5 Practical Suggestions To Improve Your Oral Health

1. Remember that our tooth enamel, being the hardest tissue in the body, is still easily breakable. Therefore, it is essential to avoid eating lots of hard foods (such as popcorn and others), chewing on hard foods and breaking them with the teeth (such as ice cubes, sugar candies, nut shells, chicken bones, and so on). Also, dentists point on damaging effects of having any tongue or other oral piercings made of hard materials. According to the statistics, in 2007 up to 40% of the people with various metal rings and other types of oral piercings had to face the problem of tooth fractures.
2. Remember that not only extra-sweet, but also extra-sore and extra-acidic foods are extremely harmful to your dental health. Sugar and acids are two most dangerous dental villains, and excessive consumption of soft drinks, commercial fruit juices, sore fruit or sore candies, and even gummy vitamins is strictly linked to enamel softening and dental health worsening. It is absolutely necessary to pay attention on your children’s consumption of acidic and low pH foods as the teeth of young children are especially vulnerable to all these negative effects of acids and sugars. In order to lower these effects, use a sugar-free xylitol chewing gum after meal, or just rinse your mouth with a high quality dental mouthwash.
3. Braces create favorable environment for developing tooth decay and cavities. About 4 million of American children and about a million of adults are getting this orthodontic treatments, and all of them are in the risk group of having dental problems. If you are using braces, it is harder to brush your teeth and keep your mouth clean, however, it is essential to do so regularly and thoroughly. Plague can be easily formed around the brackets of the braces causing demineralization, dental spots, cavities and other even more serious problems.
4. Remember that excessive intake of fluoride can harm your teeth. Being a very important element for our dental health, fluoride and its levels in your body should be kept under control. Increased amounts of fluoride can cause pores and other types of tooth enamel abnormalities. Usually, young children like swallowing pieces of their toothpaste, causing extra fluoride ingestion. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to supervise your children when they are brushing their teeth, make them use only small amounts of toothpaste for brushing, or use a special fluoride-free tooth paste until the children learn to spit the paste out and not swallow it.
5. Remember that it is possible to get a missing tooth at any age. Some people never have some teeth developed, and this situation is quite frequent with the wisdom teeth, which in many cases do not appear or have to be removed. Other causes of tooth removal are cavities and gum disease. Also, some people have a genetic inclination to this problem. Getting a missing tooth is not strictly linked to old age, that is why it is essential to take a proper care about your teeth and oral heath all the time, regardless of your age, occupation or eating habits.