Looking after your teeth is an essential part of your health and well-being. Your teeth are aesthetically important – they play a large role in how you look – but they are also necessary for you to chew your food so you can digest it and get the nutrients you need to live well.
Regularly visiting a dentist will support you in looking after your teeth; along with professionally cleaning your teeth every six months, a dentist will give you advice on how to look after your entire mouth and identify any concerns. Finding a dentist that is local to you – like a Berwick Dental Centre – will make visiting the dentist convenient and easy.
A Berwick dentist will give you professional advice, and visiting them twice a year is essential but in the interim, there are things you can do to care for your teeth.
Careful of what you consume
What you put in your body matters for your physical health, and eating a healthy diet of mostly fruit and vegetables, and avoiding processed foods and sugar is important to maintaining a healthy weight and looking after yourself. But what you put in your body can also impact your teeth.
Sugar is not good for us, and it’s especially bad for our teeth, so try and avoid regularly consuming sugary food and soft drinks. Equally as detrimental are very acidic foods, like lemons, which damage to your teeth.
The best thing you can do, along with visiting a Berwick dentist twice a year, is drink plenty of water – this is good for your overall health but it is also a great way to keep your mouth healthy.
Your mouth produces saliva to keep your mouth from getting dry; dry mouth leads to plaque buildup and eventually tooth decay, if you don’t address the problem. Drinking lots of water helps encourage saliva production and wards off plaque.
Learn from a Berwick dentist how to brush and floss like a pro
We’ve been brushing our teeth for most of our lives, and we’re probably in a good habit of doing it twice a day. Ideally, you are flossing once a day too.
Cleaning your teeth helps to protect the enamel – the hard outer layer that protects your teeth and can become damaged if you don’t regularly brush away plaque that builds up and turns to acid.
When you visit a Berwick dentist twice a year, they can show you the best practice teeth cleaning techniques and will do a more thorough clean and make sure that your habits are on track.
Some other tips to remember to maintain a healthy mouth:
- Change your toothbrush every two to three months.
- Brush for two minutes, twice a day.
- Use a soft bristled toothbrush, to make sure you aren’t damaging your gums when you brush.