How To Improve Your Smile Without Fake Teeth
Teeth don’t necessarily have to be perfectly straight and many people don’t care for the fake-looking ‘chiclet‘ look that veneers can give. Maybe your smile needs a touch up, and you have considered fake teeth or dental veneers as options to help improve your smile. However, there is a way to avoid going down the path of cosmetic dentistry options, and it revolves around good dental hygiene.
Most of us know the basics to good dental hygiene (although we may not put that knowledge into practice as well as we should). However, there are some other easy things we can do to help with our oral hygiene in our day-to-day lives. Here we outline some of the alternative things that you can do for a brighter and better looking smile, without having to resort to expensive cosmetic dentistry options.
Improve Your Smile Without Fake Teeth
Before you spend thousands of dollars on orthodontics and treatments, try these basic tips to keep the smile you already have today for a little longer:
Sip Through a Straw
It sounds simple, but the majority of society doesn’t do this. Many people drink soda and coffee from cans or mugs and that gives the liquid direct access to your teeth. The liquid washes over all of your teeth and has direct contact with your front teeth. When choosing to drink through a straw, place it behind your teeth and towards the back of your tongue. This way the additives, preservatives, caffeine and sugars won’t be able to wreak as much havoc on your mouth.
Fluoride Rinses
Fluoride is needed to protect our teeth but we don’t always get enough of it. There are many products including fluoride rinses that are decently priced and very effective. Be sure to follow the directions and don’t consume any food or beverages before or after the rinse. This gives the fluoride a chance to actually go to work on protecting your teeth. Also choose a toothpaste that contains fluoride to assist during brushing.
Include Calcium in Your Diet
Just like calcium helps build strong bones in our bodies, it also helps strengthen our teeth and brighten our smiles. Foods like kale and broccoli are extremely rich in calcium and nutrients provided through food are much easier for our bodies to digest. You could take a calcium supplement but making sure to incorporate calcium-rich foods is going to be the most effective. If the best way for you to get calcium is from a glass of milk, then try that.
Lipstick
This may not improve your dental hygiene as such, but it can help to make your smile look brighter! This one might be surprising to some, but the shade of your lipstick can actually make your teeth look whiter. Wearing orange or warm toned reds will give your looks more of a yellowish look. Reds with a bluish undertone will bring out the white much more. If you need to, try a few shades before you find the perfect one for you. Find a color that looks good for your skin tone, but also brings out the white in your smile, even if you do have a couple of false teeth or other cosmetic dental implants. This tip is centered primarily on the visual created by color matching.
The Bottom Line
It really is not hard to practice proper dental care at home in order to keep your teeth healthy, strong and white for as long as possible. In addition to the suggestions already listed, you should avoid smoking and try to chew whitening or sugar-free gum in between brushing.
Also try to brush at least twice a day (three times a day is even better) and floss daily. Don’t forget to visit your dentist regularly, and then the last thing you will ever need to make your smile look its best will be fake teeth.
