A lot of people play sports (young and old) and think that they are doing something good for their body. They are, but they can be damaging a part of their body that they use every day – their teeth.
Below are five good reasons why wearing a mouth guard when playing sports is so important.
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Your smile is one of the first things that people notice about you. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things you may be doing that can damage your teeth and cause problems with talking, eating, smiling, and even sleeping.
Below are 11 habits that can cause damage to your teeth that you may be doing and that you may not even realize you are doing.

1. Chewing Ice

This is sugar-free and natural, but it’s anything but harmless. When you munch on frozen, hard cubes, it can crack or chip your teeth. If chewing ice irritates the tooth’s soft tissue that’s inside, you may have regular toothaches. Cold and hot foods often trigger sharp, quick pain jabs or even lingering toothaches. Instead of chewing ice, chew sugarless gum.

2. Not Wearing a Mouth Guard

When you are playing a sport, whether its hockey, football, or any other type of contact sport, you should always wear something to guard your mouth. That molded plastic protects your upper teeth and if you don’t wear it, your teeth may be chipped or even be knocked out. You can buy one that automatically fits at a sporting goods store or you can have one made to your mouth by the dentist.

3. Bedtime Battles

Tooth problems can start when you’re even young. When you give your baby a bottle of formula, milk, or juice at their bedtime, it can put their new teeth in danger of decaying. Your baby might get used to falling asleep while sucking on a bottle, which means that their teeth are bathed in sugar overnight. It’s better to not put a bottle in their crib.

4. Tongue and Lip Piercings

Even though they are very trendy, tongue piercings aren’t good for your teeth. When you bite down on the metal, it can crack your teeth. The same can happen with lip piercings. When the metal’s rubbing up against your gums, it can cause damage to your gums that can mean you’ll lose your teeth. There is also a lot of bacteria in your mouth, so piercings can cause sores and infections. In addition, with tongue piercings you can accidentally pierce large blood vessels, which can lead to severe bleeding. It’s best to talk to your dentist before making a decision.

5. Grinding Your Teeth

Grinding your teeth, known as bruxism, has the potential to wear down your teeth as time goes by. It’s often caused by sleeping habits and stress, which means it’s really hard for you to control. Don’t eat hard foods through the day, and this can reduce damage and pain the habit can cause. You can also wear a mouth guard during the night to stop yourself from grinding your teeth while you sleep.

6. Brushing Too Forcefully / Frequently

Even when you are using the correct brush, it’s still possible to damage your teeth as well as irritate your gums by using it much too forcefully. If you brush your teeth gently, it will break up the plaque that is building up on your tooth surfaces.
It’s also possible to brush too much. It’s fine to brush two times per day – in the morning and at night. When you brush immediately after you eat, it can also be damaging. It can erode your tooth enamel, which has been weakened by the acidity that’s in what you eat and drink. It’s best to wait a half an hour before you brush.

7. Thumb Sucking

A lot of children suck their thumbs or fingers after their teeth begin coming in, which is around 5-6 years old. This can cause permanent changes to their jaw and tooth structure. Thumb sucking can misalign their teeth. This can cause a lot of different issues, including breathing and chewing problems. So it’s a good idea if you wean the little one off sucking their thumb.

8. Using Your Teeth as a Tool

A lot of people use teeth as a tool for breaking off tags, ripping open bags of chips, or unscrewing bottle tops. But this can damage your teeth. They are made just for properly speaking, looking great, and chewing food. They’re not hooks or pliers. It can damage your dental work or cause cracking in your teeth.

9. Using Your Teeth to Hold Things

There are some people who hold items using their teeth, like pencils, eyeglasses, or pens. They often do it while concentrating on a task that is especially difficult. But what they probably don’t realize is the amount of pressure that is being placed on the teeth as they’re biting down on something that isn’t food. Biting on something like a pen can make your teeth crack or shift, along with breaking dental work.

10. Biting Your Nails

This makes your nails look horrible, which is true, but it can also damage your smile and teeth. It also can create bad oral hygiene. Those who bite their nails generally do it all the time. Biting nails regularly can misalign your teeth and cause the teeth to break or splinter your enamel.

