How Your Smile Can Sabotage You!

-Your “pop that thang” smile will GET ALL TOASTED UP under HSR’S influence!-

“Noooo!...I’m having a bad smile day!”

“It looks and feels horrible!”

You name it: missing or crooked teeth, darkly-stained, loose, or carious teeth, anything less than acceptable just won’t fly in today’s judge-appearances-first, ask-questions-later society.

You may have seen some people who are so embarrassed and ashamed of their mouths that they hide it with their hands when they talk or laugh.

There are immense benefits to having a big beautiful smile: it brightens the face and the mood and it does so, effectively.

But if it’s less than perfect, people will notice…and stare sometimes at an imperfection of your smile.

Since the mouth is a very accessible part of our bodies, we can practice daily oral hygiene to maximize its cleanliness. The mouth exists in its present state because we take care of it… or don’t take care of it. We control the activities that it does, and the care that it receives. Procrastination of effective daily care is what ultimately damages our smiles, and is what makes dentists rich.

For this article, a better question to address might be: How are we sabotaging our own smiles? Which of our behaviors contribute to the physical decline of the smile?

Using your teeth to open things like bottle tops, packages of food, super-glue bottles, or even breaking sewing thread, is taking too much of a chance. You may damage your all-important pearly whites!

  

Biting and chewing on hard candies, hard nuts, and large chunks of ice put concentrated paranormal stresses on teeth, and possibly place them at risk of fracturing. If the teeth are weakened structurally because of large fillings, one should take great care not to overly stress the teeth and fillings. If a person chews crushed ice a lot, he or she can repeatedly make the metal in the fillings contract, then later expand as the mouth heats back up to normal. The continuous contraction and expansion cycles with habitual ice consumption can accelerate the wear and tear on the interfaces between the fillings and the tooth’s enamel areas.

Drinking soda or fruit juices with significant amounts of cane sugar is unhealthful for the teeth, because the bacteria in the mouth consume and metabolize those nutrient sugars and release acidic products that decalcify the surfaces of the teeth. The newly softened enamel is now more susceptible to hard-to-repair, surface-matrix damage, and is at risk for further mineral loss. Try drinking sweet beverages through a straw so as to not bathe the teeth in the potentially-cavity-causing liquid. And try to rinse with water afterward to help buffer any acidic oral pH change.

Being stressed-out can have negative effects on us. We may put off or forget to practice healthy behaviors, and may take up unhealthy behaviors to cope.

Experiencing prolonged psychological distress results in us producing too-high levels of stress hormones, like cortisol, which will result in internal organ damage. Our bodies will get weaker, and our immunological defenses will become less potent in fending off microbiological invaders.

New and unresolved anxieties in a person’s life may cause them to start grinding and clenching their teeth, many times without knowing it. Bruxing the teeth at night may get so bad that a night guard must be used to treat the fatigue and the excessive musculoskeletal stresses experienced, and to lessen the frictional wearing of the masticatory enamel.

To counteract some of the negativity around, find time in your day to “de-stress”: relax, exercise, and meditate. Learn to read the biofeedback responses that your body gives off, such as unnecessarily tight muscles, improper breathing cycles, bad positional posture, etc.

Other things that can bomb out a great smile include:

--An ineffective toothbrush.

--A toothbrush which has bristles that are unnecessarily stiff.

--Pressing the toothbrush against the teeth and gums with too much force when teethbrushing.

--The consistent use of a toothpaste that is too abrasive.

--Smoking.

--Drinking darkly-pigmented beverages.

--Brushing for a lot less than 2 minutes every time you brush.

-- Not flossing, brushing, and rinsing enough. 

--Some drugs, medicines, and “natural,” biological health supplements.

Catch problems before they get a chance to seriously hatch, by strategically huddling with your Dental Team about every 180 to 200 days. They can digitally and manually check the health of each of your dental bones, and can ultrasonically blast away, or meticulously hand-scrape-off, any hardened plaque, calculus, and bacterial buildup that may try to stab your smile in the back.

Psychological experts for decades have revealed this: what we expect to happen…really may end up happening: it’s called a self-fulfilling prophecy! Hey, you all, let’s expect, and work for, fun and thoroughly immaculate smiles for years to come! We can make it happen!

When it comes to the sabotage and espionage of your smile…you don't need to call James Bond…you just need a fist full of floss, a no-BS brush and paste, and a reliable rinse. Oh yes, and a world-class "out of my way" anti-plaque attitude! 

May you have many…hey, wait a minute, my teeth work for me, and not the other way around!...she looks like a movie star, but her smile is sneaky!…my hot lover knows that I love them, but they still keep breaking my heart!…smiles!