What Are The Five Basic Steps For Caring For Teeth and Gums?

August 1, 2023

Your dental health plays a decisive role in determining your overall health and well-being. Believe it or not, dental health issues do not end with cavities and tooth decay. Unresolved dental health issues can lead to the development of other health conditions and complications.

For instance, health issues such as cardiovascular, respiratory, and even digestive system issues can come up due to unresolved gum disease. This means that not only is your oral health placed in jeopardy when you face dental issues but also your health and quality of life in general.

The terrific news is that most of these dental health problems are preventable. One key way to stay ahead of all these dental and health conditions is to care for your teeth and gums properly.

Our dentist in North York firmly believes that caring for your gums and teeth can go a long way in transforming your oral health, smile, and overall health. But how can you care for your gums and teeth to ensure your oral health stays on point? Let’s look at how you can take good care of your smile.

Five Steps You Can Take to Care for Your Gums and Teeth

You can ensure that your teeth and gums stay clean, healthy, and strong, a prerequisite to good oral health. Here are some of those measures our dentist near you recommends:

Practice Proper Oral Hygiene Proper oral hygiene entails brushing and flossing your teeth daily. It would help if you brushed your teeth at least twice every day after meals and flossed at least once daily. Each brushing session should be at least two minutes, and you should brush your teeth gently using a soft-bristled brush to avoid hurting or injuring your gums.

Our dental hygienist near you can give you pointers during your appointment on brushing and flossing correctly to make oral hygiene sessions more effective.

Brushing and flossing your teeth daily ensures that your pearly whites and gums stay clean and free of bacteria, plaque, and food debris that bring about gum disease, cavities, and tooth decay.

Ensure you also brush your tongue because bacteria love nestling here, which can bring about bad breath.

Use Toothpaste That Contains Fluoride

Fluoride is a natural compound that can help fortify teeth. This is why it is important to use fluoride toothpaste to give your teeth access to fluoride that can fortify your teeth against cavities.

You should be keener on using fluoride-infused toothpaste, particularly if you live in an area whose water supply does not contain fluoride, because this may be the only way you get aces to this important element.

Use a Recommended Mouthwash

You can ask our dentist near you to recommend a mouthwash that you can use regularly. It is advisable to rinse your mouth every day using an antibacterial mouthwash. This helps ensure that any spots you missed during brushing still get cleaned out and rinsed free of any bacteria and plaque that can encourage tooth decay and gum disease.

Choose What to Eat

Your diet should be packed with essential foods for your oral health. Foods rich in calcium, for instance, are vital to strengthen your teeth. Likewise, fruits loaded with vitamin C help your gums and ensure that they do not easily bleed whenever you are brushing.

On the other hand, sugary foods and beverages only harm your teeth and gums. This is because these foods promote and encourage bacterial growth, gum disease, and tooth decay, all of which are detrimental to the health of your teeth and gums.

Come In For Your Regular Dental Checkup and Professional Cleaning

This is one fundamental way to guarantee that your teeth and gums will be well cared for. It would help if you visited our dentist regularly for your scheduled dental checkup. These checkups are vital to ascertain that your gums and teeth are healthy and that any dental health issues are caught early enough before they develop into complex dental issues.

These visits are also important because they allow our dental hygienist near you to carry out a professional dental cleaning procedure. This procedure is important because you will not be able to access all surfaces of your teeth when you brush and floss.

These hard-to-reach areas can accumulate plaque and bacteria. This dental cleaning ensures that any accumulated plaque and bacteria will be eliminated, safeguarding and protecting your teeth and gums.

Back to Blog