Life seems to get busier and busier, the time available seems to get shorter and shorter for all of us, and modern lifestyles can have an impact on our overall health and our oral health. As we rush around, we try to eat more quickly and have less time to look after ourselves, sometimes eating the wrong foods or drinking more and more coffee or red wine or eating foods with dietary pigments or more sugar than we would like, which can have a negative effect on our oral health, our gums and our teeth.
Managing the Impacts of Modern Lifestyles
Too much sugar in fast foods, flavoured coffees or soft drinks can lead to tooth decay, cavities, fillings, root fillings and ultimately, loss of teeth. But it also has a negative effect on our gum health and can lead to gum disease, recession, inflammation and, again, further loss of teeth. Even the dyes, stains, and pigments in some of our food can reduce the whiteness and cleanliness of our smiles, such as by drinking too much coffee or red wine or eating foods with greater amounts of pigment.
And so, while modern lifestyles can have a negative impact on dental health, it's easy to offset the problem by looking after our own mouth as much as possible by cleaning properly with an electric toothbrush twice daily, by cleaning incidentally with appropriate products that we've been recommended to use by our healthcare professionals and by attending for regular checkups examinations and hygiene appointments.
Preserving your Smile
If we want to maintain our healthy smile for the longest possible time, we have to look after our teeth in our own time, make space and do it in the most efficient and effective way. However, we also have to see healthcare professionals who can advise us if things are okay or if we need additional treatment to maintain our healthy smile.
Our healthcare professionals, our dentists, our therapists and hygienists can also advise us on things like straightening our teeth with braces or clear aligners, replacing missing teeth with various different options or looking after our gums and oral health for the longest possible time, in the best possible way.
Often, the case is that people do not appreciate how important to them a healthy, happy smile is until it's taken away and until they realise that it's a much bigger deal to replace that which was lost than it would have been to keep that which they had in the first place.
Modern lifestyles are difficult, but offsetting that with excellent dental care can lead to lifelong oral health.
