I’m a Dentist: These 5 Things are Ruining your Teeth

Life can be challenging especially when you try your hardest and do your best and still fall short sometimes. While it’s common knowledge that everyone should brush and floss daily, no one ever thinks about the things we shouldn’t do. Since your oral health is so important and directly linked to your overall health and wellbeing, here are 5 things I see as a dentist that you may be doing wrong that is ruining your teeth and doing the exact opposite of what you wanted.

1. Using charcoal in your toothpaste

Charcoal does two things on teeth: It abrades (sands down) and it dries the teeth making the tooth shade lighter. Drying the teeth is only temporary and once your teeth get rehydrated within a couple hours, your teeth return to color and becomes weaker and more yellow over time because more and more of the yellow dentin will show through the thinning enamel.

2. Brushing your teeth without using fluoridated toothpaste

Please put the fluoride back into your toothpaste if you want your teeth to last! Fluoride has two great benefits: it kills the bacteria that causes tooth decay (aka cavities) and it makes the teeth biochemically stronger and more protected. Remember, toothpaste is not meant to be ingested. It’s a powerful cleaning agent so make sure to spit it out really well.

3. Smoking

This is self explanatory really. Smoking has no benefits and does so many bad things to your teeth as well as the rest of your body. One thing you may not know is smoking makes you heal slower… So smoking lowers your life expectancy. If you want to live longer, please stop smoking.

4. Sharing your drinks with your little ones.

Parents, I know you mean well, but please stop sharing your drinks with your kids. Every time you do that, you are passing your adult germs onto your innocent kids and compromising their overall health. Their little immune system may not be strong enough to withstand your invasive bacteria. So please know that you are hurting them in the long run.

5. Going too far with DIY at home treatments

Please do yourself a favor and don’t chance it. That’s the big word here, chance. With TikTok trends taking off and DIY at home treatments becoming more and more popular, some of these at home treatments can be very dangerous and more expensive in the long run. The problem is that everybody is different. What worked for one person doesn’t mean it will work the same for you. Whether you’re doing at home ortho clear aligner treatment or at home whitening treatment, you should get a professional evaluation first before embarking on such a journey. Everybody’s mouth is not one size fits all, so when things don’t fit and something goes wrong, that’s your face, that’s your bite, that’s your immediate livelihood.

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