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Keeping Up With Your Dental Care Could Save Your Teeth
Admin • Apr 26, 2018
Whether you're a busy college student or active retiree, maintaining good oral hygiene is one of the most effective ways to meet your health goals. But if your lifestyle leaves little time to brush and floss your teeth properly, you could be setting your dental health up for failure. What happens in your mouth could affect your entire body.
Learn why you should keep up with your dental health and how below.
What Happens If You Lose Some Teeth?
Unlike your hair and nails, tooth enamel doesn't grow back, rebuild itself, or even regenerate after it's lost to decay or erosion. In most cases, badly damaged teeth can fall out on their own, or they can require a dentist to physically remove them. Early tooth loss can potentially cause a host of problems for you, including misalignment of the jaw.
By the time you reach adulthood, you should have 32 strong teeth in your mouth. If you previously removed your wisdom teeth, you should have 28 teeth. Although losing your wisdom teeth generally isn't a bad thing, losing your incisors, cuspids (canines), premolars, and molars can be. Your teeth could shift or travel over time.
Incisors and canines allow you to tear into meat or slice into sandwiches. Your premolars and molars grind food into digestible mush. Teeth also keep each other properly aligned in the jaw. A single lost tooth, such as a cuspid, can cause other teeth to shift too much and push your jaw out of alignment.
Canine teeth are longer and sharper than the rest of your teeth. When you close your mouth or bite down, the tips of your canines are the first teeth to make contact with each other. If your canines don't make contact, the alignment in your mouth could be off.
Misalignment of the jaw can eventually lead to pain. You could experience pain in the joints connected to your jaw, or you could feel pain when you chew. Some adults experience speech problems when they lose some teeth. Your teeth work along with your tongue to sound out or complete words, letters, and other verbal cues.
You can keep your teeth healthy and intact by practicing better oral care hygiene during the day.
How Do You Make Time for Your Oral Care?
It's essential that you clean and rinse your mouth two or more times a day. Plaque can build up on your teeth throughout the day. When combined with food, plaque can produce and release acid on your tooth enamel. Acid is one of the catalysts for tooth decay.
If possible, rinse your mouth with fresh water right after you eat. Water helps neutralize the acid on your tooth enamel. Also, wait at least 30 minutes to brush your teeth. Acid weakens your enamel and brushing your teeth immediately after eating can break down your enamel even faster.
If you don't have time to wait 30 minutes to brush your teeth after meals, you can brush beforehand. This method works well if you plan to drink or eat something that contains acid or sugar. No matter when you clean your teeth, it's important that make the time to do it.
You can also protect your teeth or improve your oral care hygiene by seeing a dentist soon. A dentist can check your teeth and jaw for decay, misalignment, and other problems. A provider can also offer sound advice on how you can improve your oral care during the day.
Don't let your busy or hectic lifestyle interfere with your oral care. If you need treatment or advice on how to care for your mouth, contact Royal Oak Dental
for an appointment
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Contact Information
Phone:
(248) 398-1818
Email:
royaloakdental@gmail.com
Fax:
248-398-2031
Address:
715 North Main Street Royal Oak, MI 48067
Hours of Operation
Monday: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Tuesday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Wednesday: 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Thursday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Friday: Closed
Alternating Saturdays: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Sunday: Closed
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