October Is National Dental Hygiene Month

Dental hygienists play an important role in the education and care of patients across the country. This October is National Dental Hygiene Month, which provides each of us with the opportunity to pause and reflect on the many things we can do to help improve and maintain optimal dental hygiene. Doing each of these things might seem overly simple and straight-forward, but you’d be surprised to learn how many patients don’t actually include some or all of these important steps in their personal hygienic routine. Here are some sure-fire ways to keep your mouth healthy for this month and beyond.

10 for 10: Ten Ways to Improve Your Dental Hygiene

While you can’t change genetics to avoid inherent risk factors for dental challenges, there are lots of other things you can do to be proactive with your dental hygiene. Your toothbrush, floss, mouthpiece, and diet are four major areas in which you have almost complete control, provided you are following instructions correctly from your dentist. Take the October National Dental Hygiene Month challenge, and adopt some or all of these activities right away:

1. Replace your worn-out toothbrush that is greater than 6 months old with a better one that is more effective. Choosing a good toothbrush is essential to your daily removal of plaque so that it does not harden into tartar, or harbor bacteria that create cavities.
2. Skip the manual toothbrush, and upgrade to a Bluetooth toothbrush. Moving up to a modern, electric toothbrush can go a long way in cleaning your teeth and helping to fight bad breath.
3. Floss at least once a day, but twice is even better. Forgetting to floss is really a big deal because brushing can’t scrape plaque out from between teeth the same way floss does. As a result, cavities can develop sideways through a tooth, instead of at the top.
4. In-between brushing and flossing, chew sugar-free gum. Chewing gum stimulates saliva generation, which helps dissolve away food particles, so they do not turn into plaque.
5. If you use splint therapy, like a night-time mouthguard or daytime stabilization splint, be sure to clean it daily. That way, bacteria doesn’t build up on the surface and get transferred to your teeth when you put it back in your mouth.
6. The same thing goes for dentures. Make sure to use a bacterial disinfectant designed for the purpose of cleaning your dentures and do it every day. The rest of your teeth and mouth will thank you!
7. Take a look at your diet, and then make sure you know how much calcium you should be consuming each day. Because the amount varies based on your age, we have included a convenient calcium reference list here.
8. Drink more water and milk. Periodically drinking water throughout the day helps wash away any residual food particles in your mouth, and drinking milk is an important supply of calcium to fortify your teeth.
9. Even though Halloween is also in October, try to maintain a healthy limit of sweets because of how candy can negatively affect your teeth.
10. While you are reviewing your diet and keeping candy consumption down, why not make a few further adjustments? These are food or drinks we recommend you avoid to protect your valuable tooth enamel.

Take On the October Dental Hygiene Challenge

Go ahead and stand out from the rest by taking on this National Dental Hygiene Month challenge. Apply these 10 strategies to improve your dental hygiene, then enjoy a set of happy teeth and a very proud and impressed dental hygienist at your next cleaning. If you are ready to schedule your next appointment, contact Kanehl Dental today.