We all want to have a million-dollar smile, but there are so many things that can stain our teeth. Keeping your teeth clean and white takes careful consideration about what you eat and drink, the best toothpaste, the best toothbrush and other products to use, and good dental hygiene habits. There are some really basic mistakes that must be avoided in order to ensure that you have a winning smile. Whilst many people these days look to professional whitening treatments or veneers, there are also some really easy lifestyle changes you can make that can have a significant effect on the whiteness of your teeth. To help everyone out there to maintain the whitest of pearly whites, this article is a guide to viable ways to whiten your teeth.
1. Attend the Dentist Regularly
The first thing that you can do to whiten your teeth is to regularly visit the dentist to ensure good overall dental health and to discuss whitening options with your dentist. The experts at Familydentalhealth.com told us that there are various whitening services that dentists can provide including professional dental cleaning, dental whitening, and advising you on the best products and whitening methods. It is important to find a dentist that you trust so that you can stay with the same dentist for a long time. Seeing the same dentist regularly will allow them to notice any changes in the color of your teeth as well as other dental health problems.
Dentists are highly knowledgeable about how to clean your teeth and can notice places which you are inadvertently missing and that is more stained than others. If your teeth are stained beyond repair, or the enamel has totally worn away, your dentist will be able to fit veneers which will make your teeth look like they are brand new. It is always better to try and prevent problems before they occur rather than trying to deal with them after they have already had a negative effect. Regular dentist visits will ensure that you have continuous advice and treatment which can stop you from needing more serious solutions further down the line.
2. Avoid Staining Your Teeth With Food and Drink
Our teeth can become yellow because of a lot of different reasons and one of the biggest ones is staining from foods that we consume. In particular, regularly consumed foods and liquids that are darker in color have the worst staining effects. Some of the darker foods and liquids that can stain your teeth include tea, coffee, dark sodas like Coca Cola, fruit juices like pomegranate juice and cranberry juice, red wine, and some foods like blueberries and beets. While these foods certainly can stain your teeth, it’s not practical to avoid them completely because a lot of them actually do have health benefits.
You don’t need to be scared of eating or drinking them if you want to keep your teeth white, you should just swish some water in your mouth after you have consumed them. For example, if you drink a blueberry smoothie that’s quite dark in color that could stain your teeth. After you have finished the smoothie, just swish some water around in your mouth, spit it out and you won’t have to worry about the staining as much. If you look online, a lot of people will tell you to brush your teeth after having something that can stain your teeth.
Whilst on the face of it, that may sound like logical advice, but in reality, it’s actually a really bad recommendation. A lot of foods are acidic and after we eat those foods, the enamel, which is the outer layer of our teeth, tends to soften just a little bit for a short period of time. Therefore, if you are brushing your teeth immediately after eating these kinds of foods, you’re slowly brushing away your enamel. That is really not a healthy thing if you want healthy teeth long-term, so do not brush your teeth immediately after eating. It’s important to wait an hour before you brush your teeth. Another thing that can seriously stain your teeth is cigarette smoke and as well as all the other health risks that smoking causes, quitting smoking can have a really positive effect on the whiteness of your teeth.
3. Use Specially Formulated Whitening Products
One of the best ways of whitening your teeth and keeping them white is to use specially formulated toothpaste and other whitening products. There are many great products available that can make a real difference in the whiteness of your teeth. Switching to a whitening toothpaste can increase the whiteness of your teeth by as much as 25% if used consistently over a period of time. It is really important that you choose the correct whitening products for your type of teeth because everybody has different sensitivity levels in their teeth. Whitening products can cause discomfort for people with particularly sensitive teeth so make sure that you read online reviews or consult your dentist about any whitening product you are considering. Whitening toothpaste works by removing stains on the surface of your teeth, but cannot restore or whiten enamel.
4. Avoid Damaging Your Enamel
As mentioned above, the enamel is the outer layer of your teeth and underneath that, there’s something called dentin. Dentin is a yellowish color and once your enamel wears away. What will happen then is that the dentin underneath can start to peek through. Even if your teeth aren’t stained, just because your enamel is thinner, your teeth will look yellow. That is why it’s so important to take care of your enamel and prevent it from wearing away because once it’s gone, it’s gone. You really can’t bring enamel back after it has worn away, so it is so important that you take care of it.
