Biting your nails or sucking on lemons is seemingly harmless, but these activities can wreck havoc on your pearly whites. You don’t know, but your few everyday habits can harm your teeth more than anything. While a lot of dental health “don’ts” can instantly damage your teeth (by making them loose or breaking them), the damage from other habits can add up over time, affecting your teeth in the long run. Owing to their bad dental habits such as fidgeting, fussing, and alike, about 25% of U.S. adults, age 65+ have lost all their teeth. So put all of these bad habits to rest-and take steps to protect your precious teeth.
Ice Chomping
The cold, striking truth is that munching on hard, ice cubes can shock the nerve in the tooth, which can potentially crack a filling or worse still, cause a tooth fracture. Next time you crave for ice, opt for chilled water or sugarless drinks instead.
Nail Biting
Nail biting can add up to approximately $4,000 in your dental bills over the time. This bad habit doesn’t just affect the way your hand looks – it creates problem for your oral hygiene and damages your teeth. When you bite your nails, the bacteria under the nails get transferred to the mouth. If you bite your nails often, then be prepared for some serious gums and throat issues.
Tongue Piercings
This stylish trend comes at a hefty price – it can chip or break your teeth! The metal can rub against your gums that can lead to gums recession and even teeth sensitivity. Such mouth jewelries can encourage growth of bacteria in your mouth, hence creating an unhealthy situation.
Sucking on Gummy Candies
Since childhood, you parents, dentist and even aunts must have told you hundred times to avoid sucking on hard and gummy candies. As bacteria feed off the sugar, your chances of developing cavities increase. You offer bacteria the perfect environment for tooth decay.
Nibbling on Pencils
While concentrating, people tend to unconsciously chew on pencils or anything that they have in our hand. What they don’t understand is that they are unknowingly pressurizing their teeth. One of the alternatives to such a habit can be chewing sugarless gum. This even stimulates the production of saliva that cleanses your teeth.
Using Teeth as a Tool
Teeth should be used for eating and smiling, and not for ripping open a pack of chips or opening bottle tops. This may seem convenient to you, but it can cause permanent damage to your teeth. Bottom line, use bottle openers and pliers for all such activities and use your teeth only for eating.
Too Much Soda
Carbonated drinks are acidic in nature and they contain 11tsp sugar content in one serving. This affects your teeth and erodes away the tooth enamel. Even the diet sodas aren’t safe; they contain more acid added as artificial sweeteners.
Drinking Coffee
Coffee lovers can notice a change in the color of their teeth from white to yellow over the time. It is the caffeine content that interferes with saliva flow and causes tooth decay. Adding sugar can further put your teeth at a risk of decay. To neutralize the effect, you should drink water repeatedly round the day.
Grinding Teeth
Putting your teeth under any sort of undue pressure can cause microfractures or real fractures in your pearly whites. Teeth grinding (bruxism) is more than often caused by stress, but it is one habit that is hard to control. It can severely damage dental work.
Aggressive Brushing
Brushing can be a monotonous activity to start your day with, and that is why most of us prefer brushing aggressively to get through with the activity within seconds. This shouldn’t be done as it can wear down enamel or cause sensitivity. Instead brush slowly, with a soft-bristled brush, in circular motion, for not less than 2-3 minutes.