When you’re not feeling your best you may notice that it seems difficult to care for your smile. Not only do our energy levels drop when we are under the weather, but many illnesses—like colds and the flu—can lead to excess mucus or acid on your teeth and oral tissues.
Optimizing your oral health can actually help you get better faster and feel better in the interim. Here are some simple tips from our Saint Louis dentists that can help you keep your smile as healthy as possible, no matter what:
Focus on water
Water is good for your whole-body health as well as your dental health. Every time that you choose water over another sugary or acidic drink, you are promoting saliva production, and clearing away bacteria. When you cannot drink water, it can be helpful to simply rinse with H2O.
Switch out oral hygiene tools
If you’ve been using your toothbrush for more than three or four months it is probably not doing a good enough job because its bristles are worn down and frayed. Switch to a fresh toothbrush in order to make sure that you are getting the most you can from your oral hygiene routine.
Pay attention to ingredients in medicines and cough drops
When you are using cough drops, mouth rinses, and other soothing products, take care to choose sugar-free formulations. Oral bacteria use sugars and acids to grow and multiply. You don’t want to coat your teeth and gums in sugar to feel better now, only to have it harm your smile down the road.
We hope that you now have some good ideas on ways to care for your smile even when you aren’t feeling your best, in general. As always, our Saint Louis dentists are happy to provide you with additional information and support. Feel free to give our office a call, or use the Contact Us page to submit an inquiry and your contact information.