Written By Victoria Smith / Reviewed By Ray Spotts

Maintaining good dental health is essential for a variety of reasons. It's obvious that good oral health practices will help you protect your teeth to ensure you can continue eating the foods you enjoy, but the status of your oral health also influences your self-confidence and your ability to speak clearly. The following tips will help you ensure your dental health is the best that it can be.

Use the Right Tools

Every good oral care plan starts with using the best tools to care for your teeth and gum tissue. This starts with making sure you have a good quality, soft-bristled toothbrush to clean your teeth and gums. You should also ensure you choose a toothpaste that has the ADA (American Dental Association) seal of approval.

Brush your teeth by holding the toothbrush at a 45-degree angle and moving the bristles in a circular motion. Instead of scrubbing harshly, think of this process as being similar to buffing a car. You'll want to be firm enough to remove plaque and food particles, but gentle enough to avoid damaging the enamel on your teeth.

Use Floss and Mouthwash

As a general rule, you should floss once per day, but you can do more good for your teeth if you floss just prior to each time you brush your teeth. The floss will help remove food particles that are lodged between your teeth, enabling you to do a better job when you brush your teeth.

Some people opt for a water pick instead of traditional floss because the water can clean hard-to-reach areas in your mouth. After you finish brushing, never rinse with water. You should always wait 30 minutes or longer after brushing to eat or drink anything.

Learn About Corrective Procedures

If there is anything about your smile that you don't like, you should talk to your dentist about it. There are very few oral care issues that dentists can't repair or alleviate. For example, discolored teeth can be corrected with a whitening procedure or with snap on veneers.

If you're missing teeth, dental implants can fill the gap to protect the surrounding teeth and improve your ability to eat the foods you enjoy. There are also many options available for correcting an overbite, so you may not need a full set of braces to fix your smile. Regardless of the specific dental health issue that concerns you, a dentist can offer you treatment options to improve the quality of your smile.

Drink Plenty of Water

In addition to helping your organs stay hydrated, drinking water helps you maintain good oral health. This is because water is very effective in flushing food particles and harmful bacteria out of your mouth. It can also help you flush sugar out of your mouth after you have eaten something sweet or sticky.

Sugar and other food particles will interact with the bacteria in your mouth to form an acidic substance that eats away at the enamel on your teeth. Drinking water after every meal will help push these substances out of your mouth to reduce the risks of tooth decay. Drinking more water will also help you keep your breath smelling fresher.

Avoid Sugary Drinks as Much as Possible

In addition to the sugar that is found in carbonated beverages, there are acids added to these drinks that help maintain the beverage's taste. Unfortunately, those acids adversely interact with our tooth enamel and gum tissue, causing decay and disease to become more common.

The more carbonated beverages you drink, the more acid you're introducing into your mouth. Ideally, you should avoid drinking carbonated beverages altogether. If you do drink them, choose them as a rare treat instead of as a staple of your daily routine. Instead, drink more water. You can add a twist of lemon or lime to water to give it an extra kick.

It's also important to see your dentist twice a year for a checkup and teeth cleaning procedure. These services will help to catch problems early, which means dental health issues can usually be treated with less invasive and less costly procedures. A six-month checkup will help you maintain a healthy and beautiful smile.

Looking for a 100% all-natural liquid tooth oil and mouth rinse? Check out OraMD Original Strength and OraMD Extra Strength. Subscribe to our Trusted Health Club newsletter for more information about natural living tips, natural health, oral care, skincare, body care and foot care. If you are looking for more health resources check out the Trusted Health Resources list. 

Written By:

Victoria Smith is a freelance writer who specializes in business and finance with a passion for cooking and wellness. She lives in Austin, Texas where she is currently working towards her MBA. 

Reviewed By:

Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.

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