How To Keep Your Family’s Teeth Healthy

It’s quite essential to ensure your family maintains great oral health. This way, you can prevent cases of tooth loss, pain, decay, and sensitivity or gum infections. Also, you could reduce the risk of heart disease, pneumonia, and other illnesses believed to stem from poor oral health.

Besides, keeping your family’s teeth in good shape will ensure you don’t spend too much on dental treatment. Moreover, your loved ones will be happier as good oral health helps keep smiles brighter, improves self-confidence, and ensures one can eat good meals without discomfort.

There are several ways to keep your family’s teeth healthy. Below are four steps you can consider:

1. Deal With Any Existing Oral Issues Promptly

Before anything else, you must deal with the current oral concerns in your family. If anyone has cavities, the first thing to do is visit a dentist. If the cavity is in its earliest development stages, the professional could reverse it. They might also do a fluoride treatment to restore the tooth’s enamel. However, in case of a serious cavity, the dentist may recommend a tooth extraction, root canal, filling, or a dental crown.

Before visiting any professional, check their qualifications, ask about their experience, and ensure they’re board-certified. Evaluate local dentists or ask friends or relatives to recommend a good one. Alternatively, review dental facilities with sites like https://www.familydentalhealth.com and others. Check out the services they offer, their prices, and customer testimonials.

If your loved one can’t see a dentist soon for their cavities, they can take over-the-counter (OTC) drugs for pain relief. Also, ensure they’re practicing habits to prevent the cavity from worsening. For example, they must brush their teeth and floss well regularly, get a new toothbrush, avoid sugary foods, and use good mouthwash daily.

2. Discourage Habits That Are Bad For Oral Health

The mouth and teeth are only for talking, drinking, eating, and expressing emotions. Therefore, you should discourage harmful practices that affect oral health in your family. These habits include biting nails, chewing on ice, and using teeth to open drinks or packages. These practices can cause teeth to fracture, crack, or chip. The gum may also get damaged.

Eating sticky or sugary foods often and using substandard at-home teeth-whitening products should also be prohibited. These habits are dangerous to the teeth’s enamel and could lead to bacterial infections.

It would also be best to discourage thumb-sucking for younger kids. This may cause teeth misalignment and speech impediments. Besides, the practice could also lead to the top and bottom teeth not biting together or cause the tongue not to sit in the right position.

You can discourage thumb-sucking by reminding your child gently not to do it. Positive reinforcement will also help stop the behavior. Besides that, you should identify any triggers like anxiety that may be causing the habit and find ways to deal with them.

3. Encourage Brushing Teeth Twice A Day

Brushing teeth twice a day could also help your family maintain healthy teeth. Therefore, it’s a practice you should encourage. Your loved ones can do this in the morning and evening. However, they must do so in the right way.

You can keep an eye on the smaller kids or clean your teeth together with them to ensure they brush correctly. Over time, they’ll learn and practice proper teeth brushing and could continue doing so even in their older years.

You should teach your loved ones several things about cleaning their teeth correctly. For instance, thorough brushing should take at least two minutes. When doing so, ensure they scrub the tongue too. This prevents plaque and food buildup that could lead to gum disease or tooth decay.

Also, encourage brushing in gentle circular motions. This way, all areas are cleaned, including the part between teeth and the section between the gums and teeth. This brushing approach can also help prevent sensitivity or receding gums. The mentioned issues may be caused by using the back-and-forth brushing motion.

Proper cleaning doesn’t mean that one has to brush their teeth too hard. This dangerous practice can hurt the gums and teeth enamel or cause tooth sensitivity. Prevent such issues by ensuring everyone has and uses a soft-bristled toothbrush.

4. Ensure Daily Flossing

Flossing every day is also recommendable. It’s thought that brushing cleans some areas, but the toothbrush may not reach others. As a result, this can make food particles and plaque accumulate in the mouth, causing dental problems like cavities or gum disease.

As seen here above, only brushing teeth may be ineffective in keeping the mouth sufficiently clean. Most dentists also advise that flossing is vital for healthy teeth and gums. This practice can help clean the parts a toothbrush might not reach. This can be in between teeth and below the gum line.

Flossing once a day is recommendable, especially before bedtime. Also, doing it before brushing is thought to be more effective. This way, most food particles and a larger amount of plague will be eradicated first, allowing the toothbrush to do an easier job. Furthermore, flossing first, followed by brushing, allows toothpaste and fluoride to reach all areas. This way, there’s a higher chance of protecting teeth against cavities and other dental concerns.

If anyone in your family finds it challenging to floss, consult a dentist. They may recommend interproximal brushes or other suitable cleaning aids.

Final Thoughts

Ensuring your family has healthy teeth will help reduce the cases of tooth decay, loss, sensitivity, and pain. Moreover, you’ll prevent gum infections and diseases and lower the risk of illness linked to poor oral hygiene, like heart disease. Overall, you’ll have a healthier and happier family.

In this article, you’ve learned some of the ways you could ensure your loved ones maintain gums and teeth that are in good shape. As advised, you should deal with any existing oral issues promptly and discourage bad habits for oral health. Also, teach your family to brush their teeth twice a day and floss daily. That said, it’s best to lead by example, as this will encourage your loved ones to learn, practice, and adopt the skills you’re teaching them more willingly and naturally.