4 Easy Ways to Prevent Gum Disease

Only your heart, skin, and lungs are vulnerable to diseases as you age, right? Well, not really. Your gums and teeth are also prone to damage, particularly if you don’t practice proper oral care habits, ingest foods that may trigger decay, or visit a Miami dentist for a routine checkup.

What You Need to Know about Gum Disease

Gum disease doesn’t develop instantly, but in stages. This means using basic lifestyle changes and simple diet can help prevent or minimize it.

Gingivitis marks the first stage of this disease, and it’s characterized by red and swollen gums, which bleed easily. You can easily resolve this common condition through improved brushing and flossing habits. The damage can be reversed provided the tissue and bone that hold your teeth intact are not impacted.

However, not resolving gingivitis may lead to a more serious stage of the disease known as periodontitis. It’s the final stage of the gum disease, which destroys the gum tissue and the bone structure that supports teeth.

Preventing Gum Disease

Here are easy tips to help you safeguard the integrity and health of your mouth as well as save money you could have used to treat gum disease.

1. Eat Foods That Promote Gum Health

What you eat affects your teeth and gums. If you frequently go for foods and drinks rich in sugar and refine carbohydrates, you’re creating an environment for bacteria to thrive and cause damage. To prevent gum disease, you don’t only need to avoid bad foods, but you also need to choose foods that improve your gum health. Such foods include:

• Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, oysters, sardines, cod liver oil, mackerel and herring.
• Chewing gum containing xylitol
• Nuts and seeds
• Raw veggies and apples

2. Fine Tune Your Oral care Routine

How do you take care of your teeth currently? Do you simply brush, brush and floss, or you also rinse? While most people don’t go past brushing, taking a few more minutes to rinse, floss and oil pull can improve your oral health tremendously.

Oil pulling combats gum disease and gingivitis by pulling sugar, bacteria, and other toxins from your mouth. Additionally, oil pulling whitens your teeth and helps to get rid of bad breath.

3. Don’t Smoke

Using tobacco in any form, including pipes, cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco, increases your gum disease risk. Smoking weakens your immune system, making it more difficult to off the gum infection. And once you’ve any gum damage, smoking can slow down the healing process. The risk of getting a gum disease is double in smokers than in non-smokers. This risk increases with the number of cigarettes you smoke and your smoking duration. Gum disease treatments may not work well among smokers. So, if you smoke, it’s time to design a quitting strategy and stick to it, and if you don’t smoke, don’t start.

4. See a Dentist Regularly

It’s crucial that you see your dentist at least semi-annually as these experts can spot gum disease signs ahead of you. Also, if you experience bloody or tender gums, persistent bad breath, receding gums, or loose teeth, schedule an appointment with the dentist immediately.

Conclusion

 Don’t wait to lose another tooth because of gum disease. Implement the above simple tips for stronger gums and healthier teeth.

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