6 tips for healthy teeth

Receding gums, dental plaque and bad breath? Not in your mouth! To maintain healthy teeth and gums, you should keep up a good oral regimen. The experts at Tandarts Jordaan give you their top tips for healthy and beautiful teeth:

Brush your teeth twice a day, at least

It is highly recommended to clean your teeth at least twice a day. It is not ideal to brush your teeth quickly, as you might cause damage to your teeth’s enamel and gums. While you brush, make sure you use circular motions instead of sawing motions. With circular motions, you’ll remove plaque. If you skip parts of your teeth, the risk of gum disease increases.

Cleaning twice a day ensures you remove as much plaque as possible. Less saliva is produced at night than during the day. So, if you brush before going to sleep, there are far fewer bacteria present during the night that can cause plaque.

Use an electric toothbrush

Brushing your teeth with an electric toothbrush is better than brushing with a regular toothbrush. The advantage of an electric toothbrush is that plaque is removed more easily and the brush gets in between your gums and teeth easier.

Many electric brushes have a built-in timer that ensures you brush your teeth for at least two minutes, which removes more plaque. In addition, an electric toothbrush regulates the pressure on your teeth better than a regular toothbrush. You want to make sure you apply the right amount of pressure and don’t cause damage to your enamel.

Also, check the hairs of your toothbrush every so often. Are the hairs still straight? Great! It’s a good idea to change your toothbrush every three months or whenever the hairs are starting to move outwards.

Clean your tongue

A white tongue is almost always caused by bacteria that have remained on your tongue. Not only does the white residue not look great, but it also causes bad breath and damages your oral hygiene. Perhaps you have wondered what the ridges at the back of your toothbrush head are for. Well, you can clean your tongue with those ridges!

We advise you to clean your tongue at least once a day. Bad breath is mainly caused by a surplus of bacteria on your tongue, which makes cleaning your tongue extra important. If your toothbrush has no ridges on the back, you can also purchase a tongue scraper.

Floss or use toothpicks

To keep your teeth healthy, every piece of food residue must be removed. You remove most residue by using a toothpick or by flossing at least once a day. Even though you brush your teeth very carefully, you almost never get between teeth and molars. So, plaque always remains in such places. The trick is to be able to floss or pick your teeth without having to look in the mirror. Once this is no longer necessary, you can also do it quickly at work, for instance.

Worried about forgetting to floss / pick your teeth? Be prepared and put a box of picks in your bag in advance or place one at your work desk.

Reduce your intake of soft drinks and use a (reusable) straw

Are you planning to drink something sour? Acids in soft drinks affect your teeth’s enamel. Therefore, we recommend you wait at least half an hour after drinking soda to brush. If you brush your teeth immediately after drinking, you can brush away the enamel, which leads to faster wear on your teeth. You hardly taste these acids, because the taste of sugars in soft drinks is very dominant.

If you often drink soft drinks, you run a greater risk of cavities in your teeth. We advise you to use a straw while drinking soft drinks for minimal contact and to swish some water around your mouth to literally wash away most of the acids.

See your dentist every six months

Our last tip is to visit your dentist every six months. Even when following these tips to a T, you’ll not be able to “outrun” the dentist. You don’t want cavities to go unnoticed or issues such as crooked wisdom teeth which could lead to serious dental problems.

Oral hygiene is very important. Keep your teeth healthy and happy by brushing your teeth, flossing / picking, scraping your tongue and visiting an expert dentist such as Tandarts Jordaan!