There are a few really important steps to taking good care of your enamel. First of all, whenever you have something acidic, even if it’s not a dark color such as white wine, orange juice, or pineapple juice, swish some water around in your mouth afterward. Another thing you can do to protect your enamel is to use a straw when you are drinking anything that is acidic. Just make sure that you use a reusable straw to ensure that you are not creating any waste. Using a straw to drink acidic drinks means that the liquid will not come into contact with your teeth too much and this will reduce the corrosive effects of the acid. Another thing you can do to keep your enamel healthy and to keep your teeth whiter for longer as a result is to drink a lot of water.
Staying hydrated is really important because when you have a dry mouth and there’s not enough saliva, there will be more acid in your mouth which will cause enamel damage. Producing more saliva will wash the acid down quicker, and your enamel will be healthier as a result. Of course, the best way to stop your enamel from being worn away by acidic drinks is to simply avoid them altogether, but as this may not be feasible, make sure that you at least take the correct steps to mitigate the potential harm to your teeth.
5. Keep Your Teeth Clean
Keeping your teeth clean can go a long way when it comes to having a whiter and brighter smile. Cleaning your teeth regularly and properly is very important because it stops the buildup of plaque. When you have plaque buildup on your teeth, it produces a very pale yellow tint on your teeth. You may have noticed that when certain people go for regular dental cleaning, even if they haven’t had their teeth whitened, their teeth look much brighter than they did before the cleaning. That is usually because the dental hygienist was able to get rid of the plaque. There are a few things that you can do to get rid of plaque yourself.
The first and most important thing is to brush your teeth twice every single day for two minutes. This may sound really basic but there are so many people who don’t brush their teeth regularly enough or for long enough. The second thing that you can do is to consider switching your regular toothbrush for an electric toothbrush. Electric toothbrushes are specially designed to be effective in getting rid of as much plaque as possible and you can see a big difference in how your teeth look and feel after switching to an electric toothbrush. As well as these improvements, electric toothbrushes are also excellent for maintaining healthy gums so it really is worth making the switch. Try a sensitive head first because regular electric toothbrush heads don’t always work well for everyone. The third thing you can do to remove plaque and keep your teeth clean is to get a dental cleaning twice a year, which can really make a huge difference to your teeth.
There’s only so much our toothbrushes and flossing at home can do and sometimes you just need that extra help from a professional to get rid of a plaque buildup. A professional dental cleaning two or three times a year is a really great way to supercharge your teeth’s whiteness and usually will not break the bank.
6. Eat More Fibrous Foods
Eating more fibrous foods is an excellent way to keep your teeth looking clean and white. When you are eating more fibrous food such as cauliflower or celery, the fiber actually scrubs away at the plaque on your teeth. This will help your teeth to stay cleaner for longer and this really can make a huge difference over time, especially when you’re consistent with it. As well as helping to scrape off the plaque and keep your teeth clean, foods with a lot of fiber have various other great benefits for your health. Fiber helps to maintain healthy digestion, manage cholesterol levels, and control the levels of sugar in your blood. There are so many great fibrous foods you can eat such as different fruits, bread, nuts, grains, and cereals. Another way that fiber helps to protect your teeth and keep them white is that eating food with lots of fiber creates a lot of saliva in your mouth. Good levels of saliva in your mouth stop the buildup of plaque and prevent harmful bacteria from establishing itself on your teeth and destroying your enamel.
7. Cut Back on Sugar
We all know the damage that sugar does to our teeth and one of the easiest ways to help protect your teeth is to simply cut back on sugar. Sugar is eaten by bacteria in your mouth that then produce acid and it is this acid that wears away the enamel on your teeth and weakens your enamel over a long period of time. Furthermore, many sugary foods are very sticky and so get stuck onto your teeth or in the gaps between them and this creates a paradise for plague. Think about when you eat candy or sugary dry fruits like raisins. There are often little sticky bits that end up stuck in your teeth for hours and this creates ideal situations for bacteria. Sugar has various other negative effects on health so reducing your sugar intake is always advisable for maintaining good general health as well as oral health. Sugar causes obesity, raises cholesterol and blood pressure, can cause diabetes, heart disease, and many other health problems. So many people over-consume sugar and it is always worth cutting back on your sugar intake.
In order to keep your teeth bright and white, there are essentially three main things you need to remember. The first thing is to avoid staining your teeth. The second thing is to avoid damaging your enamel. The third is to avoid plaque buildup, and if it does build up, have it removed by a professional. It is much easier to prevent your teeth from becoming yellow than it is to recover whiteness after they have already been stained. Follow this guide and you will be able to make sure that your teeth remain white and bright forever.