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Tooth decay and gum disease can be prevented with a little bit of care and regular visits to the dentist. You already know that daily brushing and flossing is the foundation of your dental care routines. Finding a dentist for regular dental visits is the least of your troubles, with FreeDentistFinder.com dentist finder.

Beyond brushing, flossing and dental visits, many other things can help you improve the chances of avoiding tooth decay and gum disease.

Things to Do

• Eat tooth healthy meals - The food we eat and our oral health are interconnected. From before birth, and from the cradle to the grave, nutrition plays a role in determining our oral health.
  The Lifestyle, Diet and Nutrition section on the FreeDentistFinder.com article archive for many useful articles on what constitutes a healthy meal in terms of oral health. Here are some of the articles in this section:

  • Nutrition and Oral Health

  • Food and Drinks for Healthy Teeth and Gums

  • Vitamins Are Important for Oral Health at Any Age

  • What is a "Healthy Diet"?

  • Adding Fish and Nuts to Your Diet Can Protect You from Gum Disease

  • Your Method of Cooking Makes a Difference to Your Teeth

• Have dairy products as dessert – Yoghurt, cheese and other dairy products reduce the acidity in the mouth and induce saliva flow. Increased saliva flow helps clean the mouth of food debris, reducing your chances of tooth decay and gum disease after every meal.

• Opt for sugar free chewing gums – Chewing gum with xylitol can help boost saliva flow without the adding harmful decay inducing sugar into your mouth.

• Opt for a healthy lifestyle – Lack of exercise and stress can take its toll on our bodies. Chronic stress is known to have multiple negative effects on the health of your teeth, gums and other mouth tissue. Chronic stress can also play a role in leading you to destructive behaviors such as smoking, drinking and drug abuse. Some lifestyle choices too can take their toll.
  Check out these articles from the FreeDentistFinder.com Blog:

  • Stress Creates a Mess in Your Mouth

  • Athletes Watch Out – You May Face High Risk of Tooth Decay

  • Secondhand Smoke Increases Risk of Gum Disease

• Focus on your general health – General health can have a huge impact on your oral health and vice versa. The Mouth-Body Connection section on the FreeDentistFinder.com article archive contains articles like the following that emphasize the need for a healthy mouth in a healthy body.

  • People With Diabetes Face Higher Risk of Gum Disease

  • Maintaining Oral Health is Important for General Health

  • To Get Pregnant Sooner, Brush Your Teeth and Visit Your Dentist

• Take extra care with your daily oral care routines – While this is important for everyone, those who have systemic diseases—such as diabetes, heart disease or inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis—need to take extra care with their daily oral health routines.

• Visit your dentist at least every six months – Everyone should visit a dentist every six months. Those who are at high risk for tooth decay and gum disease should visit a dentist a bit more frequently. Going for a routine dental exam, whether you have any issues or not, will help detect signs of tooth decay and gum disease. Early detection and treatment can help avoid complications. Parents who visit a dentist regularly, and take their children along for a visit make the children more comfortable in a dental setting leading to less dental anxiety.
  If you or your family does not have a regular dentist, or you have moved recently, the FreeDentistFinder.com offers you an easy way to find a dentist in your area.

• Get your teeth cleaned by a professional – Dental cleaning helps rid your teeth of accumulated plaque and reduces the opportunities for harmful bacteria to attack your teeth and gums. Read about Deep Cleaning of Teeth in the FreeDentistFinder.com Blog.

• Understand that oral health is important at every age - Read the FreeDentistFinder.com article sections on Dental Care Basics and age related dental care. There are separate sections for Baby Dental and Oral Health, Kids Dental Health, Teen Dental Health and Senior Dental Health.

• Brush and floss regularly – Brush and floss at least once a day to keep harmful mouth bacteria under control. It is even better if you can brush twice a day or more.

Things to Avoid

• Sports and energy drinks – Sugary acidic sports and energy drinks may boost up your energy levels. But the sugar and acid combination is very bad for your teeth. Acid leads to erosion of the tooth enamel and the sugar helps harmful bacteria get active on your teeth and gums.

• Sipping your drinks – If you must drink sweet drinks or acidic ones like soda, lemonade or other beverages, have them in one go. Sipping drinks bit by bit, over long periods of time only increase the level of exposure to harmful elements.

• Brushing immediately after meals – Brushing your teeth immediately after meals can damage your teeth. This is especially true if your meal contained acidic and sugary ingredients.

• Delay seeking dental care – Whether you have a tooth that needs filling, sensitive teeth, bleeding gums, mouth sores or loose dentures, get it attended to as fast as you can. Delay in seeking dental care can be extremely harmful to your health. There have even been instances of death due to delaying treatment for simple things like tooth infections.

• Putting off your dental appointments or skipping your six monthly dental visits – Sometimes, especially if there are no pressing problems with dental health, it becomes easy to skip the regular visit to your dentist. The dental check up can help detect any problems with teeth, gums or even the mouth. Early detection and treatment can nip problems in the bud avoiding complications.

• Becoming a victim to dental anxiety – There are many ways to manage dental anxiety. Your dentist can help you find a method that makes you comfortable. Remember, parents who are anxious about dental treatment can pass on this feeling to their kids. You can read more about dental anxiety in the Dental Anxiety section on the FreeDentistFinder.com article archive.

• Putting your kid to sleep with a bottle – In the same way sipping sugary drinks can expose teeth to harm over long periods, putting a child to bed with a bottle can also expose his or her teeth to harmful sugary substances, promoting bacterial growth in the sugary medium.

• Sippy cups – Sippy cups are a transition tool in getting toddlers used to drinking from cups and glasses. The option of carrying a sippy cup stops the child from getting used to finishing a drink quickly. And if the sippy cup contains anything other than water, that extended exposure may be bad for the teeth. If a child must have a drink in hand all the time, fill the sippy cup with water. Anything else can be harmful to teeth because they are going to contain some level of sugar or acids.

This is not an exhaustive list of do’s and don’ts for better tooth and gum health. So keep visiting the FreeDentistFinder.com articles section and the Blog to find out the latest developments.

FreeDentistFinder.com is a national network of quality dentists committed to helping you find a dentist in your area.