Keeping Your Teeth Clean and Disease-Free

Oral hygiene is one of the most important aspects of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. You’ve no doubt been told your entire life that brushing at least twice a day is extremely important, although you may have often wondered why.
It’s not a magical spell but a fact, not only does regular oral hygiene keep your teeth clean, but can also prevent certain diseases from popping up later in life, such as Alzheimer’s and many others. For those that want to start keeping their teeth as clean as possible, use these tips on a daily basis.
Clean Your Tongue
Most people tend to focus solely on their teeth when brushing, and forget about their tongue, which often carries the most bacteria and plaque in the mouth.
A tongue scraper is a good investment – some toothbrushes come with built-in scrapers – and should be used every morning to reduce the build-up of bacteria on the tongue. Not only will it help with bad breath throughout the day, but it can prevent tooth decay in the long-term.
When to Brush
The common consensus among dentists is that brushing twice a day is the best way to go, but brushing at any point during the day isn’t that helpful. According to dentists, the two more crucial times to brush are right before bed and straight after waking up.
Plaque builds up throughout the day and night, but it’s especially important to brush first thing in the morning. This is one of the reasons that we suffer from morning breath: being still and asleep for 8 hours gives bacteria plenty of time to grow throughout our mouth.
Flossing
Flossing should be done once a day, and it’s recommended to learn to floss without the need of a mirror. This gives you the chance to floss anywhere and at any time, whether it’s in the car or behind a desk, or waiting for your best app to load.
Flossing is incredibly important and removes food and plaque that brushes can’t generally reach.
Avoid Whitening Products
We’ve been told throughout our lives that having perfectly pearly white teeth is both healthy and attractive, but many dentists actually advise against using products that are designed to whiten teeth. Teeth are always meant to be slightly tinted, meaning that they have a protective layer over the top that keeps them safe from any tooth decay.
Whitening products are often designed to strip away this layer and expose the material underneath, which makes it that much easier for bacteria to get in and start working its way down to the root.
Avoid Tobacco and Soda
Soda is arguably the single worst substance we can expose our teeth to. The highly refined sugar eats away at our teeth more efficiently than anything we eat or drink. Dentists recommend drinking soda as quickly as possible, as this decreases the amount of damage done; small sips cause the most damage.
After soda is smoking tobacco products. While the acidity of the smoke does damage our teeth, the smoke also causes damage to the gums directly, which can cause further problems down the road.