White and healthy teeth will give you a beautiful smile and boost your confidence. Healthy teeth are also strong enough to perform other functions, including chewing and biting. The strength and beauty of your teeth depend on the health of your enamel. The enamel is the outer layer of natural teeth. It protects a tooth’s underlying structures from staining and damage. Fortunately, you can have strong, healthy, and beautiful teeth if willing to make a little sacrifice. Here are some of the tips dentists recommend to strengthen and possibly keep your teeth white:
Eat Foods Rich in Calcium
The health and general appearance of your teeth are essential for many reasons. Your oral and dental health contributes to your overall well-being. If your teeth are unhealthy, so is your general health. But if you have a dental issue, like a cavity, it could affect your general health. Remember that an oral infection can quickly spread to the rest of your body through the bloodstream. How your teeth appear affects how you feel about yourself. If you do not feel confident enough to smile and socialize, it affects your self-esteem and could impact your job and relationships.
Thus, keeping your teeth healthy and white is paramount to enjoying good health and a healthy social and professional life. You can achieve that by eating calcium-rich foods. The strength and health of the enamel mainly depend on your diet. The enamel is the strongest element in the body. Maintaining that strength requires consuming the proper nutrients that keep it strong and healthy. Calcium strengthens a body’s bones and mineralizes the enamel. Thus, you will enjoy many other benefits by simply incorporating calcium-rich foods into your diet.
Fortunately, you have a wide variety of these foods to choose from. Top on your list should be green leafy vegetables, which are easily accessible and affordable. You can choose from a list of vegetables, including kale, collard greens, spinach, and broccoli. Alternatively, you can introduce dairy products like milk, yogurt, and cheese. You also have a wide range of nuts, including walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, and Brazil nuts. All these are foods you can easily find in local stores.
Talk to your dentist about other foods you can introduce to your diet to boost your calcium levels. These foods are rich in nutrients, like minerals and proteins, that benefit oral and general health.
Choose Water Instead of Juice
Hydrating is crucial for general health. However, you must carefully choose what to drink to enjoy healthy and whiter teeth. Many people struggle with water because it is tasteless, but water is your healthiest option for hydrating. Water boosts your oral health in many ways. It removes foods that remain in your mouth after every meal, discouraging the growth of harmful bacteria that cause cavities and gum disease. It also neutralizes your mouth’s acidity levels., especially after consuming sugary and starchy foods, rendering it unconducive for bacterial growth.
Sadly, water is not many people’s first option when looking for something to drink after a meal or even after a workout. So many other options are available today, including juices and carbonated drinks. The problem with these drinks is that they are packed with unhealthy sugars that affect oral health in many ways. Additionally, these drinks are acidic, which encourages the growth of harmful bacteria in the mouth. Some of these juices stain your teeth over time, affecting your smile and confidence.
After consuming juices and other acidic drinks, the harmful bacteria feed on what remains in your mouth to thrive. The bacteria is responsible for dental decay, gum disease, and bad breath. Additionally, your teeth and gums will likely develop a buildup once the sugars in these drinks combine with the harmful bacteria. The buildup stains your teeth and gums and protects the harmful bacteria as they continue to harm your teeth.
Thus, you must reconsider what you drink to have healthier and whiter teeth. Water is friendly to your enamel because of its low pH level. Remember that anything you eat impacts your enamel, so you must carefully consider this when choosing your foods and drinks.
Use Enamel-Strengthening Toothpastes
Brushing and flossing are crucial habits for maintaining good oral health. Dentists recommend brushing after every meal or twice daily and flossing daily to remove stuck food particles from your teeth and mouth. However, you must use the right toothpaste to achieve the desired results. If you want healthy and white teeth, you should choose a tooth-strengthening toothpaste. This is a toothpaste with a suitable ingredient, specifically fluoride.
Fluoride strengthens the teeth’s enamel, making it more resistant to harmful acids from foods and drinks. It also remineralizes the natural teeth, restoring their strength and beauty. Thus, you strengthen and whiten your teeth every time you brush them with the right toothpaste. Fluoride also interferes with harmful bacteria’s ability to create harmful acid that erodes the enamel.
A fluoride-based toothpaste has many other benefits for your teeth. It removes plaque and any other buildup that encourages the growth of harmful bacteria on your teeth and gums. Remember that your mouth has different types of bacteria. While some bacteria are helpful in digestion, others are harmful, which is why you experience different oral and dental issues. The harmful bacteria combine with stuck food particles in your mouth to produce a dangerous acid that builds on your teeth and gums. This buildup eventually causes cavities and gum disease if not removed on time.
The right toothpaste will also remove stains from your teeth, leaving them white and beautiful. Some foods you consume stain your teeth. Examples of these foods include tea, coffee, wine, and colorful juices and fruits. Brushing with the right toothpaste at least twice daily removes these stains, brightens your smile, and boosts your confidence.
If you are unsure of the best toothpaste to buy for your oral hygiene, speak to a skilled dentist. Your dentist will also guide you in choosing the right toothpaste and making other healthy choices for healthy and white teeth.
