4 habits that are surprisingly bad for your teeth
While we’d never go weeks without taking a shower or eating, why is it that so many of us are guilty at neglecting our teeth every day? Just as much as taking care of your teeth is about keeping them clean and your breath fresh, it’s also about preventative maintenance.
How many of these bad oral health habits are you guilty of?
Not visiting the dentist enough
Even if you think you go above and beyond when looking after your oral health – think brushing, flossing, and even use a special set of dental tools remove plaque – that still doesn’t mean you can skip your yearly cleaning at the dentist’s office.
Make sure to schedule an appointment at least once a year.
Brushing from side to side
If you clean your teeth twice a day you deserve a pat on the back, right? Simply sticking a toothbrush in your mouth and moving it around is not enough. Good tooth brushing requires a certain technique. This does not involve any side-to-side action. Rather you’ll want to go in small circles. Forceful side-to-side brushing combined with an abrasive toothpaste can actually damage the teeth.
You also need to ensure you brush along the gum line and the back of your teeth to loosen bacteria. Another big brushing mistake? Not doing it for long enough. While most people would’ve heard that the ideal length of time is two minutes, this is an arbitrary number, rather you should brush until you completely get all sides of every single tooth.
Using a non-fluoride toothpaste
Not all toothpastes are created equal! Some toothpastes, especially natural ones, brand themselves as fluoride-free, even though you need fluoride to achieve the healthiest mouth possible.
Fluoride is essential because unless you remove absolutely every bit of plaque each day, fluoride can help replace the minerals worn away by bacteria-produced acid.
Chewing on ice
While chewing ice can be very refreshing, given that teeth don’t have great fracture resistance, it’s not a good habit to get in. Furthermore, as ice will take your mouth from warm to cold – and this tends to make things expand and contract very slightly – it can be enough to put little micro-cracks in your enamel.
You can get away with it for a while, but the little cracks in your teeth can build up and one day, a piece might just break off.
Image credits: Getty Images