Taking care of your mouth and general health ensures a bright, healthy smile. While brushing your teeth twice daily with fluoride toothpaste, flossing daily, and regular dental checkups are essential parts of your everyday dental care hygiene, your lifestyle also plays a crucial factor in your oral health. Diet, smoking cigarettes/tobacco, and drinking alcoholic beverages have damaging effects on mouth, teeth, and gums.
Poor oral health could put you at risk of gum disease, mouth infections, facial pain, and more serious health issues, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, diabetes, and even oral cancers.
How Your Lifestyle Affects Your Dental Health
People who live a sedentary lifestyle and eat poorly are more likely to experience periodontal disease than those who are physically active and eat a healthy diet. Also, the risk of premature loss of teeth is lower in physically active people. Alcohol and tobacco use can also increase the risk of tooth decay. Instead of sitting in front of the television for hours and enjoying a pack of chips or a box of doughnuts, get up, take a walk and eat nutritious foods. Living a healthy lifestyle is great not only to your teeth but also your body.
- Eat A Healthy Diet
Unhealthy foods and drinks can cause tooth decay and other dental problems. A healthy, balanced diet consists of fruits and vegetables, as well as starchy foods, such as bread, rice, and potatoes. Also, load up on protein-packed foods, such as fish, meat, eggs, and beans.
- Limit Your Sugar Intake
Tooth decay is usually caused by sugar. When you limit your sugar intake, you protect your tooth from decay. Avoid sugary foods and drinks, including:
- Chocolates, candies, cakes, biscuits
- Soft drinks, fizzy drinks, milky drinks and fruit juices (including smoothies)
- Buns, pastries, fruit pies
- Sugary breakfast cereals
- Ice cream and sorbets
- Honey, syrups, jams, marmalades
- Hit The Gym
Regular exercise is a great way to burn excess fats and stay within a healthy body weight. Maintaining a healthy weight and engaging in physical fitness helps reduce your risk of periodontal disease than those that do not exercise at all.
- Drink Plenty Of Water
Water helps wash away fine food particles and bacteria in your mouth and neutralizes the acid that can thin away and weaken the tooth enamel. After meals, make sure to rinse your mouth thoroughly to eliminate small food particles from your mouth.
- De-Stress
Stress has been known to be a culprit for different health problems, including oral disease. When the cortisol level increases, it worsens the condition of periodontal disease. Also, a study conducted by the Journal of Periodontology (JOP) claimed that many people who struggled with stress neglect their oral hygiene.
- Reduce Your Alcohol Consumption
Alcoholic beverages contain ingredients that erode the enamel (the hard outer surface of the teeth). Eroded enamel may lead to cavities and a dental visit for a filling. Reduced alcohol consumption reduces exposure to these ingredients, and therefore can lead to better oral health.
One painless way to accomplish this is to drink a glass of water between servings of alcohol. This will rinse away the acids and sugars in the beverage, help you to avoid the effects of dehydration, and fill you up so that you consume less (potentially avoiding a hangover in the process). It’s a win-win-win idea.
- Quit Smoking
Smoking does not only affect your cardiovascular and respiratory health, but it also increases your risk of gum disease. What is even worse is that it hampers the success of treatment for existing periodontal disease.
Additionally, the combination of excess alcohol and smoking can increase the risk of developing mouth cancer. Reports claim that the potential risk of mouth cancer can be up to 38 times higher in heavy drinkers who also smoke.
Best Dental Health Practices To Keep Your Teeth And Gums Naturally Healthy
Achieving optimal oral health takes a lifetime of care and commitment. Regardless you have a nice set of healthy teeth and gums now, you still have to take crucial steps to protect your mouth, teeth, and gums in top condition and prevent serious dental problems. Not only this involves using the right oral care products but also being mindful of your daily dental habits.
- Brushing Your Teeth Before Going To Bed – It is a general rule to brush your teeth at least twice a day. Others would say never to go to bed without brushing your teeth. Unfortunately, many people neglect brushing teeth at night. Brushing helps eliminate germs and plaque accumulating your teeth throughout the day.
- Use A Fluoride Toothpaste – When choosing a toothpaste, do not simply focus on its flavour and whitening properties. Fluoride is the most important element to look for in toothpaste, as it is essential in protecting and strengthening the teeth. It provides the teeth with a protective barrier and fights against harmful oral bacteria to prevent tooth decay and gum disease.
- Floss Daily – Flossing is as important as brushing because it removes the fine food particles stuck between your teeth when brushing is not available. Aside from removing plaque, it also helps stimulate the gums and reduce the inflammation of the affected area. Make sure to floss your teeth once a day. The dentist can recommend the right flossing material to keep your oral health in top condition. Although people with wrist arthritis may find it difficult to floss their teeth, there are flossers available in the stores that make the whole task easier.
- Rinse With Mouthwash – Mouthwash is also an important element to keep your mouth healthy. However, many skip it simply because they are unaware of its benefits. Mouthwash helps establish balance in your mouth by reducing the amount of acid by cleaning hard-to-reach areas in and around the gums. Dentists encourage children and older individuals to add mouthwash into their daily oral routine because of their inability to brush their teeth thoroughly.
- Visit Your Dentist Twice A Year – Our daily habits affect our overall oral health. Even if you brush and floss your teeth dutifully, you still need to visit your dentist every six months for a thorough dental checkup and professional teeth cleaning. Not only the dentist will check your teeth for cavities and remove tartar, but a regular checkup also enables him/her to spot early signs and dental problems and provide the proper treatment to the problem.
If you are looking for a reliable dental clinic in Oshawa with whom you can trust your family’s oral health, turn to Simcoe Smiles Dental. We take pride in providing our valued patients with personalized care and attention to their oral health needs, from professional teeth whitening to cosmetic dentistry.
Book an appointment with our family dentist today. Call us at (289) 312-1482 or send us an email for your questions and concerns.