We will start the answer to this question by telling you that you will best keep your teeth healthy if you pay a lot of attention to them from a young age. While they are young, many people neglect their teeth. They go to the dentist only when caries appears, and then the damage to the tooth has already occurred. If you maintain your teeth regularly and go to the dentist once every 6 months since you were a child, you have a very good chance of reaching old age with all your teeth.
Alongside immeasurable importance to you appearance, healthy teeth are even more important for overall health. Dental health is paramount to the health of the rest of your body. Without healthy teeth, there is no healthy gastrointestinal tract, but also heart, kidneys or the rest of the body. This importance of the tooth for the whole body is often overlooked.
As the years go by, it’s getting harder to keep your teeth healthy, but there are certainly ways to do so. We will tell you how to keep your teeth and gums strong as you age.
Brush your teeth regularly
Dentists usually recommend brushing your teeth twice a day. Although this is generally enough before age of 50 or so, our advice is that as you get older, start brushing your teeth more often than 2 times a day. You should do this after each meal, which means at least 3 times a day. There are misconceptions that this will lead to tooth enamel damage and the like, but this is not true and that is why you can brush your teeth as many times as needed daily. While you may feel your teeth are completely clean, every food you eat as well as sweet juices leave their mark.
However, it is important to keep one thing in mind. Although you will not damage your tooth enamel by brushing your teeth frequently, especially if you use soft or medium toothbrush, you need to be careful with your gums. If you are too rough on your gums and damage them a couple of times every day, it can cause problems. So brush your teeth 3 to 4 times a day, but be very gentle.
Use a mouthwash
You may have noticed a large number of different mouthwash products on the market, but many of them play a bigger role than just making sure your breath smells good. Choose therapeutic mouthwashes which, although slightly more expensive than ordinary ones, have much better ingredients and are much more useful.
They do not have certain ingredients that are harmful and affect the drying of the mouth, for example. And it also protects and cleans your teeth from plaque, thus preventing the appearance of caries and fungus. Rinse mouthwash twice a day, after waking up and before bed.
Make it a part of your routine with brushing your teeth and flossing. Most of them have a very pleasant taste, but there are also those that are not so “tasty”, which does not indicate that they are not of good quality, on the contrary, they are often the best because they do not have unnecessary added ingredients.
You can buy two mouthwashes, one for the morning when you want your breath to smell like menthol or some other scent, and the other that is tasteless you can use before bed.
Floss
You should use dental floss at least once a day. Dental floss helps you get to the hard to reach spots and so completely clean every part of your mouth from food residue. With floss, regular brushing of teeth and mouthwash, bacteria and caries will not be able to develop. It is important that you adopt the correct technique of using floss, otherwise it will not be useful to you, you will only hurt your gums.
See your dentist regularly
No matter how much you take care of your teeth and gums, there is always the possibility that caries has started to develop in a place that you cannot see and do not feel pain because you do not feel pain at that stage. So visit your dentist every few months, and they will examine the inside of your mouth and immediately resolve any problems he or she notices. When you visit the dentist regularly, you do not allow the problem to develop and then it is easy, fast and painless to solve and according to mybridgewaterdentist.com, this is crucial for keeping your teeth healthy. Also, they will suggest teeth whitening, implants, braces and anything else that you may need.
Prevent dry mouth
Did you know that one of the main purposes of our saliva is to clean our teeth? This is why people who have increased salivation often have healthier teeth. But as you get older, it will probably happen more and more often that your mouth is dry. This is a natural consequence of aging, but also the medications you take daily or perhaps some untreated condition in your body. In addition to addressing the primary cause of dry mouth, try to be as hydrated as possible. This way you will prevent oral health issues.
Quit smoking and alcohol
People over the age of 40 are much more susceptible to oral cancer than younger ones. And tobacco is one of the main causes of oral and throat cancer. So if you haven’t quit smoking by now, now is the time to do so. Also, smoking and alcohol consumption affect the above-mentioned dry mouth, so you should stop consuming them or significantly reduce the frequency of use.
Conclusion:
Follow these tips we’ve given you and you don’t have to worry about having major oral problems. In addition to all that we have told you, it is very important that you eat healthy as well as take supplements. Reduce your sugar intake and increase your fruit and vegetable intake. Take supplements that affect the health of the bones and the whole body, such as zinc, vitamin D, vitamin C and others recommended by your family doctor.
