The Worst Habits that Can Damage Your Teeth

With the holiday season in full swing and sweet treats and all manner of culinary delights on everyone’s menus, it’s more important than ever to focus on proper dental care. Unfortunately, many of us have bad habits that can increase the risk of serious damage to our teeth and gums. To improve dental health and protect those teeth and gums, it is vital that we identify those habits and work to overcome them. If you have any of the following habits, it’s time to act to reduce the risk they pose to oral health:

Treating Your Teeth Like Tools

Would you use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail? Of course you wouldn’t. So why do you use your teeth to tear open packages, open bottles, and perform other tasks that could cause them to break or chip? Remember that old saying: use the right tool for the job. And if your job involves something other than chewing food, your teeth aren’t the right tool.

Grinding Your Teeth

If you grind your teeth, you could be weakening their structure. Eventually, you could end up with chipped teeth, as well as joint pain in your jaw and overly-stressed facial muscles. Often, this grinding is caused by stress. Try relaxation techniques or talk to your physician about getting a mouth guard.

Aggressive Brushing

If you’re one of those people who exerts too much pressure during brushing, you could be placing that essential tooth enamel at risk. Aggressive brushing is a problem for millions of people around the world. To prevent it, treat your brushing routine as though it’s a gentle massage rather than a vigorous backrub. Let the toothpaste and bristles do the work.

Biting Your Nails

This habit not only defaces your nails but can chip your teeth and distort your jaw placement. Figure out why you’re doing it and put a stop to the habit once and for all.

All-Day Snacking

If you graze throughout the day, recognize that you’re constantly exposing your teeth and gums to bacteria and plaque. The key is to change your dietary habits so that your meals are well-balanced and nutritional. That will help to fill you up and reduce those hunger pangs that cause the excessive snacking.

Smoking

By now, you almost certainly understand that tobacco poses a risk to your health. Well, that includes your oral health. Nicotine is a threat to the enamel in your teeth, and the smoke from a cigarette contains thousands of chemicals that can destroy cells in your mouth. Tobacco cessation is a must.

At Ebenezer Dental, we recognize that we all have our own little dental quirks. After all, habits are easy to form, and bad habits are the easiest of all. The good news is that we can break bad dental habits once we learn to recognize them for what they are and commit to a change in behavior. If you have bad dental habits you need to break or just want to know how professional care from the best dentist in Midtown NYC can help you achieve your oral health goals, contact us today.