When you discuss oral hygiene, it means more than just brushing and flossing. You have been given all the right reasons on why you should be maintaining a good oral health and the ways on how you can achieve it. When you have a good oral health, you are not only protecting and providing care to your teeth and gums, you also provide care for your general health. Being on top of your oral conditions can bring you so many benefits which explains why you should go above and beyond in making sure the providing care for your teeth and gums are not neglected.
Here are some tips you can bear in mind to improve your oral health.
- Be mindful of your own oral health needs by regularly visiting your dentist. Your dentist is someone you can rely on when it comes to helping you achieve healthy teeth and mouth. He can answer your questions and help you understand all the conditions and factors that affect your teeth, gums, the tissues in your mouth and even the structures supporting your teeth. He can also help you understand how the conditions of your oral health is associated with your general health. This is also why your dentist needs to know if you have existing medical conditions that could be connected to your oral health so that he knows the most appropriate help he can provide you with.
- Develop a routine you can do on a daily basis and make sure you have the discipline to stick to it. After your dental consultation, it will be a lot easier for you to come up with a plan that you can follow regularly to make your home care more effective. This technique can also be very useful for the patients with special conditions because they need a special oral health care, examples are those people with diabetes or even pregnant women. It is important that you understand your own condition so that you can also determine the most appropriate and effective emergency dental care you need.
- Make sure you ingest the right amount of fluoride. Fluoride is very useful for both children and adults because it can help increase the protection of the teeth against cavity causing bacteria. You can actually get fluoride from certain products such as toothpastes, and mouth rinses. If your water supply in your community is also fluoridated, you can ask your water utility about the level of fluoride it contains so you can determine if you need to increase your fluoride intake. Your dentist can help you determine if you are receiving the right amount of fluoride, because if not, he can recommend supplements or a fluoride treatment.
- Make sure not to miss brushing, flossing and rinsing on a daily basis. These habits are definitely very basic and very important in making sure that your teeth and mouth are clean all the time. Brushing should be done twice a day, but if you can brush after every meal, then that will be a lot better. And because not everything in your teeth can be removed by your toothbrush, it is also just as important to floss to remove the food that are stuck in between the tiny spaces of your teeth. You can also use a mouth rinse in order to kill bacteria in your mouth.
- Limit your eating between meals and make sure to incorporate healthy foods in your diet. Instead of snacking on foods that contain a lot of sugar and starch, why don’t you eat foods that are rich in vitamins and are good alternatives for snacks like apples, carrots and celery. When you eat too much sugary foods, you are only increasing your risk of decay and cavities because bacteria feed on sugar and when there are more bacteria in your mouth, the acid production also increases which is bad for your teeth. Acid eats your tooth enamel and makes it prone to decay and dental caries. Instead, eat foods that are high in calcium so that you can make your teeth stronger.
For more information on good oral health and good oral habits, you can call Sunny Isles Dental at (305) 330-6609 or visit us at 17100 Collins Ave., Ste. 213 Sunny Isles Beach, FL 33160
