7 Ways to Keep Your Gums Healthy

A large percentage of Americans are not performing adequate oral hygiene habits. This is leading to an uptick in gingivitis, the primary phase of periodontal disease.

Gingivitis occurs when the biofilm that builds up in your mouth every day begins to solidify into a plaque.

When this plaque builds up under the gumline, the result is teeming bacterial colonies infesting your tissues and causing damage to the bones, teeth, and gums from the acids that they release.

In order to halt the development of gingivitis and to ensure your optimal oral health, you should practice the following 7 oral hygiene habits regularly.

Here are 7 effective ways to keep your gums healthy

#1: Brush Twice a Day

The easiest way to protect your gums from biofilm is to brush it away. The biofilm is a sticky soup of bacteria and polysaccharides that cling to your teeth and build up all over your oral cavity.

The saliva in your mouth is effective at washing away the majority of the biofilm as it builds up. However, it does not neutralize the biofilm altogether because the bacterial colonies find the warm and moist pocket of our mouth to be a virtual paradise for their incubation and growth.

Although the biofilm will not harden into a plaque (by leaching minerals out of your saliva) in less than 24 hours, attacking their colonies twice a day is an effective strategy to ensure a thorough job. Brushing more than twice a day runs the risk of damaging the enamel due to excessive friction and wear on the clean surfaces.

Be sure to wait at least a half-hour after drinking acidic beverages such as juices or soda before brushing because the acids will also soften the enamel and make it easier for the toothbrush to damage it. Hard bristles are also more abrasive on the teeth and should be avoided.

When you brush your teeth, you should use a super soft toothbrush with an angled head. Bristles that are serrated are more effective than bristles that are flat. The individual bristles should be rounded at the tips to gently polish the teeth. Using a fluoride toothpaste will help strengthen teeth and reduce the ability of bacteria to conquer your mouth.

Bacteria conquer your mouth when they colonize and form micropores in your tooth structure and bone if they can access it. Then, they start to erode the material and release more acids to penetrate even deeper. This is why your dentist must drill out so much from rotten teeth until they are left with a solid tooth material before they can apply a filling.

Using a toothpaste brand with baking soda will also help to absorb odors and can limit the bacterial growths in your mouth between brushings. Most natural toothpaste formulas are made out of oils, baking soda, and/or salt to effectively lubricate the brush and kill bacterial growth. Nevertheless, these primitive toothpaste formulas do not foam up and may not be engineered with the same effectiveness as a modern toothpaste.

When brushing, be sure to use a gentle circular motion. Although it can be uncomfortable to spend time brushing your teeth properly, you will feel better in the long run. Spend about 20 seconds brushing each section of your mouth on the front, sides, back, and biting surfaces. This type of cleaning is the most thorough method and certain to eliminate most of the bacterial growth that endangers your gumline.

You should also brush your tongue, cheeks, the roof of your mouth, and your gums. This is the best way to remove the biofilm build-up and to neutralize the acids that bacteria form. Because the bacteria colonize at a microscopic level, the exercise may seem more hypothetical than tangible.

#2: Floss Once a Day

It doesn’t matter what time of the day that you decide to floss your teeth. Although you may feel more comfortable flossing after a meal to get any bits of food out of uncomfortable crevices, you have to floss at some point. The flossing is designed primarily to gently polish your teeth under the gumline. It is not simply to remove food that is stuck between them. A thin ribbon-style floss is best to gently stroke and polishes the internal surfaces of the teeth below the gumline.

#3: Use a Mouthwash

When you use a mouthwash, you reduce the bacterial colony populations in your mouth much better than when brushing alone. A mouthwash lets you gargle and works as an antiseptic to destroy all those terrible germs that lead to tooth decay. You can now buy mouthwash that has peroxide, which is good for healing any cuts or sores in your mouth.

#4: Try Pulling

Pulling is the ancient Vedic practice of swooshing around a tablespoon of natural oil like coconut oil in your mouth for up to half an hour. Coconut oil is used most frequently because it has natural antibacterial properties from the Lauric acid. Lauric acid is also proven to reduce the populations of viruses and fungi. Therefore, it is the best antimicrobial formula that you will find for non-traditional oral care.

#5: Keep Your Mouth Moist

Dry mouth is one of the leading causes of tooth decay. As people become older, they are more likely to suffer from periodontitis because their mouths get dry from medications. The saliva in your mouth washes away the buildup of the biofilm. Try sucking on ice or keeping a squirt bottle of spring water handy to sip from every 10 minutes if you have dry mouth.

#6: Stop Smoking

Smoking reduces your body’s ability to heal. This makes it easier for bacteria to infect your gumline once they get a footing. Your body will be helpless to fight off the infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)has conducted numerous studies that link smoking to gum disease.

#7: Visit a Dentist Regularly

Visit a dentist regularly to obtain the best assessments of your oral health. A dentist will usually recommend an annual deep cleaning to remove all the plaque that builds up under the gumline. They have numerous special tools to prevent tooth decay and plaque from conquering your mouth.