A Guide to Nighttime Oral Care
“Brush your teeth before going to bed!” your mom always said. As a kid, you found this incredibly annoying as most kids are too lazy to brush their teeth at night and would rather just go straight to bed than spend all that time scrubbing their teeth and flossing out the yucky stuff. But be thankful that your mom was concerned for your dental hygiene because studies show that poor oral health may actually be a risk factor for more serious illnesses like cardiovascular disease. However, oral hygiene isn’t just about brushing your teeth every night. There’ a whole routine of stuff you should be doing every night to ensure that your entire mouth, not just your chompers, is healthy and less susceptible to disease!
Floss
Although not as popular as brushing, flossing is just as important. Flossing helps you remove plaque from hard to reach places like in between teeth and up spaces between teeth and gums. To floss, simply wind a long enough piece around a finger on each hand and insert the floss in the space between each tooth. Don’t go too hard on your gums and just try to remove that built-up plaque from in between your teeth. Floss before you brush your teeth so that you’ve thoroughly removed all the plaque that could be keeping the fluoride from your toothpaste from reaching every part of your teeth.
Brush
Obviously, the most important nighttime oral ritual is to brush your teeth. Remember these four basic rules to brushing teeth: brush in circles instead of up and down to cover more areas, brush the backs of your teeth facing your tongue, brush your tongue to remove all that bacteria just sitting there and also to give you fresher breath, and lightly brush your gums to ensure that your whole mouth is clean of all plaque and tartar.
Rinse
Many people assume that mouthwash is just for people with constant bad breath. In actuality, mouthwash is important for everyone because they are made specifically to kill the bacteria that cause tooth decay and gum disease. The reason why mouthwash keeps your breath fresh is because the bacteria that sit on your teeth and expel the acids that eat away your enamels are the very source of bad breath.
Floss, brush, and rinse with mouthwash every night to assure that your teeth will remain bright, shiny, and healthy ‘til you’re at the ripe old age of 70. Brushing at night is extremely important because the bacteria in your mouth will have all night to eat away that plaque and cause acids to build up and destroy your teeth. If you brush that plaque away before going to bed, you’re giving your teeth a better chance at surviving those terrible acids. Following a good oral hygiene routine definitely helps not only keep your teeth healthy but makes your body healthy overall too as you keep yourself from being less susceptible to other diseases such as gum disease, oral cancer, and the like.
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