You know how it works- after working the entire day, you feel exhausted enough to skip brushing for one night, and then you don’t mind cleaning your teeth from time to time. You might be surprised to discover that neglecting your dental health can contribute to tooth loss or decay. 

Furthermore, maintaining good oral health, scheduling professional teeth cleanings, and brushing and flossing on a regular basis will benefit you in much more ways than just keeping your teeth healthy and looking great. Continue reading to figure out the perks of achieving optimal dental health and what oral health maintenance tips to follow to prevent tooth decay.

Exploring the Benefits of Oral Health

Maintaining proper oral health is crucial for varied reasons. Oral health can benefit your general health in addition to safeguarding your teeth from decay and loss and preventing gum disease. Read on to uncover the impeccable benefits of oral health:

• Avoid Tooth Decay and Loss

With proper oral hygiene, you can easily prevent unwanted decay in your teeth. Every time you eat something, your food is broken down into tiny particles by certain bacteria in your mouth. This process creates an acid that can cause the enamel on your teeth to deteriorate. Without enamel to support your teeth, you may eventually develop cavities, tooth decay, and even lose your teeth. 

But keeping your mouth healthy can help shield your teeth from decay by preventing the accumulation of plaque and other dangerous materials.

• Healthier Gums

Your mouth contains numerous bacteria species, with good bacteria helping digest food and harmful ones causing infection and illness. 

Regular brushing and flossing aid in maintaining a healthy balance between these species by reducing the potentially harmful bacteria and removing food particles that feed them in your mouth. Neglecting oral hygiene can contribute to the multiplication of harmful bacteria in an individual's mouth, resulting in plaque buildup on his teeth.

This plaque accumulation can worsen your gum inflammation, resulting in gum disease and infection. Furthermore, gum disease can cause swelling, bleeding, or tenderness in your gums or tooth loss. 

• Healthier Lungs

When having a gum disease or infection caused by the harmful bacteria in your mouth, it’s possible you inhale those bacteria into your lungs. It can further cause respiratory infections like pneumonia or chronic OPD (obstructive pulmonary disease), which is one of the common causes of death. 

You can prevent these respiratory infections or lung diseases by practising an optimal oral health routine.

• Lower Chances of Diabetes

When it comes to potentially dangerous blood sugar disorders, Type 2 diabetes is one of them that can cause disability and, even worse, early death. As per studies, individuals with gum disease have up to 50% more chances of developing Type 2 diabetes than people with healthier gums.

You might be wondering what the connection is between these two. Gum disease can cause inflammation, making it difficult for your body to use insulin adequately and thus, you develop Type 2 diabetes. Hence, maintaining proper oral hygiene is essential to minimise the chances of having Type 2 diabetes.

Oral Health Maintaining Tips to Prevent Tooth Decay

So, now you know the importance of maintaining oral health in preventing tooth decay and promoting overall health. It’s time to figure out how to protect teeth from decay. Your ultimate solution is to follow these oral health maintaining tips to prevent your teeth from deteriorating: 

• Brush Two Times in a Day for Two Minutes

Everyone knows the rule of brushing two times a day. But do you know you should brush for two minutes to keep your teeth in top-notch form?

Using a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste to brush your teeth can help cleanse food particles and bacteria from your mouth. In addition, brushing two times for two minutes regularly can also wash out harmful particles that deteriorate your teeth and cause cavities.

• Make Sure to Floss Every Day

Do you want to avoid minimal scraping and detrimental effects on tooth enamel at your next dental checkup? If so, you should do tooth flossing once daily to loosen the particles that are usually missed when brushing. It can also remove plaque and prevent tartar from building up. 

• Use a Fluoride Treatment

Fluoride is the tooth enamel's best friend. It’s because fluoride is known to support minerals found in enamel and fight against enamel-deteriorating bacteria. The optimal way to add fluoride to your oral hygiene routine is by using fluoride-based toothpaste and mouthwash. 

If your enamel has already started deteriorating, consult your dentist for a strong fluoride-based tooth decay treatment to protect your teeth.

• Avoid Consuming Harmful Foods and Drinks

Often, tooth decay is attributed mainly to a poor diet comprising foods high in salt, sugar, and other harmful carbohydrates. To protect your teeth from decaying or vanishing to the fullest extent, consider avoiding too much intake of drinks and foods like coffee, sweets, salty snacks, and tomato-based products. 

• Increase Water Intake

Water is known to be the best beverage an individual can have for improved overall health, including oral health. As a rule of thumb, you should drink water after having every meal. Doing this can help wash the sticky and acidic food particles and beverages from your teeth and mouth between brushes. 

Therefore, with no food particles accumulating on your teeth, the enamel will be protected, preventing tooth decay.

Summing up it all!

When you take care of your oral health, you are doing more than preventing cavities and tooth decay- you are supporting your overall health, too.