Keeping Your Dentist in Business!

Your habits can easily affect your dental health. Many seemingly innocuous habits can cause significant damage to your teeth. Here are five bad habits that I’ve discussed with patients in the past that cause problems.

 -I love popcorn too, but don’t try to chew the unpopped kernels! That is a very common cause of tooth fractures. Teeth with large fillings especially have weakened walls of the tooth and these little nuggets can shear off a side of your tooth. If lucky, it can be fixed with a crown but can also lead to the need for root canal as well, or extraction and implants.

 -I never understood the attraction of this but many people like to chew on ice. This habit causes small chips in the enamel that develop into larger cracks over time. It’s like what you see on dishes after many washings in the dishwasher. Hairline fractures develop and propagate over time. Patients are always amazed that what they though broke the tooth was soft because chewy soft bread, pizza, etc can be the final straw that separates the fracture and pulls off a piece of your tooth that had underlying fractures already.

 -Sipping energy or sports drinks is popular and overmarketing of sport drinks make people think they need them when exercising when in fact unless you are at a professional level of exercising, very few people need the level of electrolytes in those drinks. The issue here is you are bathing your teeth in acid and sugar. Even if sugar free the acids heavily demineralize your enamel which is the first step of decay formation. Same goes for diet soft drinks. Try cutting down and when you do have these drinks, when you are done swish water around and swallow a few swishes. That will wash away some of the acid and begin the neutralization process that your saliva provides. It may also sound logical to brush after drinking something acidic (coffee and tea as well) but that can actually damage the enamel when your mouth is still acidic. Best to wait ½ hour for your saliva to neutralize your mouth prior to brushing!

 -Vaping and smoking is one of the worst things you can do for your oral health. It is a misconception that vaping is safer. They both contain nicotine which causes an increase in bacteria and plaque in your mouth. These habits also dry your mouth and lessen the saliva which protects your teeth. Lastly, smoking adds to periodontal disease formation.

 -Using fluoride-free toothpastes increases your rates of decay tremendously. It bothers me that patients use social media for medical advice. Fluoride is often malaligned by conspiracy theorists and others online.  The benefits of fluoride in making your teeth more acid resistant, therefore less decay prone is one of the most extensively studied phenomenon in all of medical literature! Over 60 years of studies have proven. The benefits time and again. Fluoride stimulates new mineral formation making your enamel stronger.

 I appreciate the help in keeping us in business but I’d rather you stay healthy, so take charge of your oral health and be aware of these habits.

For more information, you can contact Dr. Michael Krochak at

drk@nycsmilespa.com

NYC Smile Spa

30 E. 60th St., Rm 1201

New York, NY 10022

(212) 838-2900