Ensuring your regular dental care is the best it can be between dentist visits is crucial. This is important for oral health and ensures less work is required during dentist appointments. However, although it’s second nature to some, it’s easy to make mistakes with your oral care routine and not realise it, which can cause major problems when it comes to your regular dentist visits.
So, to ensure you don’t encounter any nasty surprises during your appointments, we’re looking into seven of the biggest mistakes people make with their regular dental care. This will help highlight the main issues and ensure fewer people make the same mistakes.
Why Regular Dental Care Is Vital
Regular at-home dental care is crucial for several reasons, for example:
- Your oral health affects your overall health. Many diseases begin at the mouth, so ensuring you have a healthy mouth gives you a better chance of fighting off other health problems.
- You create fewer problems during your dentist visits. If you don’t stick to a regular dental routine, you’ll encounter a long list of problems which will impact your dentist visits.
- You have a brighter smile. What better way to show off your oral hygiene than giving everyone who walks by a huge sparkling smile?
So, what is preventing people from getting the most out of their regular dental care routines?
7 Regular Dental Care Mistakes
We’ve been brushing our teeth ourselves since we were toddlers, but sometimes despite the familiarity of oral health, mistakes can be made. If you make regular mistakes, other, more serious issues can occur. To help you avoid this, we have compiled a list of the top seven mistakes we see time and time again as a leading private dentist in Manchester; so you can ensure you don’t make them.
1. Not Brushing for Two Full Minutes
Although you may think cutting your brushing down by 30 seconds or a minute won’t do any harm, you would be wrong. There is a reason that you’re advised to brush for two minutes, and it’s because this is the optimum amount of time to ensure you have removed any food from the mouth and have gotten rid of plaque efficiently and effectively. If you brush for less than two minutes, you risk leaving food or plaque to turn into something much worse and more difficult to remove.
2. Using the Incorrect Toothpaste
Did you know you can be allergic to your toothpaste? And, if you are, it can lead to a long list of serious oral issues, such as contact dermatitis. You may not realise it, but if your lips are always chapped, or you have sensitive or swollen gums, it could be because you’re allergic to your toothpaste. So make sure to ask your dentist during your appointment here at Bespoke Dental Manchester to find out which toothpaste they recommend for you.
3. Not Reaching Every Part of the Mouth
Although the phrasing is always focused on tooth brushing, as part of your dental hygiene routine, you must also pay close attention to the inside of your mouth, such as the roof, inner cheeks, and all around your tongue. This is where bacteria can build up; if neglected, it can become much worse oral issues. Add at least 30 seconds to your tooth brushing routine to give the insides of your mouth some TLC to avoid contracting oral diseases.
4. Brushing at the Wrong Time
Another of the most common dental hygiene mistakes we see here at our emergency dentist in Manchester is not brushing at the correct times. You must always brush in the morning before breakfast to avoid tooth erosion and then after eating in the evening before bed. This ensures you have gotten rid of all the food and plaque from the day and avoids a bacteria build-up overnight.
5. Applying Too Much Pressure When Brushing
Although you may feel as though you’re brushing well if you apply pressure through your toothbrush, there is a fine line between the right amount and too much pressure. A big dental care mistake is putting too much pressure on your toothbrush, which can speed up the erosion of your enamel, causing irreversible damage. Once the enamel has eroded, your teeth become much more sensitive and susceptible to cavities and gum recession.
6. Not Flossing
Flossing is a key step in your dental hygiene routine, yet skipping it is one of the most common mistakes people make regularly. There is a long list of benefits to flossing, including:
- Reducing the risk of cavities
- Increasing gum health
- Quickly removes food stuck between teeth
- Lessens the chance of plaque turning into tartar
7. Not Regularly Replacing a Toothbrush
It is widely recommended by dentists worldwide that you should replace your toothbrush every three months. This is because, after this amount of time, bristles break, snap, and fall out, meaning the brush is less effective and doesn’t work as well for cleaning your teeth and surrounding areas. It’s easy to lose track of time and forget to replace your toothbrush regularly, but doing so can cause other problems further down the line.
As you can see, you must stick to a solid dental care routine to avoid serious oral health problems. However, if you are experiencing some dental issues, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and book an appointment. Our professional and friendly dentists are more than happy to help and put your mind at ease if you have any concerns about your oral health.