11. Drinking Soda and Citrus Juices

If you always are drinking a soda, this can do a lot of damage to your teeth. Even though you are drinking diet, the acidity in the soda can corrode the enamel on your teeth. It’s even worse if you are sipping it slowly. The acidity can cause problems in your dental health like enamel loss and decay along your gums.
Another drink that can damage your teeth is citric juices, since there is quite a bit of acid in these juices. If you want to drink juices for health benefits, drink them quickly so the contact with your teeth is as short as possible.

Conclusion

These are the things that you should avoid doing if you want to keep your smile looking wonderful. Some of the things in here are okay, in moderation. But others should be avoided if at all possible. If you have any of these habits, now is the time to stop it so that you can retrain your brain not to do it.

Questions about your Teeth?

If teeth issues are affecting your smile, the team at Island Coast Dentistry can help. Through a comprehensive evaluation, Dr. Skupny can tailor a oral treatment plan that is most effective for you. A beautiful, healthy smile can be yours!
Contact us today to learn more, or schedule a consultation online.

We wanted to give you the most extensive, detailed guide of advanced flossing techniques – and tools available today for cleaning between your teeth.
Why? Because we consider cleaning between your teeth, the most important part of your daily oral care routine.
This article is chock full of ideas that you can use in your interdental plaque removal routine “aka flossing” — to start building a habit of good dental health.

Why is Cleaning Between Your Teeth Important?

Have you ever felt a slimy coating on the front of your teeth? That “fuzzy” feeling is bacteria building up on your teeth.
The “fuzz” is called plaque, and if you let it hang around for too long, it can damage your teeth and gums leading to drifting of your teeth and misalignment to your smile.
What can you do to stop plaque? Floss! Flossing removes about 40% of the work required to remove sticky bacteria, or plaque, from your teeth.

What is Plaque?

Plaque is forming on the tooth surface 24 hours a day. Plaque can cause things like stains on the teeth, and gum problems. Fighting plaque buildup on your teeth will be a life-long part of good dental care.
When plaque hardens it turns to tarter and then gum disease.
Gum disease can ruin the youthful aesthetics of your smile by eating away at gums and teeth.
The susceptibility to tartar buildup varies from person to person.

What Does Flossing Do?

Flossing helps remove particles and the plaque that collects between your teeth and gums. By breaking contact between two teeth, dental floss helps clean these hard-to-reach tooth surfaces. This lowers the likelihood of gum disease and tooth decay. Cleaning between teeth is essential to your daily oral hygiene routine.

Choosing the Right Floss

No matter what other teeth cleaning tools are on the market, we consider this numero uno when it comes to oral hygiene.
Levi Spear Parmly, a dentist from New Orleans, is credited with inventing the first form of dental floss. In 1819, he recommended running a waxen silk thread “through the interstices of the teeth, between their necks and the arches of the gum, to dislodge that irritating matter which no brush can remove and which is the real source of disease.”
Today, most floss is made of either nylon or Teflon, and both are effective for cleaning between your teeth. If you have larger spaces between your teeth or have gum recession can experience better results with a flat, wide dental tape.
If your teeth are close together, try a thin shred resistant floss.
The most important thing to is to choose a floss your are comfortable with using on a regular basis. Whether its mint flavored, waxed, not waxed or made of Gore-Tex.

Flossing Techniques and Tips

To receive maximum benefits from flossing, use the following proper technique:

• Starting with about 18 inches of floss, wind most of the floss around each middle finger, leaving an inch or two of floss to work with
• Holding the floss tautly between your thumbs and index fingers, slide it gently up-and-down between your teeth
• Gently curve the floss around the base of each tooth, making sure you go beneath the gumline. Don’t force floss, as this can cut or bruise sensitive gum tissue
• Use clean sections of floss as you move from tooth to tooth
• To remove the floss, use the same back-and-forth motion to bring the floss up and away from the teeth

Other Interdental Cleaning Tools

#1: Floss Picks / Wands

Floss picks are used to hold the floss. While wands do not pinch fingers like regular floss can, using a wand may be awkward and can also make it difficult to floss along the gum line like with regular floss.

#2: Electric Water Flossers & Piks

Electric toothbrushes aren’t the only popular electric-powered dental gear. Electric flossers, also known as water flossers or oral irrigators, are a popular alternative to string flossing. They mix water and air and forces it from the tip of the device.

