5 Simple Ways to Care for Your Smile: Part Two

If you want to enjoy your summer to its fullest, while still heading into autumn with great oral health, it is important to care for your smile, even as you embark on summer adventures and find ways to help beat the heat. Tempting as it can be, during the relaxed days of summer, to overlook your routine dental hygiene or to deviate from a normally healthy diet, if you really care about your oral health, keep these preventive dental tips in mind. That way you can maintain the one asset that never goes out of style or season, a great and healthy smile!

Simple Ways to Keep Your Smile Healthy

3. Don’t overdo the sweets, trying to beat the summer heat.

Ice cream, snow cones, popsicles and other sweets can certainly be welcome treats during the hot summer months. Just be mindful of how much sugar you are actually consuming. Remember, the plaque bacteria responsible for creating cavities, feed on sugar, so when your diet is high in sugar you are far more likely to develop cavities and other dental health issues.

Try reaching for cold fruit, when you are craving something sweet, which is lower in sugar content and also packs more nutritious punch!

4. Be especially careful when chewing on ice cold treats.

It is also important to remember that while your teeth are hard, they are not unbreakable. In fact, chewing on ice and other hard substances can cause them to chip or crack. While cold treats are fine on occasion, avoid chewing on anything as hard as ice, in order to protect your teeth. This goes for pencils, pens and other items people tend to chew on, mindlessly, as well.

5. Schedule routine dental visits, to avoid problems down the road.

Of course, one of the most important things you can do for your smile is scheduling routine dental visits. Preventive checkups and cleanings are essential for removing hardened plaque buildup, in order to prevent cavities, gum disease and other threats. If it has been more than six months since your last dental visit, you are already overdue for an appointment, so schedule one now.