Maintaining oral hygiene is vital for healthy teeth and gums. Oral hygiene refers to maintaining a clean mouth without diseases. Oral hygiene includes daily use of a toothbrush for brushing and floss for flossing, along with visiting a dentist in Orange Park, FL, regularly. Proper oral hygiene ensures long-lasting oral health and fewer risks and chances of dental issues like cavities, infections, etc.
Other issues oral care eliminates are bad breath, gum diseases, etc. Oral hygiene is essential to maintain not just your dental health but also your overall health, as some dental issues can travel to other parts of your body and cause conditions like heart disease and stroke. This article will discuss some tips to care for your oral health properly.
How do you maintain oral hygiene?
Good oral hygiene protects your gums and teeth and allows you to wear a beautiful and bright smile on your face. Below are some excellent tips to properly care for your dental health:
- It is important to brush at least 2 times.
Use soft-bristled toothbrushes with fluoride toothpaste to brush your teeth twice daily, primarily once in the morning and once at night before going to bed. Hard bristles damage your gums and tooth enamel, so make sure always to choose soft-bristled brushes. Take time while brushing your teeth, and make sure to cover all surfaces along with the backs and sides. Rigorous brushing hurts the gums and also damages tooth enamel. Brushing gets rid of plaque and bacteria.
- Floss once daily.
Toothbrushes cannot reach spaces between our teeth. To solve this issue, we use flosses. Dental flosses are like threads you wrap around your middle fingers and guide them inside those hard-to-reach spaces. Flossing at least once daily is very important to ensure you have properly cleaned your teeth and no food is trapped in or around any of your teeth.
- Brush your tongue.
Do not stop at just brushing your teeth, as your tongue can hold a lot of bacteria as well. When you eat food, it not only gets stuck in your teeth, but food remains on your tongue as well. Unclean tongue can lead to bad breath. You can use a toothbrush to clean your tongue or purchase a tongue cleaner separately.
- Avoid smoking and other tobacco products.
Smoking is known to cause oral cancer and gum disease. Avoiding tobacco ultimately helps prevent the chances of those conditions developing. Tobacco products also lead to foul breath, which becomes very hard to get rid of.
Alternatively, you can talk to your dentist to help you find a routine that is fit to meet your needs and practice that consistently to maintain your oral health.
