You may be someone who brushes twice daily, flosses his teeth, and visits a dentist at regular intervals to keep your healthy and bright smile intact. But are you aware of the bad habits that actually have an adverse impact on your teeth? By now you must be aware that eating too many sugary foods in between meals is bad for your teeth. Apart from this, there are some other bad habits that harm your teeth.
Have you ever wondered about whether or not there is something wrong that you’re doing every day that is risking your overall oral health and hygiene? We have asked dentists from Sedona Dental Work and they have shared a few bad habits that should be broken as soon as possible.
When the taste of your nails is horrible, you may be forced to stop biting them. If you experience any jaw pain from this bad habit, try to visit this Gilbert, Arizona TMJ dentist to take care of it.
- Biting your nails
One of the foremost habits to break is biting your nails. You may feel nail-biting to be harmless but when you bite your nails, you not only harm your nails but also your teeth. Nail-biting can lead to dysfunction of the jaw and chipped teeth. You can break this habit by following tricks like applying bitter-tasting nail polishes on your nails. When the taste of your nails is horrible, you may be forced to stop biting them.
- Being too hard while brushing your teeth
One of the best habits you can adopt is brushing for two minutes twice a day. However, you also have to ensure that you don’t brush your teeth too hard. Brushing your teeth with a hard toothbrush or simply using a soft toothbrush but brushing your teeth hardly can hurt your gums and teeth. The ADA recommends people use a soft toothbrush and use it softly while brushing.
- Leveraging your teeth as tools
Opening things like caps of bottles with your teeth might make you appear smart but actually, they are harmful to your teeth and gums. This is a habit that can have a very bad impact on your teeth as it leads to chipping and cracking. Make sure you keep tools like scissors to open things instead of your teeth. Don’t forget that your teeth’s job is to chew food and not that of a bottle-opener.
- Piercing your tongue
Piercing your tongue may seem trendy and attractive but when the metal ring constantly touches your mouth, this becomes the breeding area for bacteria inside your mouth. This leads to a higher risk of sores and infections. People who pierce their tongues often have a habit of playing with the metal within their mouths. This can lead to a cracked tooth in case they bite the metal.
- Having too many gummy sweets
We all know that sweets are bad for our teeth as they are made with pure sugar. But the gummy sweets which stick to our gums due to their sticky texture are more harmful. Once the sweet sticks to your teeth, the sugar remains in your teeth for several hours. The sugar turns into acid and this leads to cavities.