Make dental health your New Years Resolution in 2016. Keeping on top of your dental health is as easy as scheduling checkups, brushing and flossing appropriately, and choosing the right foods. Follow these tips for keeping your smile healthy in 2016!

Schedule Regular Checkups

If you don’t have a regular dentist yet, now’s the time to find one. Even if you aren’t keen on scheduling regular checkups, having a dentist that you trust in the event of a problem or emergency can make all the difference for your dental care. Let’s not forget that regular checkups can help prevent problems before they happen. Your dentist can often spot problem areas that will go ignored until a more major problem is imminent.

It’s a good idea to schedule regular checkups with your dentist every six months. Your dentist may advise that you only need to stop in for yearly checkups if you’re on top of your dental health at home, or he or she may suggest that you need to come in every few months. It all depends on your unique smile and if you have any existing dental health problems. Remember, visiting a dentist twice a year can prevent problems, encourage oral health, and even save your smile!

Brush Properly, Floss More

Brushing your teeth prevents the buildup of plaque, removes bacteria, and keeps your smile looking great. However, brushing doesn’t count for much if you aren’t doing it properly. If you tend to brush your teeth hard, you may actually be wearing away the protective enamel that covers your tooth and its roots. Once this is gone, it can’t be replaced. Proper brushing involves soft, swift strokes that focus on small areas at a time. Talk with your dentist about how to properly brush your teeth.Flossing is also important to keep your smile looking its best. Food is easily trapped in between teeth, and over time, this can even cause infections, gingivitis, and chronic bad breath. Yuck! No matter which flossing tools work best for you, be sure to use them. It’s ideal to floss at least once a day. Ask your dentist how you can make flossing easy!

Optimize Your Diet

You’ve heard that sugar isn’t good for teeth—but it’s not the only corrosive substance out there. Other foods and beverages such as alcohol, soda, juice, coffee, dried fruits, citrus fruits, and starchy snacks like potato chips can damage your teeth. Even dairy can be corrosive to the teeth due to its acidic nature. Do you have to stop eating or drinking all these things? No! The point is that by keeping up with brushing and flossing, you can help keep your mouth healthy. Also by choosing healthy foods to snack on throughout the day such as carrots, apples, and celery. Keep sugars and starches to a minimum!

Taking care of your dental health is easier than you think. By making your dental health your New Years Resolution, you can ensure your smile stays healthy for life. Schedule a checkup with your dentist, keep brushing and flossing, and reach for carrot sticks instead of lollipops. Happy New Year!

The post Make Dental Health Your New Years Resolution appeared first on Your Dental Health Resource.

Eating Habits Increase Risk

One of the greatest factors influencing tooth decay in children is diet. The fact is that young people love candy, desserts, and soft drinks. Between fast food, vending machines, and sugary beverages, it’s no wonder that young people are experiencing tooth decay.

How does a diet high in sugar result in tooth decay? The bacteria in the mouth thrive in acidic conditions. Sugars create acidic conditions in the mouth. As a result, bacteria can multiply faster leading to plaque, tartar buildup, and tooth decay.

Poor Oral Care Habits Also to Blame

The average youth also struggles to stay on a good oral care schedule. We may remind our children to brush their teeth in the morning and evening when they are little, but do we keep after their routine as they get a little older and should know better? It’s no wonder that tooth decay, already prevalent in younger children, increases dramatically around age 12.

How to Promote Good Oral Care in Your Household

How can you help your children not to become a part of the statistics listed above? Here are some suggestions.

Set the Example – Let your children see you brush your teeth. If there is room in the bathroom, make brushing a family routine, and have your child brush at the same time.

Teach Technique – Your children will need your help to learn how to brush properly. Teach them how to floss as well. We are always more likely to do something regularly when we know how to do it.

Education – When we know something is beneficial, we are more likely to go out of our way for it. Train children to understand the importance of caring for their teeth.

Dietary Instructions – Replacing colas with water can go a long way toward preventing tooth decay. Kids often grab the sweetest options available, so swap sugary snacks for fruit.

With a little training and encouragement, children can have strong and healthy teeth well into adulthood. Start training young, and don’t forget to schedule regular dental visits.

The post Did You Know: Children Are at High Risk for Tooth Decay appeared first on Your Dental Health Resource.

