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Five Simple Ways to Prevent Cavities
One quarter of all American adults and half of teens have cavities. Many people take their oral health for granted. But taking care of your teeth is critical for your best overall wellness. This makes one of your biggest oral health issues is cavity prevention. Below are five easy ways to prevent cavities, no matter your age.
1. Know Your Oral Health
Taking good care of your teeth means understanding your current oral health status and risk for cavities. This knowledge comes from visiting your dentist twice yearly for a routine oral health exam. Your dentist advises about your cavity risk, which treatments you need and how you can reduce your potential for dental problems. For these reasons, visiting your dentist every six months enables one of the easiest ways to prevent cavities.
2. Brush Your Teeth Regularly
Proper tooth brushing is the most obvious among ways to prevent cavities. Brushing with a fluoride toothpaste removes bacteria and plaque from the surfaces of your teeth. It is most important to perform this twice-daily ritual after meals and before going to bed at night. Otherwise, bacteria and plaque linger on your teeth, their acids damaging your precious enamel.
If possible, brush your teeth after lunch at school or work. Use an antimicrobial mouthwash each time you brush, too. This freshens your breath while cleaning away cavity-causing bacteria.
3. Choose Water and Drink Less Soda, Coffee, Juices, and Tea
Routinely exposing your teeth to the acids and sugars in tea, coffee, juices, milk, and sodas increases your risk of cavities. This means that drinking less of these beverages is another one of the easy ways to prevent cavities. If you do partake in sugary or acidic drinks, enjoy them for 20 minutes or less each day. Then rinse your mouth thoroughly with water.
Speaking of water, most municipalities in the United States add cavity-preventing fluoride to their water supply. This makes water healthier than any other choice when it comes to cavity prevention and general wellness.
4. Floss Daily
No one looks forward to flossing their teeth every day. But this is one of the important ways to prevent cavities. Each tooth has five sides or surfaces, with all of them holding onto food particles, plaque, bacteria, and other debris. You need to clean these surfaces to ensure your best oral health and fewer cavities. Brushing only cleans three to four of each tooth’s sides and flossing reaches where your toothbrush cannot.
5. Stop Using Tobacco Products
Tobacco products like cigarettes, cigars, and chewing tobacco cause a wide range of physical health problems. More than 16 million American adults use tobacco daily. Many of these people do not realize how much damage doing so cause in their mouths. In fact, tobacco use leads to cavities, stains on teeth, gum disease, tooth loss, and oral cancer.
By quitting smoking, you enable your body to heal from past damage caused by tobacco use. At the same time, quitting reduces your risk of cancer and other diseases. You can also improve your smile through this clear way to prevent cavities. Stopping your smoking or other use also makes it easier to keep your smile bright white. You look and feel healthier throughout your body, as a result.
Lower Your Risk of Cavities at Carolina Dental Arts
As said before, visiting your dentist regularly is one of the key ways to prevent cavities. Your dentist can help you improve your oral health, prevent tooth decay, and restore your smile after cavities occur. Your dentist can even help you get on track to quit smoking or using other tobacco.
Start taking cavity prevention more seriously by seeing your dentist twice yearly. Carolina Dental Arts offers three convenient locations to serve you, with two in Raleigh and one in Goldsboro, NC. Schedule your next visit today.