Minimize Teeth-Staining Foods
Your teeth come across all kinds of foods daily. These foods play a crucial role in how healthy and white they are. While some foods impact the health of your teeth, others determine your teeth’s appearance. Most popular foods today stain the natural teeth. It explains why you could be struggling with stained or discolored teeth today.
Some foods' chemical compounds, or chemogens, are why some foods and drinks have intense colors. These compounds stain your teeth. Some foods and beverages also contain tannin, a highly tooth-staining substance. Acids in other foods wear down your tooth's enamel, exposing its dentin, which stains very quickly. Anything that stains your tongue or clothes will likely stain your teeth. Thus, you must be careful with what you eat or drink to maintain healthy and white teeth.
Here are some of the foods and drinks you should avoid to protect your teeth from stains:
- Coffee and tea because they contain tannins, which stains teeth
- Red wine because of its deep staining color
- Cola because of its dark staining color. Cola also contains acid that wears down the enamel
- Fruit juices from popular fruits like blueberries, grapes, and cranberries contain deep colors that stain the teeth
- Tomato sauces have an intense staining pigment
- Curries because of their deep and strong color. Some curries contain turmeric, which is highly staining
- Balsamic vinegar used in making tasty salads has a strong color and acids that wear down the enamel
- Dark soy sauce
- Berries
- Beetroot
Since some of these foods and drinks are highly nutritious, you should consume them in moderation to enjoy their nutrients and protect your teeth from staining.
If your teeth stain because you consume more foods and drinks, you can minimize their usage and substitute them with less-staining ones. For example, you can substitute a cup of tea with flavored hot water or herbal tea. Alternatively, you can rinse your mouth every time you eat or drink something that potentially stains your teeth. Some dentists recommend using a straw to drink highly-staining beverages, like fruit juices. This reduces their effect on your teeth.
Eliminate Tobacco
Tobacco is a highly staining substance you should consider eliminating for healthy, white teeth. The nicotine and tar in cigarettes stain teeth. Over time, the chemicals in the smoke penetrate your teeth and gums, causing buildup that affects your teeth’s appearance and health. Tobacco stains weaken and erode the enamel, exposing the teeth' dentin, a softer and highly staining layer.
The buildup caused by tobacco chemicals creates a dark line on the gumline, which eventually causes gum disease. This is a severe condition that affects teeth and gum health. Gum disease affects your gum’s grip on the teeth, weakening them and eventually causing them to fall off. The buildup also causes cavities, affecting your teeth' strength, appearance, and functionality.
Since smoking also weakens the enamel, the outer protective layer of your teeth is affected. Once the enamel wears out, the internal structures of the teeth are exposed. The dentin, a soft layer beneath the enamel, is not strong enough to protect the tooth from harsh elements that cause cavities and oral infections. It is also not resistant to staining.
Thus, tobacco affects your teeth and oral health in many ways. You must eliminate it to maintain healthy and white teeth. Dentists recommend stopping some of these habits immediately to prevent further damage to your teeth. Smoking will continue to affect your teeth regardless of your efforts to maintain good oral health, including brushing and flossing daily, professional cleaning, and regularly visiting your dentist.
If you are struggling with eliminating tobacco, speak to a skilled dentist for assistance and guidance. Your dentist will also help you improve the health and appearance of your teeth if they are already affected by smoking.
Visit Your Dentist Regularly for Regular Checkups and Professional Cleaning
Regular visits to the dentist are recommended for dental checkups, examinations, and professional cleaning. Dentists recommend these visits at least every six months to ensure your teeth and gums are healthy and strong. During these visits, your dentist examines your teeth thoroughly for any oral or dental problems that could affect your health. If they find an issue, like a developing cavity, your dentist will recommend immediate treatment to prevent it from affecting more of your tooth and adjacent teeth.
During these visits, dentists also discuss oral health and general well-being. They ask about your diet, the challenges you experience in maintaining good oral health, your medications, and the products you use to clean your teeth. Your dentist will recommend the best diets and warn you against smoking and teeth-grinding habits that could damage your enamel, affecting the health and whiteness of your teeth.
Dentists also perform professional cleaning during these visits. Professional teeth cleaning is crucial as it targets the entire mouth, including those difficult-to-reach areas that are neglected during daily brushing and flossing. They also remove any buildup that could encourage the growth of harmful bacteria on your teeth and gums. Professional cleaning also removes stains, leaving your teeth whiter and healthier.
If you have not been visiting your dentist as regularly as you should, it is time to schedule an appointment.
Find a Skilled Dentist Near Me
Healthy and white teeth boost confidence and general health and brighten your smile. Sadly, the strength, health, and appearance of your natural teeth are affected by many elements, including the foods and drinks you consume. Some unhealthy habits could also be why your teeth are unhealthy and stained.
At Lasting Impressions Dental Spa, we recommend several tips and strategies to maintain white and healthy teeth, including good oral hygiene, professional cleaning, and eliminating some foods and habits from your diet and life. We also work closely with you, especially during regular checkups and examinations, to improve the appearance and health of your teeth. Call us at 818-751-5100 for quality dental care from highly trained and experienced dentists in Encino, CA.