Cold sores take the form of a red, sometimes large-looking, blister that is often referred to as a “fever blister”. Indeed, these sores can cause fever, swollen lymph nodes, and even a headache. These sores are always outside of the mouth, usually on the edge of your lip. Cold sores are caused by the Type 1 herpes simplex virus, which is different from the Type 2 herpes virus, which is also referred to as genital herpes, passed along through sexual contact. Type 1 herpes virus is highly contagious and can be passed along simply through touching the cold sore, kissing, sharing drinks or food, and any other contact with it. Once you have this Type 1 herpes virus, it doesn’t go away, but the good news is that your cold sores will come and go and are not destined to stay long.

The cold sore may be oozing a clear fluid and will likely scab over after a time. They can be pretty painful in addition to the other symptoms that they cause, but the good news is they don’t last long and should be totally gone after a two-week period. While there are some over-the-counter treatments available, the truth is that cold sores will just have to go away on their own. If your cold sore is still hanging around after two weeks, it may be time to visit the doctor!

Canker Sores—Inside

Canker sores are always inside your mouth, but their position in your mouth will vary. They could be along your tongue, on your inner upper lip, lower lip, or on the side of your mouth. Wherever they are in your mouth, they are usually pretty painful for their size. They are typically small sores that are gray, yellow, or white with a red, irritated-looking ring around it. These are usually open sores and while not contagious, can be pretty annoying. It’s not known what causes canker sores, but stress, vitamin or mineral deficiencies, food allergies, and even hormones have been thought to play a role in their existence. Like cold sores, a canker sore will need to heal on its own, and the pain usually goes away after a few days and the entire sore should be gone after a week or two. Again, if it sticks around, you’ll likely need to visit your doctor to make sure nothing else is going on. Canker sores can also cause symptoms like that of cold sores—swollen lymph nodes or a fever.

Maintaining your oral health can help you avoid a canker sore, but cold sores may be more apt to appear on their own regardless of your oral health. Minimizing sharing of food and drinks with others and monitor your canker sore or cold sore to ensure it heals on its own.

The post Canker Sores, Cold Sores, and Your Oral Health appeared first on Your Dental Health Resource.

Proper Brushing Technique

When you brush your teeth, it should always be in a circular motion. Is it better to just get an electric toothbrush? That is only the case if you get one that spins in a circular motion, and it helps you to remember not to brush straight back and forth. Be sure to brush at 45-degree angle to the gumline. This will help you to remove the maximum amount of bacteria before it has the chance to harden into tartar (which will have to be removed at the dentist’s office during your six-month cleaning). You should brush for about two minutes at a time. This gives you enough time to clean the front, back, and top of each tooth well. You may want to use the stopwatch feature of your phone to make sure that you are spending sufficient time on your teeth.

How to Floss Correctly

Be sure to use about a foot and a half of floss so that you have plenty of room to wrap your fingers (you can also use a floss pick). This gives you plenty of floss to switch to a clean section for each tooth. Don’t just pull the floss back and forth between teeth, but also move it up and down. It is good to get below the gumline since your toothbrush won’t get in there. It’s not about flossing hard. If you floss twice per day, you should be able to glide the floss gently.

So What Should Be First?

Some say brushing should be first because the residue left on your teeth from the fluoride in the toothpaste gets picked up by the floss and improves cleaning between the teeth and below the gumline. Others say that you should floss first to loosen food particles and bacteria that can then be more easily brushed away.

You can decide for yourself which makes more sense. The important thing is to brush and floss every day because it takes about 24 hours for plaque to form. Brushing and flossing at least twice per day prevents this build up and protects your oral health.

The post Brushing or Flossing: Which Comes First? appeared first on Your Dental Health Resource.

Custom Dental Mouthguards

Custom dental mouthguards are your best protection against injury. This is because they are specifically made to fit your mouth. This includes shape and size in addition to any unique features of your mouth that will need to be taken into account with a mouthguard. A custom dental mouthguard can be constructed at your regular dentist’s office. Although this option is the more expensive option when it comes to mouthguards, the protection that it offers you or your child during sports is unparalleled. No other mouthguard will offer you the same level of protection that your unique mouth needs than a custom dental mouthguard.

ArmourBite Mouthguard

You may also have the option get an ArmourBite mouthguard at your dentist office. These mouthguards, while offered by Under Armour, will be customized at your dentist office. These mouthguards are created by having your dentist take an impression of your teeth, which is then sent to the lab to create your unique ArmourBite guard. You’ll get to choose your color and you can even get your name and number printed on the guard so that if you ever misplace it, it can be returned to you. These mouthguards help protect against teeth grinding during competitions and impacts to your jaw in contact sports. ArmourBite mouthguards come with a one-year warranty and take only ten days to be delivered to your door from the lab.

Benefits of Custom Mouthguards

The benefits of custom-fitted mouthguards include:

– Better quality material molded to fit only your mouth.

