Dental Guides

A Guide to Proper Oral Hygiene

Oral hygiene is a thing that many people discuss today. To keep yourself healthy and confident, you'll want to ensure that you always your oral hygiene in check. Aside from ensuring that you brush your teeth daily, there are many other things that you should do to protect your oral health.

Five steps to achieving proper oral hygiene

While oral hygiene is an integral part of our daily lives, not many people would practice proper oral care. Many people may not even be aware of how to achieve proper oral hygiene. Thus, here are five steps to ensuring you keep your oral hygiene in check always:

Brush your teeth at least twice a day

Brushing your teeth is the most important thing to do in achieving proper oral hygiene. Most dentists would often recommend you brush your teeth once or twice a day or after every meal if you can. After all, the last thing you'll want to smile at someone only to find that you have vegetables stuck to your teeth.

Frequent brushing also reduces the chances of cavities and other teeth rotting diseases. It controls bad breath and ensures you’ll always keep your teeth pearly white so that you can smile with confidence. The right way to brush your teeth is to provide you brush for at least 2 minutes, spending 45-second intervals for each quarter of your mouth.

Frequently use mouthwashes to remove bacteria.

Unfortunately, brushing alone does not remove all the bacteria in your mouth. Therefore, it's recommended that you add using mouthwash as a part of your oral hygiene routine. By swishing mouthwash back and forth for approximately 30 seconds to a minute, you'll be able to remove most of the bacteria in your mouth.

Bacteria is a common cause of bad breath, so if you think this is an issue you're struggling with, then you'll want to start using mouthwashes immediately.

Remember to floss in between your teeth.

Many people tend to skip flossing as they think that brushing is enough. However, flossing ensures that you'll get to clean the parts between your teeth. This helps reduce the possibilities of cavities and plaque and should be a common practice for everyone.

If you suffer from bleeding gums after you floss, this is a sign that your gums are unhealthy. Frequent flossing also ensures that your gum is cared for, as it will remove any food debris that is stuck.

Be sure also to brush your tongue

Aside from your teeth, the one thing that many people would forget to clean is their tongues. When you ignore cleaning your tongue, you’re allowing a variety of bacteria to stay on your tongue, resulting in bad breath and other oral health issues.

You can clean your tongue using your toothbrush or purchase a separate tongue scraper from your local pharmacy. Keeping your tongue clean is just as important as brushing your teeth if you want to achieve proper oral hygiene.

Visit your dentist at least twice a year

A visit to the dentist often sends shivers down many people’s spines. However, visiting your dentist can ensure that you’re always keeping your oral hygiene in check. Besides checking in on your teeth, your dentist can also provide you professional advice on how to better your oral health.

If you'd like to keep your teeth healthy and clean, you should also try to scale them at your dentist's every six months. Scaling helps remove built-up plaque and tartar on your teeth, ensuring you'll have healthy teeth and better your oral hygiene overall.

Conclusion

And there you have it – 5 simple steps to help you achieve proper oral hygiene. By making these small changes to your oral hygiene habits, you may be well on your way to achieving healthier teeth and be ever-present with fresh breath.


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