Understanding how to maintain healthy gums is a crucial aspect of your dental health. Without proper gum care, your overall dental health will decline, which could lead to gum disease. In addition to gum disease being painful, it can also cause more complex dental problems in the future. Prioritizing your dental health can ensure your gums stay healthy, resulting in a brighter, whiter smile.
Why Is Gum Health So Important?
If you don’t know how to maintain healthy gums or improve your gum health, this could lead to gum disease. Gum disease is caused by plaque buildup along the gum line, which you can get rid of with a dental routine.
Without regular dental habits, you may experience certain gum disease symptoms, including:
- Consistently bad breath or taste in the mouth.
- Gums that are prone to bleeding.
- Swollen or reddened gums.
- Gaps between the gum and teeth.
These symptoms can become more advanced as gum disease develops, but it’s easy to incorporate preventive steps into your dental routine. These habits can help you reduce your risk for gum disease and understand how to make your gums healthy.
6 Tips for Keeping Your Gums Healthy
Your gum health is integral to maintaining your teeth. You can improve gum health in various ways, so understanding how to make your gums healthy is essential for following the right steps. For healthier gums, try:
- Brushing and flossing regularly: This tip may sound obvious, but simply brushing and flossing your teeth will prevent food from getting stuck between your teeth and potentially decaying and affecting your gums. The Alberta Dental Association (ADA) recommends brushing twice a day and flossing at least once a day.
- Using fluoride toothpaste: With so many toothpaste options on store shelves, it can be intimidating to navigate them. However, choosing a toothpaste with fluoride will improve gum health. Another tip is to look for the ADA seal of approval on the toothpaste’s packaging.
- Quitting smoking: Combined with the other negative health effects smoking can have, smoking can also lead to gum disease, along with any other tobacco products. By stopping smoking, the likelihood of developing gum disease can immediately decrease.
- Rinsing your mouth after eating: Most people rinse their mouths after they’re done brushing, but this defeats the purpose of using fluoride toothpaste because it rinses the fluoride out. Instead, try rinsing your mouth after eating to get rid of any stray food particles.
- Using mouthwash: Similar to toothpaste, there are multiple types of mouthwashes to pick from. Using a therapeutic mouthwash can prevent gum disease and reduce the amount of plaque and tartar buildup. When you combine using a mouthwash with brushing and flossing, you improve your gum health significantly.
- Getting regular dental checkups: One of the best ways to keep gum disease at bay is visiting your dentist regularly. Getting your teeth professionally cleaned completely removes tartar and plaque. Dentists can also identify the early signs of gingivitis and gum disease.
Trust Dental Choice to Help Keep Your Gums Healthy
At Dental Choice, our staff understands the early signs of gum disease. We can help you improve your gum health and take measures to reverse any damage done. Book an appointment with us today!