Oral hygiene refers to a routine you practice to keep your teeth and gums clean and therefore healthy. Brushing and flossing your teeth removes plaque from your smile in a timely fashion so that it does not eat away at your teeth to create dental problems.
Proper oral hygiene like this will help you maintain good oral health. But products like mouthwash could provide further benefits to ensure your smile looks and feels its best. Read on to learn about three advantages that mouthwash can offer to your oral health when used as instructed.
Benefits of Rinsing with Mouthwash
Boost Your Oral Hygiene
You know that a good oral hygiene routine involves brushing your teeth at least twice a day and flossing daily. This ensures you get rid of harmful residues that could cause dental damage if they linger on your smile.
But you also consume substances between your teeth-brushing regimens that contribute to plaque formation. If you want to give your oral hygiene a boost, you can rinse with mouthwash once a day, such as after a meal.
The mouthwash will wash away food particles and other items in your mouth that could form plaque or tartar. This makes your smile feel fresher and cleaner and therefore healthier. It has the added bonus of reducing your risk of developing bad breath.
Fight Oral Infections
About half of American adults suffer from gum disease, an infection in the gum tissue. Though prevalent, this disease can cause major damage to your smile, including tooth loss, if left untreated.
Good oral hygiene reduces your risk of contracting gum disease. But you can better prevent this and other oral infections if you rinse with an antibacterial mouthwash. This product will work to balance the natural bacteria in your mouth.
Then they will be less likely to spread and infect the gum tissue or other areas of your mouth. You can better preserve the structure of your teeth and gums this way.
Strengthen Your Teeth
Your teeth feature a hard outer layer called enamel that protects the vulnerable interior of the teeth. Though durable, enamel may wear down over time for a number of reasons. Once gone, the enamel will not regenerate, so this dental damage can leave your smile exposed to many dental dangers like cavities.
Your dentist can use restorative dental tools to restore this lost enamel, but you can also work to preserve the remaining enamel by using a mouthwash containing fluoride. Fluoride is a mineral that will absorb into your teeth and fortify the tooth enamel.
This will make the teeth stronger and better able to resist tooth decay as well as stains. You can reduce your risk of cavities this way and keep your smile looking and feeling its best.
Consult your dentist to learn if this type of preventative dental care will help your unique smile. They can also offer more advice to keep your smile clean and healthy during your next appointment.