Most people maintain oral hygiene because it’s what they’ve always been taught. For example, you probably learned how to brush your teeth earlier than you can remember. Similarly, those with upper and lower dentures also learn to care for them meticulously, as maintaining these dental appliances is essential for overall oral health and comfort.
But before you take oral hygiene for granted, it’s important to realize that it actually has many benefits that you may not be aware of.
In this article, we’ll go over the top five benefits of taking care of your teeth.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
You feel more confident
Taking care of your oral hygiene helps keep your teeth white and gives them a nice shine, and having a nice set of teeth can boost your confidence in social settings.
After all, your smile is one of the first things people notice (and remember) about you.
A nice set of teeth also helps you pronounce and intonate words correctly so you don’t feel embarrassed or shy. And with more confidence, having conversations with other people is much easier and more enjoyable.
You can enjoy more food
Though it may seem obvious, you need a full set of teeth to appreciate good food. Your teeth help you bite, chew, and break down all types of food so that you can enjoy and savor their taste.
However, if you let your dental hygiene suffer, you may lose teeth and with them lose the ability to properly enjoy foods. For example, you may no longer be able to chew your favorite steak. So it pays to take good care of your teeth.
You avoid irreversible tooth decay and gum loss
If you neglect your teeth or gums, it’s hard to reverse the damage. Once they go bad, you’ll have to live without them or get dental implants (if you live in Orange County, CA, consider getting dental implants Orange County).
So keep that in mind the next time you brush or floss your teeth. These simple habits are a long-term investment in a limited resource (your teeth).
It’s important for your overall health
Oral hygiene is also important for your overall health. After all, your mouth serves as the opening to the internal parts of your body. So if you don’t treat your teeth well, the rest of your body will suffer as well, and there’s data to back this up.
According to Robert H. Shmerling, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, gum disease is connected to heart disease. So taking care of your teeth may help improve your cardiovascular health.
In addition, studies have shown that there is a link between poor oral health and dementia. So if you want to remember things in your old age, you better take care of your teeth.
Other conditions and sicknesses that good oral hygiene can prevent include bacterial pneumonia, infective endocarditis (IE), pregnancy complications, low birth weight, cancer, sepsis, and more.
At the end of the day, brushing your teeth might just help you live longer. So take it seriously.
It helps you enjoy life to the fullest
Lastly, taking care of your teeth will help you enjoy life to the fullest. Nobody enjoys having to go to the dentist to get a cavity filled or a root canal done. And nobody enjoys all the other sicknesses and conditions that can result from poor oral hygiene either.
So if you want to enjoy life more, don’t forget to brush and floss daily. It may not seem important now, but you’ll be grateful for your healthy set of teeth later on when they let you live life to its fullest potential.
