5 Habits for Healthy Teeth

Your adult teeth are designed to last and function as long as you live. With people living longer than ever before, keeping your natural teeth can be quite a challenge. Life isn’t always kind to teeth.

If your teeth are going to continue to serve you well for many years to come, they need a bit of help. There are certain things that you can do to increase the chance that your teeth will last you for a lifetime.

Here are five habits for keeping your teeth healthy.

1. Minimize Your Snacking

Today’s commercially available snacks aren’t always the best things for your teeth. Far too many snacks have high levels of sugar. There are decay-causing bacteria in the mouth that love sugar. Normally, those bacteria aren’t a problem with regular and thorough brushing and flossing. But if those bacteria, which combine to form a sticky film called dental plaque, get a foothold, decay and gum inflammation can result.

Also, frequent snacking usually leaves food residue between teeth unless you use a toothpick or floss after every snack. Sugary particles are excellent fuel for “bad” bacteria. It just makes sense to limit the frequency of your snacks and your sugar consumption to help preserve your teeth.

2. Chew Sugarless Gum

You’ve probably heard on TV that dentists prefer sugarless gum. Not that they necessarily favor chewing gum, but for the patients that do chew gum sugarless wins hands-down. The reason is the same as the reason to limit snacking – less sugar in the mouth is less energy for bacteria which means less bacterial growth.

3. Drink Water

From the standpoint of keeping your teeth healthy, nothing really beats water. Milk has calcium, which your enamel needs to remain strong, but there are plenty of other calcium sources in the diet. What milk has that your mouth doesn’t need is milk sugar which is – you guessed it – bacteria fuel. Water helps wash bacteria off your teeth and gums before they can form plaque and get a toehold. And water won’t leave a residue that bacteria can feed from.

4. Have And Stick To An Oral Hygiene Routine

Dental plaque is soft and easily removed by regular, thorough brushing and flossing. Too many people think nothing of brushing once daily and flossing maybe every two days. That’s a problem in the making for your teeth.

Plaque begins to reform around your teeth on the gumline within 24 hours of being removed. The longer plaque sits undisturbed in close contact with teeth and gums, the more opportunity it has to secrete acids that attack tooth enamel and inflame your gums. Brush and floss twice a day as recommended by your dentist to help preserve your teeth.

5. Visit Creekview Family Dentistry Twice A Year

Mouths are complicated places full of tiny crevices that are hard to reach and hard to clean thoroughly. Regular dental cleanings will remove every trace of plaque from your teeth and gums. Examinations following your cleanings will detect the slightest problem in your teeth – a crack that you can’t see, for instance, or the beginnings of a cavity. That way, your dentist at our Lewisville, TX office can attend to the beginnings of a problem quickly before it becomes a big problem. That saves you time, hassle, aggravation, and teeth..

Help keep your teeth healthy by calling Creekview Family Dentistry in Lewisville, TX at 972-505-3423. Or request an appointment via our online form.