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Planning and Preparing for Dental Procedures: Your Questions Answered


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Planning and Preparing for Dental Procedures: Your Questions Answered

Making decisions about your smile can be confusing. Should you have a tooth pulled or get a root canal? Should you get adult braces or stick with a retainer? Should you use at-home whitening remedies or have your teeth professionally whitened? If questions like these are keeping you up at night, you've come to the right place. I used to stress out over routine dental procedures, and as a result, I did loads of research on everything dental-related. To help others, I'm using this blog as a place to collect, review and share what I've learned through the years. I hope you can use the information here to help you plan and prepare for your next dental appointment.

Naturally Whiten Your Teeth With These Five Ideas

Virtually everyone wants a bright white smile, and with the right approach, it is possible to obtain one naturally. Looking for natural ways to whiten that smile? Take a look at these five ideas:

1. Stop flirting with stains

Unfortunately, some of your most favourite foods may be giving your smile stains. To make your teeth white naturally, it may be better to be proactive rather than reactive. To that end, cut down on staining foods and beverages.

Replace coffee and tea with water or juice, replace wine with colourless cocktails, and replace cigarettes with a hobby like knitting.

2. Grab the crunchy veggies

Veggies do not necessarily whiten your teeth, but they do help to remove plaque and bacteria, helping your smile to be healthier, less prone to decay and ultimately whiter. As you chew, crunchy veggies break into small pieces with abrasive edges that essentially scrape bacteria and plaque off your teeth.

They also invigorate your salivary reflex, increasing the amount you sallow, and that also helps to wash away bacteria or other darkening, decay-causing substances.

3. Eat a cheese plate

Cheese, because it is light-coloured, also does not stain your teeth, and when you eat cheeses that are extra high in calcium, such as gruyere and colby, you strengthen your teeth. Stronger teeth resist decay and thus stay white. They are also less likely to experience trauma that can cause nerve damage and dead teeth – dead teeth are dark in colour.

4. Make a natural whitening paste

The options above are an effective way to whiten teeth, but they all take time to work. Unlike treatments for professional whitening, they do not yield immediate results.

However, if you want your teeth to be whiter faster, you can make a homemade natural whitening paste. Mix hydrogen peroxide and baking soda until it forms a paste. Rub the paste on your teeth, let it sit for a few minutes and then rinse.

The abrasive baking soda cleans the teeth, and the peroxide bleaches and kills germs.

5. Rinse with apple cider vinegar

In addition to using the natural paste described above, you can also make a rinse out of apple cider vinegar. Vinegar is acidic so it essentially burns stains and debris off your teeth. If you have ever cleaned a floor or a toilet with vinegar, you know how effective it can be. It has the same basic effect on your teeth.

To create a rinse, mix one part water and one part apple cider vinegar. Then, rinse, gargle, move it through your mouth over your teeth, and spit it out. For more information, contact a business such as Dental Care @ Bentons.