Seven Tips for Oral Hygiene on the Go

Good oral hygiene doesn’t get a recess break. Most kids spend 8 hours a day at school, while adults spend just as much time–if not more–at work. Your teeth still need a time slot in your busy day. Following your dentist’s recommendation to brush after every meal may seem to be an impossible task. However, there are some things you just can’t be too busy for. We have 7 tips that can help you keep your teeth clean while you are on the go or away from home.

Tooth Decay Is on the Rise

When you think of the most prevalent chronic diseases, you probably start thinking “cancer” or “diabetes”, or diseases that are similar. However, did you know that tooth decay is actually the most prevalent chronic disease that affects both adults and children? The National Institutes of Health reports this, and says that millions of people have had cavities and millions more have cavities that are untreated—even children! How do we stop such an epidemic? Through practicing better oral hygiene!

Your oral hygiene consists of what you do to take care of your teeth: namely brushing and flossing those pearly whites. The general guideline is to brush and floss your teeth at least twice a day. Morning and night are great times to do this. Never go to bed without clean teeth, as that gives plaque many hours to erode your tooth enamel and cause dental problems. Brushing and flossing only take a few minutes out of your day, but those are minutes well spent!

Routine Dental Cleanings and Exams

If you are unsure about how to take better care of your teeth, one of the best places to start is by asking a dentist. Dentists have at least 4 years of undergraduate training and 4 years of dental school under their belt, so they know a thing or two about teeth. Their main goal is to help keep your teeth healthy, and they do this through routine dental cleanings and exams. The American Dental Association recommends that everyone get a dental cleaning and exam at least twice a year. That’s about every 6 months. Regular checkups and cleanings help guard you from unnecessary dental pain and disease.

When you come in for a dental cleaning, we will brush and floss all of your teeth meticulously. We will remove regular plaque and stuck-on plaque (known as “tartar”) with both hand and polishing tools. We will provide a fluoride treatment to help protect your teeth against future tooth decay and you will have an oral cancer screening and professional examination by our dentist. These cleanings and checkups take less than an hour, but are vital in detecting oral health problems before they become severe. A tiny cavity can be fixed quickly, but if you wait until you have tooth pain or sensitivity, then you have a more severe oral health problem. Both dental visits and proper oral hygiene practices prevent those more severe problems from happening.

Oral Hygiene On the Go

If you are like the majority of people in the United States, you are constantly on-the-go. As the years go by, people seem to get more and more busy. Even children are busier than in past decades. For people who are always on-the-go, sometimes their health falls through the cracks. One of the first habits that take a back-seat to a busy schedule is your oral hygiene routine. Many people go through their entire day without brushing or flossing their teeth and some even go more than a day (about 30%).

Take back your oral health and strengthen your teeth by doing these simple things while you are away from home:

• Rinse after eating to reduce acids and food particles left on the teeth.
• Pack floss in your bag and floss during a quick break.
• Store a small mouthwash away from home (which you can buy in supermarket “travel” sections.
• Bring a travel toothbrush with you in a pocket or bag and brush after eating (even if it’s just at your desk).
• Try interdental brush cleaners that can remove food and plaque if you have braces, crowns, bridges or other dental work.
• Chew gum to dislodge stuck food and brush away some of your stuck-on plaque.
• Watch what you eat and avoid hard foods that can break, chip or crack a tooth (or an orthodontic bracket).

Prevent Problems Before They Start

The key to avoiding chronic conditions and diseases is to prevent them from happening in the first place. When it comes to tooth decay, gum disease, or any other oral health problem, take a good look at your oral hygiene routine. Are you brushing and flossing at least twice a day? Are you making sure your teeth stay healthy as well as the rest of your body? What are you doing for your oral health when you are at work or away from home?

If you are gone most of the day, we highly recommend that you make a to-go pack that you can take with you to work, school and other activities. No matter how busy you are, there are always 2 minutes that you can take out of your day to brush and floss. Doing so will actually save you time in the long run from having to have many dental procedures to fix tooth decay and gum disease. If you want to learn more about how you can take care of your dental health, call Stonebrook Family Dental today at (303) 872-7907!