You have the opportunity every day to make good decisions for your smile, and to optimize your oral health with your daily oral hygiene routine. In this short article, our Cheney dentists are sharing some tips on how to care for your smile to the best of your ability at home. Keep reading to learn more!
The first thing to do is to make sure that you’re following your dentist-recommended at-home oral hygiene routine down to the smallest detail. The general recommendation from the ADA is that patients brush their teeth every morning and night, and floss their teeth at night. However, your dentist may have additional suggestions for you, or way to tweaks your routine, so that you can get even more out of your dental hygiene efforts.
You also want to make sure that you’re using the right tools and formulations to clean your smile. Talk to your dentist, for example, about what type of toothbrush bristle you should be using. Many dental patients should actually be using soft bristles, but mistakenly think that medium is right for them. You want to use tools that effectively clean your smile while still being gentle enough for everyday use. Your dentist can also give you further guidance on whether you should be looking for toothpastes or mouth rinses that include smile-boosting ingredients like fluoride.
One of the simplest things that you can do to improve your dental hygiene routine is to make sure that you’re checking off the component parts of your routine in a way that makes sense. For example, you want to floss before you brush your teeth; this allows you to dislodge dental debris and then immediately brush it away. Likewise, it makes sense to use mouth rinse as the final step when your cleaning your smile.
As always, our Cheney dentists are happy to provide you with any additional information that you may need about caring for your smile. Give us a call to get started!