5 great dental hygiene tips

Maintaining good oral hygiene is vital as it prevents dental problems including gum disease and infections. Bad oral hygiene can even lead to medical problems including bone loss and heart disease. Here are our top five tips to maintain great oral hygiene:

1. Flossing

Flossing is probably one of the most avoided dental hygiene steps as only 21% of adults use dental floss regularly, according to a survey released by the National Smile Month. This isn’t surprising as it’s a time-consuming procedure, especially if you’re rushing out the door or heading to bed.

However, flossing helps remove food particles and other detrimental substances that cannot be found using just a brush. Flossing enables you to reach deep between your teeth where not even your mouthwash can get to. This should be done once a day so you can sleep or continue your day in peace knowing your teeth are properly clean.

2. Limit fizzy drinks and coffee

Fizzy drinks contain an incredible amount of sugar, and ingesting them daily can lead to your teeth rotting, as the breakdown of the sugar in your mouth creates acids that erode the enamel on your teeth.

Both coffee and fizzy drinks can also contribute to the staining of your teeth. Pigments from dark coloured drinks, like coffee and fizzy drinks, can stain teeth by becoming embedded in the ridges and cracks in the enamel of your teeth. If the proper steps aren’t taken to combat this, it can cause permanent yellow staining.

3. Brushing properly

It’s surprising how many people don’t brush their teeth properly, so much so that we wrote a blog post a little while back about some top tips for brushing your teeth. It sounds very obvious, but brushing your teeth correctly can make a world of difference. Remember to brush twice a day too!

4. Clean your tongue

Cleaning your teeth is an obvious one, but you should be cleaning your tongue too. Most modern toothbrushes now come with a ‘tongue scraper’ on the reverse, which you should be using every morning to remove tongue plaque and freshen your breath. A build-up of bacteria on the tongue is a major contributor to bad breath, but using a tongue scraper will get rid of the horrible bacteria, leaving you with nice breath.

5. Visit the dentist regularly

We are supposed to visit the dentist twice a year, but most of us don’t. Visiting the dentist is the biggest key step to having healthy teeth, as there’s only so much we can do at home. By visiting a qualified dentist, you’ll get a proper, professional opinion on your teeth, as well as the right advice for what you should be doing for your teeth. Everyone’s teeth are different, so tailored advice is often the best way to go.

Don’t forget, we offer routine dental hygiene checks here at Sensu, complete with unbiased and ethical advice in our state-of-the-art clinic.