Pearly Whites of Great Price
Keeping your teeth healthy is essential, not just for your teeth, but for your overall health. Brushing can hold off gum disease. Gum disease sounds unpleasant, but it gets worse. Gum disease is linked to heart disease. If our gums swell, bacteria can get into the bloodstream.
Sweep Away Food Bits
Step one is brushing. Brushing your teeth does a few things. It gets the food bits out of the pockets between your teeth. This is important because cavities are the result of bacteria eating the sugar and leaving behind acid. That acid eats your teeth. Brushing also removes some of the bacteria from your teeth.
A Brushing a Day
Brushing once a day makes a big difference, and twice a day is a bit better. If you only brush in the morning, at least rinse your mouth with water twice before bed. Food bits left in your mouth overnight become bacteria food, which causes decay.
A Soft Spot for Teeth
You should use a soft-bristle toothbrush. Hard bristle brushes can irritate your gums and give infection a foothold. Using a hard toothbrush is more likely to cause receding gums. You don’t have to scour your teeth. Tooth enamel has to last a lifetime. Treat it with TLC.
A Little Fluoride is a Good Thing
Fluoride works well to strengthen teeth, but in high doses, it can be harmful. Much of our water supply is fluoridated to help prevent tooth decay. Check if your city water is fluoridated. Fluoride toothpaste is a good idea, especially because you don’t swallow the fluoride, as large amounts are harmful. It’s important to watch young children with fluoride toothpaste. They should not swallow it.
Fluoride Repairs
Fluoride helps your teeth absorb calcium so they can repair small pits. In low concentrations, it makes teeth more resistant to decay. But as an adult, if your water is fluoridated, you don’t need extra fluoride treatments at the dentist.
Coke and a Smile
Don’t brush right after drinking acidic drinks such as coke and Sprite, or fruit juice like apple, orange, and grape juice, as well as many sports drinks and alcohol. Wait at least 20 minutes after drinking any of those before brushing your teeth. You can rinse with water right away to remove some of the acid and the sugar.
Enter the Electric Age
Electric toothbrushes work better. They can reduce dental plaque (the build-up on your teeth that causes decay) by a fifth. The best electric toothbrushes work by vibrating the water at a high frequency. This dislodges most of the food particles and also gets between your teeth.
Floss is Long in the Tooth
Flossing doesn’t hurt, but it’s not a miracle cure. It may help, but few studies show it does. In fact, in 2016, the US Department of Health removed flossing as a recommended process. Floss if you want to (it’s your party). There’s no evidence it hurts, and it may help keep your teeth and gums in shape.
Kill All with Mouthwash
Certain mouthwashes can reduce cavities and gum disease, but they may cause other problems. They harm the good bacteria in your mouth, which allows bad bacteria to grow between mouthwashes. If you want to use mouthwash, use it daily, as you may be wiping out your healthy bacteria that help control germs. The healthy bacteria in your mouth are important for more than dental health. Mouth bacteria aid digestion and impact overall health, including blood pressure. Skip the mouthwash for this reason unless your dentist tells you to.
See Experts Once a Year
A once-a-year dental checkup can reduce problems down the road. A little prevention goes a long way, even with teeth. Do you need to get the annual X-ray? Probably not. If you have dental problems, by all means, get the X-ray. But for preventative purposes, an X-Ray every year is not necessary. Although there is very little radiation from a dental X-ray, especially compared to a CAT scan, there is usually a cost. Switch to every other year to save money.
Taking care of your teeth is simple, and it pays off in better health and a fatter wallet.
