
• Diabetics
• People with significant oral health problems like gum disease
• People with dental needs requiring more visits (braces, dentures, and more).
• Children

These Are Our Top 5 Tips for Achieving Better Oral Health

There are many tips and tricks to maintaining a healthy and happy smile. The most important thing to remember is that your dental hygiene is unique and requires a unique approach to preventing bad things from happening. While most tips are usually applied to all, speak with your dentist about setting up an oral health care plan that suits your needs. Schedule out the needed dentist visits, talk about what foods to eat and which products would work best for your and your smile. Remember, achieving better oral health is mostly about prevention! Act now before requiring any kind of serious treatments for necessary clean-ups.

To get started on improving your oral health, contact our professional and pleasant staff here at Mountain View Dental. If you have questions or want to schedule an appointment, give us a call today at 385-324-3557!

Because your oral health directly affects your body’s overall health, it’s important for you to properly care for your teeth and gums. Just like you take vitamins and minerals to promote your body and its’ immune system, they can also help strengthen your teeth. If you have a hard time remembering to take your vitamins in pill form, there are other ways to integrate beneficial vitamins and minerals into your life.

Consider adding these supplements below to your daily routine to reap the most benefits for your teeth and gums.

Calcium

Calcium is the number one mineral aimed at strengthening and growing your bones. Since your teeth are included in the bone family, calcium certainly helps your oral health in many different ways. Calcium is actually the most sufficient mineral found in your body, with almost 99% of it living in your teeth and bones. The best benefit of calcium in the body is that it keeps your teeth and jawbones strong and functioning properly. Aside from this, calcium significantly helps strengthen your tooth’s protective layer called tooth enamel, which is key to a long and happy life with your teeth.

Where to find Calcium: Calcium is naturally located in several different foods including almost all dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt. Most leafy green vegetables like broccoli, kale, and spinach have almost 20% of your daily dose of Calcium as do most nuts and beans.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C supports the growth, development, and replacement of all body tissues, including your gums and other soft tissue in your mouth. Vitamin C, in combination with Calcium, is also necessary for the upkeep of your cartilage, bones, and teeth. This vitamin will also help protect against the notorious gum disease, gingivitis and can keep your teeth from becoming loose in your gums.

Where to find Vitamin C: Leafy green vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and cabbage have the highest sources of vitamin C. Citrus fruits like lemons, oranges, and grapefruits also have super high-concentrations of vitamin C, as well as carbohydrates like sweet potatoes.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is a key vitamin recommended for maintaining great oral health. This helps your body absorb, transport, and store calcium in your bones and promotes density. Vitamin D also supports healthy teeth by preventing your mouth from going through calcium deficiency.

Where to find Vitamin D: You can find vitamin D in foods like tuna, ocean fish, mushrooms, milk, and many varieties of cereals. If you’re looking to soak up some vitamin D without eating, try going outside on a sunny day! Your body naturally creates vitamin D when it’s exposed to sunlight. Just, don’t forget your sunscreen.

Your Teeth Can Benefit from Vitamins and Minerals

Vitamins and minerals are important factors when it comes to your overall health. Not only are vitamins and minerals key to helping your body function properly, but they’re also essential to your teeth, gums, and enamel. Doing your part to keep your teeth and gums healthy is crucial, but don’t forget to visit your dentist regularly for tips and tricks on adding vitamins and minerals into your daily routine.

To help make the best decisions on what supplements will work best for you, visit our professional and pleasant office here at Mountain View Dental. If you have questions or want to schedule an appointment, give us a call today at 385-324-3557.