Near North Side, Chicago – Oral health expert shares tips on how to ensure optimal oral health as defined by the American Dental Hygienists’s Association (ADHA).
The ADHA defines optimal oral health as the standard of oral health and related tissues that enable individuals to speak, eat, and socialize without discomfort, active disease, or embarrassment. It also contributes to the overall well-being and health. Thus, a Colgate Enamel Health ambassador Kristy Menage Bernie shares health tips for dentists in ensuring their patients with white and healthy smile.
Bernie said bacteria and cavities have significant impact on a person’s overall health, thus, encouraging dentists and patients to do important things in between dentist or urgent care clinic visits.
Bernie emphasized acid-based food and liquid can rob one’s smile of the essential minerals, which help in maintaining smooth and healthy teeth. Soda pop, sour candies, and citrus fruits can also reduce the pH level of the saliva, creating an environment that bacteria will love. An urgent care or relief for this issue is to minimize acidic food consumption, while brushing teeth twice daily with fluoride toothpaste. She pointed out that acids could likewise erode tooth surfaces until it appears dull.
Teeth also need an urgent care near me maintenance because without it, the enamel could become rough, instead of smooth. It will also become more susceptible to damages, but polishing the teeth aside from cleaning can greatly help in replenishing the natural calcium and smoothness, and disabling germs to stick to it.
In order to achieve optimal oral health, Bernie also said that proper maintenance of the tongue can equally help. The tongue can also accumulate bacteria, producing smelly gas and volatile sulfur compound. Cleaning the tongue at least once every single day can freshen the breath.
Dental appointments and urgent care clinics have been giving Fluoride treatments that strengthen the teeth. Bernie stated that the fluoride in toothpaste helps significantly in replenishing the natural calcium, despite weakened enamel.
Although enamel is considered the hardest substance, gooey, sugary, and acidic food provide a site for bacteria, causing the enamel to lose essential minerals that lead to dull-looking teeth and tooth decay. However, using toothpastes can help in replenishing lost minerals, while keeping bacteria away.
Kristy Menage Bernie is the American Academy of Dental Hygiene (AADH) direct president, who has also been a featured speaker in several oral health care discussions and topics since 1989. Bernie added that optimal oral health can be achieved by following these tips in between dental visits.