Top 6 Tips on Oral Health For Busy Mums This Mother's Day
Blacktown Dental Clinic - Mother’s Day
At Capstone Dental, we understand that many mothers perform the loving and sacrificial act of prioritising their children’s health and well being above their own. And we have much respect for that kinda of love for their family. Mother’s Day is just around the corner, so this blog is dedicated towards mothers as we aim to provide some oral health tips for our busy mothers in Blacktown and Seven Hills! We are the dental clinic that cares about our mums in Blacktown!
When it comes to a mother’s oral health, there are vast range of factors that play a role in the need for increased vigilance and care. Mother’s often have a scarcity of time because their weekly and daily schedules are busy, having routine can be hard, and especially for pregnant women, there could be situations of morning sickness, hormonal swings, or pregnancy cravings. Call it bizarre, but I once worked with a mother who craved minerals or something earthy - so she literally got her husband to buy a bag of rocks from the local nursery so she could suck on the rocks. Hormones have an impact on the blood vessels found all over the body, including the gums inside our mouth, making them highly sensitive to periodontal disease (gum disease) and other oral health problems. This is often why pregnant women are more susceptible to have gingivitis (bleeding gums). Hormones also affect different areas of metabolism such as bones, causing bone thinning or osteoporosis in women.
Drinking lots of water, choosing healthy snacks, keeping an eye on the signs of gum disease, and maintaining regular dental check up visits prevent the onset of dental health problems while also minimizing risks that may occur during pregnancy.
Top 6 Tips on Oral Health for Mothers
#1 Drink Lots of Water
Drinking water helps to hydrate the body, minimise plaque/food build up, minimise stained teeth.
If you drink water regularly after tea/coffee/wine/meals in general, it will help to keep your teeth whiter!
Keep a bottle in the car and always have a bottle ready in the fridge or on your kitchen benchtop
#2 Be Smart with your Snacks
Go for more nuts, sliced fruit or vegetables as opposed to chocolate, lollies, chips
Pre-cut and pre pack your healthy snacks in small containers so that they are readily available for you or your family to easily access in the pantry or fridge. This helps to train you and your family to have better eating habits in your diet
Be creative with your healthy snacks and know that it doesn’t take as long as you think- mixed nuts, yoghurt and berries, celery/carrot sticks and cheese/peanut butter, kale chips, cucumber slices with hummus, edamame beans
#3 Keep Your Toothbrushes on Standby
Having a habit of brushing your teeth for 2 minutes, 2 times a day is the best way for you and your family. It’s the monkey see monkey do mindset for your kids and their oral hygiene
This means that if keeping toothbrushes/toothpaste at the kitchen sink helps your family brush more regularly, then do it. Or if it means bringing a toothbrush/toothpaste with you in your handbag, then do it. Whatever it takes to help you get into the habit of brushing regularly
#4 Floss Regularly
Research shows that if we don’t floss our teeth, we are not cleaning about 35% of the surfaces of our teeth. Fast forward that over 20-30 years and that could be ONE THIRD of your teeth that can be damaged, decayed or even removed
It doesn’t matter what cleaning aide you use as long as you do it! It could be the traditional floss, it could be flossettes, it could be interdental brushes like Piksters
Read our Blog @ Top Tips on How to Floss
#5 Drink Sugary or Fizzy Drinks With a Straw
The enamel of our teeth are the hardest substance of the whole body (YES! It’s harder than bone), BUT sugar and acid are the kryptonite of enamel
Drinking out of straws helps minimise the sugar and acidity in some drinks from coming into contact with the teeth and so can help with lowering the chances of damage to your teeth
Drink water straight after you finish with your sugary or fizzy drink to wash away any remaining sugar or acid that may still be left inside the mouth on the teeth
#6 Chew Gum
If you know you don’t drink water regularly, try chewing gum
Chewing sugar free gum or gum with xylitol have benefits of increasing saliva flow which help in washing out food, minimising tooth decay, neutralising acids in the mouth and combating bad breath
Some studies suggest chewing gum for 20 minutes after meals can help reduce tooth decay
If you have any other questions, feel free to drop into our dental surgery to say Hi. We are a dental clinic located inside Seven Hills shopping centre, right next to Seven Hills train station and minutes from Blacktown city centre.