As the temperature warms up, you feel the itch to sort through the attic, the garage, and even the rooms in your house to clear out what you don’t need, to perform deep cleaning, and feel fresh and new again! While your mouth is a much smaller space, it too deserves some cleaning love right now. Here’s how you should do a “spring cleaning” of your smile!
Refresh Your Smile with a Professional Cleaning Session.
Unlike spring cleaning at your home, serious progress on keeping your mouth clean requires help from a professional. Your hygienist has the instruments and training to safely remove hardened plaque from your teeth, leaving them feeling smooth, slick, and fresh. In fact, the polishing you get at this appointment can even remove a few shades of discoloration from your teeth and give you a brilliant smile.
Recommit to At-Home Oral Hygiene.
As important as regularly attending your checkup and cleaning appointments, your at-home hygiene routine must be done every day. After you eat, white, sticky plaque forms, and it becomes hard calculus within just a few hours. Think of it as clutter that becomes stubbornly stuck to the table or floor. However, if you brush twice per day and floss at least once, you can take off the plaque before it solidifies, making your cleanings at the dentist’s much faster and easier.
Practice Healthy Habits for Your Smile.
Other than oral hygiene, you can develop several other healthy habits in your lifestyle to keep your smile clean. For instance, you can sip water throughout the day. With no sugar, and sometimes fluoridated, water washes away food debris and neutralizes acids from bacteria-filled plaque. Being more aware of your diet can also help because if you have too much sugar, you actually encourage harmful bacterial growth in your mouth. In addition, chewing gum after meals can not only help your mouth continue to salivate, but also remove bits of food and small chunks of plaque. Gum could be considered the broom of your mouth after you eat!
Although spring cleaning typically refers to just the effort you put into your home, take advantage of the motivated attitude you now have for cleanliness and apply it to your mouth as well! By maintaining a clean smile, you can enjoy lifelong oral health, which helps the rest of your body function more smoothly as well as help you smile with confidence.
About the Author
At Monet Aesthetic Dentistry, Dr. Leslie Metzger has gained extensive experience and training in advanced techniques and treatments over the years. However, in her continuing education coursework, she also dedicates her time to studying new technologies and methods that help prevent oral health problems. She strongly believes in conservative treatment and limiting its invasiveness whenever possible. For your next cleaning appointment, would you like to work with our team? Reach out to our Farmington dental office by calling 248-476-3410 or going onto our Contact Us page.