I'm 28 years old, now, with a mouth full of fillings, and I'm still learning new things about how to take care of my teeth. Here are a few things I've learned about dental hygiene over the past few years, that I wish a dentist had told me about a long time ago (and wish I had listened to):
- Floss Every Day
A lot of people think that flossing is just to remove big pieces of food from between your teeth. So if you floss one time, and no pieces of food come out, it was pointless, right? Wrong. - Don't think you need to? Smell the floss!
The other purpose fo flossing is to scrape germy residue off the sides of your teeth, which is something you may not be able to see. The thing that finally made me a believer in flossing was when a dentist had me use a piece of floss between some teeth, then *SMELL* the floss. If it stinks, you've removed germs from between your teeth, and it proves that flossing was a good idea after all. That was kinda gross, but very effective! - Find the right brand/style for you
Another thing is how difficult flossing can be, depending on how close together your teeth are, and what brand/style of floss you're using. If the floss is always getting stuck and/or shredding, you may want to try a thinner, stronger floss, like my personal favorite, Crest Glide floss. Ever since I learned about Glide floss and tried it, that's the ONLY kind I like. - Start kids flossing early, so it's a regular part of their night-time brushing
It's easy for kids to start flossing nowadays, with various fun-shaped "flossers" available. Kids don't even have to deal with wrapping floss around their fingers, which can be challenging for anyone, especally young children. I've got Oral-B Stages Disney Princesses and Toy Story flossers for my 2-year-old daughter and my 6-year-old son, respectively, and they use them every day. Until they get good enough at doing it themselves, I recommend taking turns... With my daughter, for instance, she does it herself first, then I do it. - Avoid Soda
Everyone should know this already, but I want to share some things I've learned more recently. Regular sugary soda is just plain evil. Diet soda is better, but still contains an awful lot of acidity, which can damage your teeth over time (I have first-hand experience with this phenomenon). Something interesting that I just learned last year, though, is that if you must drink soda, you should try to use a straw whenever possible. That way, the soda doesn't have to go through your front teeth while you're drinking it. Wish I'd known that sooner, as I've been a soda addict for a long time. - Maybe Use a Strong Fluoride Mouthwash
If your teeth are weak and very prone to cavities, like mine are, and/or the enamel is eroded away pretty bad, you may want to ask your dentist if you should use a mouthwash such as Colgate Phos-Flur or Colgate Fluorigard. These are available at many grocery and drug stores, and contain a much higher concentration of fluoride than other mouthwashes/toothpaste/tap water/etc. - Don't Brush Too Hard
Brushing is mainly just to polish, not to scrape. If your toothbrush-holding knuckles turn white at all when brushing, you're brushing too hard. This can wear away the enamel and make your teeth more sensitive and cavity-prone.
It's too late for me to ever have good teeth. I think they were weak to start with, and I've ruined them over the years, by drinking large quantities of soda daily for a long time, eating too much candy, brushing too hard, not flossing, etc. So, at this point, all I can do is try to prevent them from getting too much worse. Since I switched from regular sodas to diet sodas and started flossing daily about 4 years ago, I've only gotten 1 cavity. Before that, I always had 1-3 cavities at every dentist appointment. I also lost 20-30 pounds by switching to diet sodas*, which was not my intention, but it was a nice side effect.
* Results probably not typical, and were based on switching from about eight 12oz cans of Mountain Dew/day to eight 12oz cans of Diet Coke/day.
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