#3: Interdental Brushes

Interdental brushes serve as an alternative to flossing; they can be used daily and can be effective at interdental plaque removal. Many people prefer interdental brushes as they found them simpler to handle.

Additional Flossing Aids

#1: Floss Threaders

A threader is a simple, disposable tool sold in the dental care section of nearly every grocery and pharmacy. It is easy to use with any kind of floss. Its primary use is to help people with braces floss more effectively by pulling through the gap of the tooth.
How to Use a Floss Threader

• Pull off 12 to 18 inches of your preferred dental floss.
• Insert one end of the dental floss about five inches into the loop of the threader.
• Pass the floss threader under or over any dental appliance such as braces, permanent retainer or bridge.
• Remove the threader from the floss and floss gently back and forth and up and down into the gumline between the teeth.
• Repeat the process.

What Time of the Day Should You Floss?

Since we concluded you should floss once a day, what time is the best? Most dentists recommend opting for after dinner, since you salivate less while sleeping. Since less saliva is present you have a higher chance of bacteria eating away at your teeth.
Anything you can do to prevent decay at night is your best bet.
So, how does your current routine compare with the ideal times to brush and floss your teeth? Share your thoughts in the comments section and let us know if you have any questions.

About Island Coast Dentistry

Island Coast Dentistry handles your oral health care from General Dentistry and Fillings to Cosmetic Dentistry, Dental Implants, Teeth Whitening, Bruxism Devices, Invisalign, and Veneers, Dr. Skupny is equipped to handle all your dental needs.
To help you understand your options, we’ve included descriptions of some of our leading oral health treatments on this page. Read our patient reviews on this page.

For a lot of people, going to the dentist is something that they don’t like to do. But the good news is that there are things that you can do to make sure that when you are at the dentist that you are getting the most out of you appointment. Here are four things that you can do to make your next dental appointment at Island Coast Dentistry the best ever! (more…)

You might not realize it but regular dental checkups are not only critical for your oral health, but also for early detection and prevention of chronic health issues like gum disease and oral cancer.
During your annual checkup, Dr. Skupny will take x-rays and examine your teeth and gums for signs of deterioration or infection. Also our oral hygienists will conduct teeth cleanings and fluoride treatments to maintain and improve your oral health.

1. Preventative Care

Island Coast Dentistry, focuses on preventative care, ensuring that your smile stays healthy and looking its best. While personal hygiene like brushing and flossing is important to healthy teeth, a professional tooth cleaning is much more thorough and gets rid of plaque buildup. Island Coast Dentistry recommends a dental cleaning and a checkup every six months.
When deciding whether or not to schedule your biannual visit with Island Coast Dentistry, keep in mind that it is much easier to prevent health problems than to repair them. Poor oral hygiene can lead to several issues such as bone loss, gum disease, and infections. Island Coast Dentistry can help prevent oral hygiene problems with fluoride treatments, teeth cleanings, tooth decay prevention, and early detection of oral diseases.

2. Dental Health

During a checkup with Dr. Skupny he looks for signs of oral health problems such as gum disease or oral cancer. The early detection of gum disease is important since it is one of the leading causes of tooth loss, and it can lead to even greater health problems like heart disease and stroke. However, when caught early, gum disease can be reversed. Regular visits to Island Coast Dentistry can maintain both your oral health and overall health.
In addition to cleanings and checkups, Island Coast Dentistry also offers other dental services such as the following:

• Cosmetic Dentistry
• Invisalign Clear Braces
• Crowns and Bridges
• Teeth Whitening
• Cosmetic Bonding
• Porcelain Veneers

General and Cosmetic Dentist in Naples

Naples, Florida dentist Dr. Jeffrey Skupny uses a variety of dental procedures and techniques to provide the very best result for your individual circumstances.
His artistic abilities and experience with dentistry along with his use of the finest materials and products combine to create a healthy, natural looking, spectacular smile. Contact our dental office in Collier County area today to learn more about the dental options available to you.
Isn’t it time to look younger and feel better? If you don’t like your smile, come see Dr. Jeffrey Skupny, conveniently located near Bonita Springs and Marco Island in Naples, Florida.