5 Dental Hygiene Tips You Might Not Know About

When it comes to maintaining a healthy smile, brushing and flossing are essential daily habits. However, if you already have a stellar oral health routine (that means flossing morning AND night) then we have a few lesser-known tips to help you take even better care of your mouth! 

Oral hygiene is about more than just teeth. Bacteria can also linger on your tongue and around your gumline, causing problems like gum disease. Here are some simple ways to pay attention to every area of your mouth. 

1. Use a Tongue Scraper

While brushing your teeth removes plaque and food particles from the surface, using a tongue scraper helps remove leftover bacteria and debris from your tongue after brushing. Any residual bacteria on your tongue can contribute to bad breath and other oral health issues. That’s why the Slate Electric Flosser is designed with a tongue scraper on the back of each floss head. By gently scraping your tongue from back to front a few times after flossing, you can feel confident that you’ve eliminated any gunk lingering on your tongue at the end of your dental routine.

2. Try Putting Toothpaste on Your Flosser

Now, to be fair, this tip really only works with the Slate Electric Flosser. Our co-founder Brynn has a favorite trick: putting a small amount of toothpaste on her Slate Flosser’s gum sweeps before flossing. (The gums sweeps are the small triangular rubber pieces attached on both sides of the floss.) Their rubber bristles help stimulate the gumline and disrupt plaque while you floss. By adding toothpaste to your gum sweeps, you can work the toothpaste into the pockets between your teeth. This allows your toothpaste to clean hard-to-reach spots between your teeth more effectively.

3. Chew Xylitol Gum  

Chewing xylitol gum rather than regular gum can have surprising oral health benefits! Xylitol is a sugar alcohol that sweetens gum without promoting tooth decay. Rather than adding to plaque buildup, xylitol gum can actually inhibit the growth of bacteria that cause cavities, resulting in an anti-plaque effect. Chewing xylitol gum also stimulates saliva production, which helps neutralize acids in your mouth. An acidic mouth is more prone to cavities, meaning if you take steps to neutralize the pH balance in your mouth, your teeth are more likely to stay cavity-free!

4. Drink Your Fun Beverage Quickly

Any dentist will encourage you to drink more water. Staying hydrated helps wash away food particles and bacteria that can lead to plaque formation and bad breath. Additionally, water with fluoride, whether from tap water or fluoride-added bottled water, can help strengthen tooth enamel and prevent tooth decay. However, we understand that almost everyone loves a fun drink to help them get through the day. Whether that’s your morning coffee, an afternoon soda, or an evening glass of wine, do your best to drink it in under 30 minutes. These beverages are often very acidic, making tooth decay easier and more likely. If you spend a large portion of your day sipping on something, your mouth is vulnerable for a longer period of time and you are more likely to develop cavities. By consuming your drink quickly, your mouth can return to a neutral state sooner and better protect your teeth.

5. Wait to Brush Your Teeth

If you just threw up, you’re probably eager to clean your teeth. But what if we told you it's better to wait a bit? Vomiting coats your teeth in a large amount of stomach acid, that’s what causes the burning sensation that often comes with getting sick. Brushing immediately after rubs that stomach acid on your teeth. “This expands the surface area that the acid touches, causing the acid to eat away at more enamel.” So what should you do instead? Swish water around in your mouth after vomiting and wait at least 30 minutes until brushing. If you’re pregnant and throwing up often, proper care is even more important to keep your teeth healthy!

Incorporating these dental hygiene tips into your daily routine alongside regular brushing and flossing is a surefire way to maintain a healthier mouth and a brighter smile. Don’t feel like you have high-quality dental tools? Grab yourself a Slate Flosser Patient Pack and make flossing and tongue-scraping part of your daily routine! Brushing alone won’t keep your mouth clean. Let Slate help you take care of your ENTIRE mouth.