Having beautiful white teeth and a great smile isn’t just an aesthetic preference; it may also be a good indication of your overall health.The signs and tooth decay symptoms may vary, depending on the extent and location. When a cavity is just beginning, you may not have any symptoms at all. As the decay increases, it may cause other signs and symptoms.
Common Tooth Decay Symptoms
- Toothache, spontaneous mouth pain or pain that occurs without any apparent cause.
- Tooth sensitivity.
- Mild to sharp pain when eating or drinking something sweet, hot or cold.
- Visible holes or pits in your teeth.
- Brown, black or white staining on any surface of a tooth.
- Pain when you bite down.
Good oral health care is about more than visiting the emergency dentist when things go wrong. You need to do what’s best for your teeth all the time to ensure your health is never in any danger. Daily brushing and flossing, can keep bacteria under control. However, without proper oral hygiene, bacteria can reach levels that might lead to oral infections, such as tooth decay and gum disease.
Besides what it does to the mouth, gum disease has been linked to conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and premature births or low birth weight. So you can see how taking care of your teeth is just as important as everything else you are doing for better health.
3 Easy Ways to Better Oral Health
Visit the Dentist Regularly
The NHS recommends that people with normal healthy teeth should see a dentist every year for a checkup. These appointments are really important as your dentist may be able to catch potential problems before they get worse and result in more serious issues. Even if you think that your teeth are looking perfect, a dentist’s checkup is a much more detailed analysis that can show up even the tiniest of issues. The sooner you catch them the better. If you have never had a root canal, consider yourself lucky. Trust me – ouch.
Going to see a dentist when you have small issues like toothache or bleeding gums is the best thing you can do for your oral health and your general health. Gum disease has been linked to all kinds of other conditions from Alzheimer’s through to heart disease but many people don’t realise that they are at risk. Dentists can identify and reverse the effects of gingivitis if it is caught soon enough.
Eat a Balanced Diet
You should vary what you eat in order to make sure that you are getting all the nutrients your body needs to stay fit and healthy. But while most of us focus on which foods are going to make us look and feel younger, we should be thinking much more about the kinds of food that will help our teeth.
For your teeth, this means eating less sugar and more calcium (which you can find in dairy as well as oily fish and some seeds). Interestingly, black and green teas are also good for your teeth as the polyphenols reduce plaque and bacteria build-up. Similarly, eating crunchy foods is a good way to ‘brush’ off plaque build-up throughout the day.
Good Habits
If you want to avoid staining your teeth or putting your oral health at risk, you must give up your bad habits. Tobacco of all kinds causes your teeth to yellow and will undoubtedly give you bad smoker’s breath. But even more worryingly, smoking can cause gum disease too which in turn can increase your chances of heart disease. If you want lovely teeth, you need to quit sooner rather than later.
Just as your body requires you to have good habits, your teeth have a few standards to uphold too. Brushing your teeth twice a day using a fluoridated toothpaste should be regarded as the bare minimum you can do for good oral health and to avoid those dreadful tooth decay symptoms. You should also drink plenty with your food and use floss to get to those more difficult to reach areas using a gentle motion.
Anyone can have beautiful teeth – it’s all about working out where you can improve your lifestyle to get those pearly whites to shine.