Keeping your Teeth Clean & Healthy

Londoners and people from the Deep South get a bad rap for their dental aesthetics. You probably don’t want to become the punch-line of any joke, so to keep the comedians off your back, you might want to consider proper tooth hygiene.

We’ve all heard it from our dentists before, but here’s a few tips that might have slipped your mind when caring for your pearly (or not so pearly) whites.

What you eat affects your teeth. You may have noticed that coffee, tea, and other dark liquids may discolor the surface of your teeth. But you need to be aware that what you eat can also affect the structure and roots of your teeth too. Sugars and carbs taste good, but they can do damage if you let them have too much fun with your mouth. Good ol’ vitamin C is known to help keep teeth strong and fight against cavities, etc.

Just because your teeth are white, may not mean they are healthy. A white tooth does you know good if it ends up falling out or needing to be removed. And make sure you are seeing your dentist regularly. It’s recommended to go to a dentist at least once a year for a teeth cleaning routine and a basic checkup. But don’t go into a dentist’s office and embarrassing yourself by not knowing how to properly brush your teeth.

Even if your brush strokes aren’t great, and your form is all wrong, if you do it regularly, you’ll be on the right track. Floss every day if you are able to. It may seem a bit over the top, but flossing is incredibly important in maintaining healthy teeth. We can only hit two of the four sides of teeth when brushing. There are no brushing techniques that effectively get to the places in your mouth where flossing is able to.

Something most people don’t do is use a tongue scraper. This can not only help eliminate bacteria and gunk that festers in your mouth, it can also improve your breath. For anyone with halitosis, tongue scraping is a necessity.

Lastly, use an anti-microbial like baking soda to get rid of the junk that eats away at your teeth or causes tooth decay. Baking soda is proven to still be one of the best methods of getting rid of those nasty microbes that cause so much harm. There are many pastes available that contain baking soda, but nothing is quite like the real stuff.