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10 Ways to
Ruin Your Smile

Good dental hygiene is a life-long commitment. Even if your teeth are naturally strong and healthy, you should still avoid the following poor habits that may ruin your beautiful smile—

1) Skipping Your Twice a Day Brushing

Brushing twice a day removes decaying food debris that leads to tooth cavities and gum disease. If you brush less often, bacteria and plaque have a better opportunity to build up quickly and cause problems you could have easily avoided.

2) Skipping Your Daily Flossing

While a toothbrush is adequate to remove debris from the surface of your teeth, it cannot effectively reach into the spaces between them. Without the daily use of floss or an interdental cleaner, plaque can build up between your teeth and cause decay or gum disease.

3) Skipping Regular Dental Exams and Cleanings

Even if you brush and floss as recommended, dental plaque and calculus can build up on surface tooth enamel and below the gumline. Regular dental exams and professional cleanings twice a year can greatly reduce your risk of tooth decay, tooth loss and gum disease.

4) Poor Nutrition

Just like the rest of your body, your teeth and gum tissue need important nutrients in order to stay healthy. An unbalanced diet that is lacking in vitamins and minerals (especially calcium) increases your chances of developing dental problems.

5) Consuming Sugary Snacks and Drinks

If you eat in-between meals and go without brushing, plaque will quickly start to form. Sweetened foods and drinks, in particular, are a major source of dental problems for adults and children alike because decay-causing bacteria thrive on sugar.

6) Smoking

Smoking is not only unhealthy for your body, it also ages your teeth. Tobacco causes tooth enamel to become darkened and discolored over time, making you look older. You may need professional whitening to return your teeth to their natural color.

7) Chewing Tobacco

Chewing tobacco can cause serious oral problems. Also known as "snuff," it can produce dark, unsightly stains on your teeth and give you bad breath. Worse yet, it can cause you to develop oral cancer even at a young age. We strongly encourage our patients to stop using chewing tobacco and recommend regular oral cancer screening for those who cannot.

8) Using Worn-Out Toothbrushes

If you brush as recommended, your toothbrush will wear out in three or less. Worn-out brushes have lost their ability to clean effectively, setting the stage for decay-causing plaque to form.

9) Chewing Ice, Pens and Pencils

You greatly increase your risk of tooth breakage and fractures when you chew ice, pens, pencils and other hard objects. Breakage and fractures lead to costly and unnecessary repairs. Habitual ice chewing may be a symptom of a medical condition known as iron-deficiency anemia.

10) Using Your Teeth as a Tool

Teeth are not designed to be used as a scissors, bottle-opener or any other tool. When you use your teeth to cut, twist or pry non-food items, you dramatically increase your chances of tooth breakage or fracture.

If you would like more information about poor dental habits, call 936-756-3611 or send us an e-mail. To schedule an appointment, go to Make An Appointment now.