How to Look After Your Oral Health

Our teeth are one of the first things that people see when they meet us. Having yellow teeth or teeth stained with nicotine ¹doesn’t give the best impression. Not only do they look bad, but they can also smell quite unpleasant which makes the situation even more uncomfortable.

Having healthy and good-looking teeth requires consistent effort. Just like losing weight or growing your hair can’t be done overnight, maintaining a healthy set of teeth takes consistent effort on a daily basis. Here are some of the best things you can do to ensure excellent oral health².

Brush Daily

Brushing your teeth is one of the best things you can do for your teeth, especially after a meal. Ideally, you should be brushing your teeth twice a day to prevent the build of plaque³. If possible, brush after every meal as the food that we eat, especially sugar, causes plaque to build up and this slowly eats away the tooth enamel. Brushing your teeth helps to remove plaque and also helps to get little bits and pieces of food out of those hard-to-reach places.

Brushing at night is very important because your mouth is about to stay closed for several hours which gives the bacteria in your mouth plenty of time to damage the enamel. Use a good quality fluoride toothpaste and brush properly for at least 2 minutes.

Floss

Brushing your teeth will get to a lot of areas but the bristles ⁴on the brush can’t reach between the teeth. That’s why the information found at Bite Dental suggests that you floss every time you brush your teeth so that you are cleaning each tooth from all angles. If there are still bacteria lurking between your teeth, it will not only damage the enamel on the teeth but can also have an adverse impact on your gums. Gum-related problems often stem from bacteria and other substances that are lodged between the teeth for long periods of time.

Mouthwash

Once you are done brushing and flossing, finish your oral care routine with a dose of mouthwash. This will help to remove all the particles that have been dislodged from brushing and flossing and will also help to kill any other bacteria that you didn’t get. Any over-the-counter type of mouthwash will be a good choice as long as it is designed to fight plaque and bacteria rather than just freshen your breath. Mouthwash will also help to clean your gums, the roof of your mouth, underneath your tongue, and other crevices that you cannot reach with a brush and floss. If pure mouthwash is too strong for you, you can dilute it with water before use.

Taking care of your teeth also extends to your diet and your general lifestyle. If you enjoy a lot of soda and black coffee, you will be placing a lot of stress ⁵on your teeth and gums, and brushing, flossing, and mouthwash won’t be as effective. Things like coffee and tobacco stain the teeth and create tartar which can be extremely hard to remove. Also, make it a habit to get your teeth checked by a dentist every few months. If any problem does come up, it will be best to resolve it as soon as possible.

1. McGrath-Morrow, Sharon A., et al. “The effects of nicotine on development.” Pediatrics 145.3 (2020). ↩︎
2. Northridge, Mary E., Anjali Kumar, and Raghbir Kaur. “Disparities in access to oral health care.” Annual review of public health 41 (2020): 513-535. ↩︎
3. Vergallo, Rocco, and Filippo Crea. “Atherosclerotic plaque healing.” New England journal of medicine 383.9 (2020): 846-857. ↩︎
4. Ridenour, John B., Mareike Möller, and Michael Freitag. “Polycomb repression without bristles: facultative heterochromatin and genome stability in fungi.” Genes 11.6 (2020): 638. ↩︎
5. O’Connor, Daryl B., Julian F. Thayer, and Kavita Vedhara. “Stress and health: A review of psychobiological processes.” Annual review of psychology 72 (2021): 663-688. ↩︎

Last Updated on February 13, 2024 by Suchi

Authors

Icy Health Editorial Team

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