Tips to Fight off Plaque

There are many articles on dental hygiene and so many people who always say the same thing.  I am going to be 100% honest. I am many decades old, and have never had a cavity.  This is baffling to some because I actually only brush once a day.  Maybe one or two times a week I will add an extra brush but this is my honest normal routine.  So the fact that I have straight teeth is most likely genetic, but as far as keeping them healthy is a little less simple.  Now I am not a professional and I suggest you due as your Dentist tells you.  I wish I brushed my teeth more and flossed regularly, but I simply don't.  So I want to go over a few ways to fight off plaque by maybe being a little less traditional in my advice.

The first thing to know about how I fight off cavities and the buildup of plaque is with my diet.  Now I am also not the most in shape person either.  Yes, I am probably thirty pounds overweight, but I do workout and have some muscle tone.  So I work on my dental health by eating a diet that I think is a little bit more healthy.  My family tries to stay away from sugar and highly acidic foods that can damage your enamel.  This why I think my teeth have staid pretty healthy. Now, I do eat ice cream and cookies on the regular, but most likely it is about once a week.  I think this helps keep my sugar content down just by not snacking a ton on sugary things. 

 

But another area that I also try to stay away from is carbs.  Carbs are basically sugar and when bread gets stuck on your teeth the plaque does start to buildup and your teeth do decay faster.  This is why extra brushing and flossing is best.  But I actually try my darndest do stay away from bread except on social occasions.  So if I am eating out, a good burger and bun is going to happen.  But if I am home I try to be more carb friendly and that is also healthy in several other ways for my body.  For my teeth I know it is a big help because they have less food attacking them and decaying them.  I believe that since it is less sugar going into my mouth that it is helping to protect my teeth.

 

Another big area to watch out for is sugary and acidic drinks. This area I do struggle with because I love Mt. Dew and Coke.  It is certainly the bain of my teeth and I usually end up drinking a soda a week.  I wish I could do better, but I simply love the flavor.  Still this is a lot less than many of my friends and family and I think the lack of sugar that I drink helps my teeth as well.  I am pretty sure that it keeps my cavities away.

 

Now I also take vitamins and try to build up the most enamel that I can while my body will still allow it to grow.  Magnesium and Zink are a joint vitamin that I take everyday. Now the human body will stop growing enamel I think around 50 or maybe a little less so I intend to keep these vitamins up while I am able to.  So I hope this helps you on your journey!

Stay Healthy by Keeping your Mouth Healthy

Every year I feel like most individuals try to make goals to better their life. Usually this happens as a new years resolution, but this year has given many people around the world more of a chance to actually focus on those goals.  This year  think dental health can make a significant jump across the country and even the world. This can be made possible by the extra time being available to many americans who are now forced to stay home or work from home.  So this year lets go over a few things that can help keep your mouth healthy and bump up your dental hygiene to a new level.

The first thing to do while staying home and working from you new office or in many cases kitchen is to grab a glass and fill it with water.  Water is a great benefit to your dental health and actually increases many other healthy areas of your body as well.  I prefer to actually use a nalgene or special water bottle for my daily intake.  This allows me to feel like it is more of a treat than a requirement  By doing this my mouth is able to produce more saliva and help clean and keep those harmful bacteria from growing.  It also helps rinse away more food particles so they are not able to start the plaque buildup.  To me this is a great help and the more you are able to drink in the day the better.  Now there is a limit to how much water you should drink, but many health experts usually say between 6 to 8 glasses a day is a good start.  Being close to the kitchen I found that this is rather simple to do while working from home.  So grab and extra glass now and then.  But another area that you can now really jump up on is not drinking bad beverages.

 

Coffee has been a staple of my morning for decades and I do believe that it has hurt my dental health a good amount.  Unfortunately, the extra acid that it brings to my mouth breaks down my enamel faster than it normally would.  It also causes massive amounts of staining.  This is hard to overcome with any amount of normal dental routine that involves brushing.  The toothpaste I use has little effect on getting rid of the coffee staining. Now coffee is not all bad but alternatives can be much better for your health.

 

I suggest trying to sip more tea instead of coffee in the morning.  I know the convenience of coffee is what normally wins most people over but now that electric pots exist the convenience is really the same. You can now brew a hot pot of water in a minute or two and then just fill up your cup with a tea packet and be set.  In many ways this is actually faster than the old fashioned coffee pot. So don't get caught up in stereotypes and break the chain of bad dental health.  Now you can have your cake and eat it too, by drinking highly caffeinated tea with less acid and staining involved. So give it a try and work on drinking more water.  Stay safe out there!.

What Happens When you Stop Brushing your Teeth

The healthcare industry has taken a huge leap into the unknown this year.  The situation has made all kinds of healthcare related treatments difficult.  So when dental issues occur it is so much more difficult depending on what state you are in to get treatment.  Some dental location were actually shutdown due to current sanrio.  So it is important to keep up with your dental healthcare. But what happens if you don't? Will your teeth fall out like all the horror stories say or is there a period of safety in between all the not brushing happening. 

When a Dentist was asked the question of what would happen if you stopped brushing the answer was hilarious and vague, "Probably nothing good".  The short answer is that if you stop brushing the bad things will indeed start happening.  Tooth decay will set in and happen more rapidly than if you had not stopped brushing your teeth.  This means that cavities will then start to form and tooth decay will be in full bloom.  One of the tail tell signs of this is the constant bad breath that will happen in your mouth.  The fact is that tooth decay has a bad smell and simply won't go away with mouthwash

The next stage of not brushing can lead to more than simply tooth decay.  The next section of issues can be the inevitable gum disease. The real danger is that when you are letting bacteria build up it is causing other issues as well.  The bacteria can get into your gums and move into your bloodstream.  This can cause lots of issues because it may cause your immune system to kick into overdrive and the sky is the limit on problems that may occur.  This means that the dirty bacteria filled mouth due to not brushing has been linked to things like, heart attacks, respiratory diseases, and even MRSA.

 

The reality is that everyone is different and each person who would stop brushing their teeth could have one and not the other within a year.  It is possible to have both and have a double struggle and the cost of this could be really devastating for the repairs that may be needed.  The main issue is that these issues cause a whole lot of pain.  Now the amount of pain can vary between person to person, but most people are willing to pay a lot of money to get rid of it.  That says a lot especially when multiple surgeries may be involved.

 

The key to the whole thing is to simply not stop brushing your teeth. This can keep you from a whole lot of issues physically and financially.  This all comes into play in the year that it is as well. Getting dental work done can be even more complicated with the rules and regulations put in place for dentists.  This also can mean that you may have to have longer wait times in order to be able to get your dental work done.  So stay on a normal brushing routine and don't just let your teeth go.  The cost of buying toothpaste and the time it takes each day is absolutely worth not having the issues that can occur by not brushing. So contact your healthcare provider and stay safe.