A healthy mouth means more than just white teeth. To maintain a healthy mouth, you need to take care of all the individual parts: teeth, gums, tongue and even the roof of your mouth. There are a handful of things you need to know to maintain good oral hygiene. However, the single most important thing you can do for your mouth is to schedule regular visits to your dentist.
Teeth
The most important thing you can do to maintain a healthy mouth is to brush and floss daily. Keep your teeth clean and free from decay by brushing every morning, after every meal and again before bed. Floss your teeth at the end of the day. These two simple practices will help you to eliminate plaque, which hardens into tartar. Plaque and tartar work to decay teeth, cause cavities and gum disease, give you bad breath and more. To maintain a healthy mouth, it’s vitally important to keep your teeth clean with brushing and flossing.
Gums
In addition to keeping your teeth healthy, daily brushing and flossing also keeps your gums in great shape. The same build-up of plaque that hardens into tartar to cause cavities also works to infect your gums. Diseases like gingivitis can be avoided by simply brushing and flossing every day. Adding a mouthwash to your maintenance routine can also keep your gums healthy. Swishing nightly flushes out the tiny grooves and notches that you can miss with your toothbrush or floss. Plus, mouthwash kills the bacteria that cause bad breath.
Tongue
During your mouth maintenance routine, don’t forget your tongue. Most people overlook cleaning their tongue as part of their routine. However, your tongue can hide bacteria and food particles in its grooves and ridges. This can cause bad breath in the short term and tooth decay in the long term. You can use your toothbrush to scrub your tongue, but a tongue scraper might be a better choice since it’s specifically designed to gently remove the build-up on your tongue.
Roof
Just like your tongue, the roof of your mouth — with all its grooves and divots — can harbor bacteria. If you get too much bad bacteria in your mouth, sores can form on the roof of your mouth. You should brush the roof of your mouth every time you brush your teeth. Be sure to brush gently so you don’t aggravate that sensitive area. Integrating mouthwash into your mouth maintenance routine also will help keep the roof of your mouth clean.
Read more
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