Here are the top dental habits you should be looking to incorporate into your routine, and bad dental habits you should be looking to break this New Year:
Our dentists at Drummoyne Dental Practice have put together a list of handy tips to help you improve your dental hygiene in 2014 by breaking your current bad habits, now!
- Floss daily. This is number one on the list! Flossing is one of those dental tasks that is often (and unfortunately) overlooked. Flossing prevents plaque build-up by removing left-behind food particles that can get stuck between teeth and gums. As a bonus, it fights bacteria and mouth disease. If you have never flossed before, its not too late to learn. Our dentists at Drummoyne Dental Practice are happy to demonstrate flossing techniques to patients who are unfamiliar with floss.
- Brush twice per day, morning and night. Shockingly, most people admit to brushing only once per day or even once every few days! Most attribute tiredness at the end of an evening as the main reason preventing them from brushing at night time. Remember that it is very important that your teeth are cleaned before going to sleep at night. When we go to sleep, there is an uninterrupted period of several hours during which leftover plaque and food can cause damage to teeth.
- Don’t skip visits to the dentist. Often, busy lifestlyes can lead to putting off and forgetting about regular dental visits. However, regular trips are imperative to the health of your pearly whites. Preventive dental treatments such as fluoride treatment, removal of plaque and tartar and preventative checks for cavities are all on the list of benefits. Commit to visits (even look at booking them all in now for 2014) and your teeth will be thaknnking you by the end of 2014. At Drummoyne Dental Practice, our patients often prefer to prebook their checkup/hygiene appointments to ensure that they dont forget and that they can secure their preferred appointment time early on. We have phonecall or SMS reminder services available to our patients.
- Tailor your diet to your teeth. This one is probably already in your list of resolutions, but here’s an additional reason why it should be (in case it’s not) – reduce the sugar in your diet. As your grandmother told you in years gone by, sugar rots your teeth and is the primary contributor to cavities. Try eating more vegetables too, because they help to remove plaque and contain less sugar than processed foods.
- Address any outstanding dental issues you may have. Often its easy to overlook dental issues (eg. broken tooth, slight niggling tooth pain) due to hectic work schedules and other committments. However, if left for too long, these dental problems can change from a small problem to a much larger one. Do not ignore obvious dental problems you may have noticed. Be proactive and talk with one of the dentists at Drummoyne Dental Practice about ways to address your dental concerns.
- Help your kids achieve better oral care. With children, oral habits can slip, so it is important to monitor them carefully and offer a refresher course when needed. Remember that small incentives, such as a fun toothbrush or flavored toothpaste, can do wonders when it comes to getting kids to brush. If your child has not yet visited a dentist it is a good idea to arrange an appointment for them to have their first checkup to detect and resolve any dental problems at an early stage. It is recommended that a child should be brought in for their first visit when their baby teeth start to erupt somewhere between the ages of 1 to 2 years old. Click here for more information about Childrens Dentistry at Drummoyne Dental Practice.
Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you soon!