Quit These Bad Habits if You Want to Protect Your Teeth
Everyone wants to have teeth that are as healthy as possible but many people don’t realize that some of their bad habits are negatively impacting their teeth. There are a lot of positive things you can do for your teeth, like eating healthy foods and brushing and flossing regularly, but today we’re going to focus on things you can avoid to keep your teeth in good shape.
If you have questions, or if it’s been more than six months since your last dental check-up, please contact California Dental Group at (800) 407-0161 as soon as possible. If you’re having dental issues, we can come up with a dental treatment plan to help reduce or eliminate pain, improve the appearance of your teeth, and prevent future problems.
Tobacco products – especially smoking
Smoking is bad for your health – that’s not a surprise. However, not everyone realizes that it’s actually bad for your teeth too. In addition to the damage tobacco does to your heart, respiratory system, and vital organs, it also increases your chances of oral cancer. Of course, it also makes your teeth look dull or even yellow. Once you quit smoking, we can work on teeth whitening options that can get you that healthy, white smile you wish you had.
Biting your nails
You might think that biting your nails is a pretty harmless habit. The truth is that if you do it for too long, it can cause infections and other injuries to your nails, nail beds, and fingers. It can also affect your teeth. As you bite and pull at your nails with your teeth, you’re slowing wearing your enamel down. In fact, you’ll wear it down faster by biting your nails than you do by simply chewing and talking.
Drinking soda
Cutting down on soda is another excellent thing you can do for your oral health and your overall health. First, soda is full of sugars, which wear down and damage both your teeth and your gums. Second, the carbonation in the soda also wears down on your enamel. Diet soda is better than full-sugar soda, but remember that they use chemicals to replace those sugars. Those chemicals do become acidic when they combine with your saliva, which can end up damaging your enamel too.
Biting down on ice
Biting on ice can damage your teeth in the same way biting your nails can. It may be healthier because at least with chewing ice you’re increasing your water consumption, but in the end it’s not a good habit to create. It has been known to help some people when giving up bad habits such as smoking but it’s not recommend as a good long-term fix for any issue.
These are just a few things that can impact the health of your teeth. If you’re worried that your teeth aren’t in as good of shape as they could or should be, then we encourage you to contact California Dental Group at (800) 407-0161 to make an appointment with a dental professional.