5 Bad Oral Habits to Avoid

Brushing after meals and flossing before bed are important to have a good oral health, but they fall short to show expected results for some of our bad practices. And we can easily see such people around us complaining of bad oral health despite brushing their teeth with quality toothpaste and toothbrush and flossing their teeth.

In this blog, we will discuss five common bad habits that do not allow you to enjoy a good oral health.

Grinding your teeth

Teeth grinding, medically known as bruxism, affects the oral health of over 8-10% adults. Interestingly, some people never come to know they grind their teeth until somebody tells them because they grind their teeth while sleeping. However, there are some symptoms that give an indication that you may be grinding your teeth. The main symptoms are jaw pain, headaches, and ear pain. Stress, anxiety, snoring, nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine are mainly responsible for teeth grinding.

Practicing yoga and jaw exercises can be helpful to get rid of this bad habit.

Taking sticky, gummy, and chewy candies

This is such a mistake that everybody knowingly makes because everybody knows it very well that chocolates, lollipops, chewy candies, and gums harm their teeth. The sugar in the candies takes time in being dissolved and gives place to bacteria that weaken your teeth.

Smoking

Everybody knows smoking kills. Nevertheless, many people consider smoking cigarettes and cigars a status symbol. The tobacco in cigarettes and cigars causes stains, tooth decay, oral cancer. Gone are the days when leaving smoking was impossible because now medication is available to help you. Request your dentist to help you quit smoking, and they will help you rid of it. However, the thing that you will need is firm conviction to leave it.

Drinking coffee

Coffee gives you the energy to start your day, helps you to get rid of lethargy and stress, but at the expense of your teeth. Caffeine in your coffee stains your teeth, causes dry mouth and tooth decay, and slows down the flow of the saliva. If you take several coffees a day, this will increase the risk of cavities. If you cannot start your day without coffee, you should look for decaf coffees without caffeine, use a sweetener, and begin chewing gums with xylitol because these gums will maintain the saliva flow in your mouth.

Taking sugary cough syrups

Cough problems are common so the cough syrups. Cough syrups provide comfort from coughs. To your surprise, they calm your cough at the expense of your teeth. The sugar in cough syrups dissolve very slow in your mouth and causes bacteria. Therefore, you should avoid those cough syrups which have sugar as an element.

Coping with these bad oral habits can improve the quality of your oral health. So, do think about them seriously.