– The size will be perfect—no bulky store-bought mouthguards that make speaking and breathing difficult.

– Proper, custom fit effectively separates the upper and lower jaw so that any impact will be properly absorbed by the mouthguard instead of going to the teeth or head.

– Prevents teeth grinding.

– Custom-fitted mouthguards effectively reduce the risk of injury from concussions, jaw fractures, tooth loss, bruising to the face, and stress on the neck.

– Mouthguards that are custom are much more comfortable than standard ones, making you more likely to wear it.

When sports season comes in this fall, don’t let yourself or your children go unprotected—athletes can’t afford to ignore their oral health. Prevent injury, tooth fracture and loss, and perform optimally at your sport with a custom mouthguard this season.

The post Athletes Can’t Afford to Ignore Their Oral Health appeared first on Your Dental Health Resource.

Gum Disease

People who have periodontal disease, or gum disease, are more likely to have heart attacks. Gum disease is usually the result of poor oral health, such as lack of brushing or improper brushing, little to no flossing, and not visiting your dentist regularly. With gum disease, plaque that forms on your teeth that has not been brushed away can form into tartar, a hard substance that is difficult to remove. This tartar can cause inflammation of the gums, causing your gums to pull back from your teeth, bleed, and harbor infection. This inflammation can be associated with inflammation in your arteries.

Oral Bacteria

This inflammation in your arteries could be the result of bad bacteria in your mouth traveling through your blood stream. The bacteria could encourage inflammation, therefore allowing for further buildup of plaque in your arteries. This could lead to artherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Artherosclerosis is a common cause of heart attack and stroke. This link makes it more important than ever to practice good oral hygiene in your daily life. Brushing, flossing, and visiting your dentist regularly helps, but speak with your dentist about proper brushing techniques as well. If you smoke, this is a great time to quit. Smoking can encourage bad bacteria to grow in your mouth and lead to gum disease.

Gingivitis

Even if you haven’t been diagnosed with gum disease, gingivitis, or inflammation of the gums, can be just as bad. Gingivitis is a prelude to gum disease and can still cause your gums to swell and bleed due to bad bacteria in the mouth, plaque, and tartar. Plaque can harden over a 24-48 hour period, meaning proper brushing once a day is enough, but brushing twice a day will alleviate your chances of getting gingivitis or gum disease even more. If you smoke or eat a lot of refined sugars in your diet or other acidic foods, brushing and rinsing with water when you can’t brush is important. Bad oral bacteria from gingivitis can make its way into your bloodstream and could potentially be harmful to blood vessels and encourage blood clot formation.

Your mouth is not a separate entity from the rest of your body—it is connected, and in a vital way. The mouth is the entryway for our nourishment and this entryway happens to be crammed with bacteria, both good and bad. By keeping up with proper oral hygiene and visiting your dentist, you can minimize bad bacteria and plaque, therefore leading to a healthy mouth and heart!

The post Dental Care and Heart Health appeared first on Your Dental Health Resource.

The most common symptom of toothpaste allergy is a rash around the mouth that appears after brushing. The rash may be itchy, and it can spread to the chin, cheeks or even the nose. Toothpaste allergy can also cause canker sores, which are painful sores inside the mouth. Other symptoms of toothpaste allergy include gum inflammation, hives, respiratory issues, itchiness, red eyes and watery eyes. Toothpaste allergy can trigger anaphylaxis, which is an emergency situation that requires immediate medical treatment.

Cheilitis, which is dryness, cracking and irritation of the mouth, is a major symptom of toothpaste allergy. Cheilitis is also a symptom of yeast infection, so correct diagnosis is important if you experience this symptom.

Flavorings in toothpastes are a common allergen, particularly spearmint or peppermint oils. Other ingredients in toothpaste that can cause allergic reactions include propylene glycol, sodium benzoate and cocamidopropyl betaine. Toothpastes that advertise as being “natural” may cause less problems with irritation and sensitivity, but sometimes these toothpastes can have combinations of ingredients that can cause allergic reactions as well.

Some people are allergic to fluoride. Fluoride is good for your teeth because it keeps the enamel strong and reduces cavities, but anyone who is allergic to fluoride may have to opt for toothpaste that does not contain fluoride.

If you have allergic reactions or sensitivity to toothpaste, you may be able to ease symptoms by washing your face after brushing your teeth. You can also try using less toothpaste when you brush. Make sure you get a new toothbrush often, at least once a month, and use toothbrushes with soft bristles.

The post Toothpaste Allergies: Know the Symptoms appeared first on Your Dental Health Resource.