Habits to Avoid, so your Oral Health is the Best it can Be
Keeping your mouth healthy is important for your overall health as well. One thing to avoid is some bad habits you might have. When our bad habits affect our oral health, the results can be extremely painful on both our bodies and our wallets. There are some bad habits that can harm your mouth and should be avoided as much as possible if you want to keep your smile sparkling.
Smoking
This may seem like an obvious bad habit to break, but many still smoke multiple cigarettes each day. Smoking is one of the most destructive habits for your mouth as it not only causes discoloration of the teeth and bad breath, but it can also cause loss of bone density in the jaw, inflamed salivary glands, gum disease, and oral cancer. Breaking the habit of smoking is one of the best things smokers can do to help and improve their oral health.
Brushing Too Hard
Brushing your teeth twice a day, every day, is important. But if you’re brushing your teeth too hard, you may be causing your mouth harm. Aggressively brushing can irritate gums, often causing them to recede, and can erode tooth enamel. If your toothbrush bristles are splayed and worn down, you are likely brushing too hard. Bristles should lightly brush against teeth and gums without causing redness. A great way to help make sure that you are not brushing too hard is to use a soft bristled toothbrush.
Clenching and Grinding
Clenching your jaw or grinding your teeth can be very damaging to your mouth. Often people clench and grind during stressful situations such as driving or during their sleep. Teeth grinding can erode enamel and can leave teeth exposed to decay. Jaw clenching can cause issues such as pain discomfort, leading to unfortunate outcomes like lockjaw and cracked and chipped teeth.
Crunching Ice
Eating ice may seem soothing, but unfortunately it can wreak havoc on your teeth. Our teeth are not designed for crunching ice and doing so can cause teeth to crack or chip. Grinding ice against teeth can also cause damage to tooth enamel, leaving teeth unprotected and more susceptible to decay. Exposing teeth to the extreme cold of ice can also increase temperature sensitivity in teeth, which no one wants.
Using Teeth as Tools
Using your teeth to open containers, cut clothing tags, and rip through packages can undo expensive dental work and open you up to all sorts of problems. Breaking the habit of using teeth as a tool is one of the best way to protect them against the cracks and chips which can leave teeth exposed and unprotected in the fight against tooth decay.
Replacing missing or broken teeth is expensive and stressful, so if you want to keep your teeth in working order, make sure to avoid these bad habits.