Be a Better Kisser by following These Tips to Keep Your Teeth Clean ...

Oral care is an essential ingredient in your overall menu for good health. Here are the key points to keeping your teeth clean and your mouth kissable.

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1. Enjoy a White-Teeth Diet

What you eat will have an impact on your teeth. If you drink a lot of black tea or red wine, you should forget about pearly white teeth. Similarly, for gravies, colas, and dark juices. If what you're eating is dark, it's probably going to stain your teeth. Avoid eating this stuff, and if you really have to, brush your teeth immediately after eating it.

2. Keep Brushing

Quick brushing is not enough; you have to brush your teeth for at least a couple of minutes to get rid of all the bacteria-packed plaque. You can use a watch to ensure you have brushed your teeth for a couple of minutes or simply hum your favorite tune that lasts about a couple of minutes.

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3. Grip Your Brush Right

Go check your old brush. Does it feel as if you've used it to clean the car? You need to slow down because you're brushing too hard. You need to hold it like a pencil and ensure that it glides over your gums at a 45-degree angle. Instead of sticking to a back-and-forth motion, you should consider moving it in a circular motion for better effects.

4. Go Get Your Cup of Tea

Research has shown that flavonoids and some other ingredients found in tea may help prevent bacteria from thriving in your mouth. Drinking a cup of tea daily may also limit the production of a type of sugar that causes cavities.

5. Say Goodbye to Your Old Toothbrush

Brushing won't help if your brush doesn't eliminate plaque and harmful bacteria. It is therefore important to pick the right brush and change it 3-4 times a year – it's even better to buy a new one every couple of months.

6. Floss and Find a Good Mouthwash

Brushing is great, but you also need to floss. Flossing removes stubborn bits of debris that the thicker bristles of your toothbrush may not be able to grab. Mouthwash works to wash away all the detritus from brushing and flossing, is antiseptic and antibacterial and also freshens your breath. Be sure to select an alcohol-free mouthwash because alcohol can dry out the tissues and give bacteria a more feasible environment to thrive.

7. Clean Your Tongue

You brush your teeth regularly. You floss. You use a good mouthwash. Still, you cannot seem to point out why your breath doesn't feel that fresh. For kissing-perfect breath, you should never forget to clean your tongue. Get a tongue scraper and use it every morning to great rid of tongue plaque. This will help you get rid of bad breath.

8. Avoid Sugary Food

One of the best tips to keep your teeth clean is to cut back on sugar. You always have bacteria in your mouth, and they need sugar to thrive and cause oral plaque. This plaque may even lead to tooth decay, bleeding gums, and cavities. The acid in refined sugars may also dissolve tooth enamel. Avoid candies, cookies, and sodas, and limit starchy foods such as cereals and breads.

9. Finish It Strong

Eating fresh fruits is a great way to clean your teeth, but you may also consider eating specific food as the final food you eat in your meal. Many concluding foods will help in this regard. Aged cheeses are great if consumed at the end of your meal. Similarly, chewing sugarless gum may also help because it stimulates the flow of saliva, which not only decreases acid but also eliminates food particles.

How good is your oral hygiene? Do you need to make any changes?

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Where Thoughts and Opinions Converge

Agrees @Zanna! It's just like you say!

Do not brush your teeth immediately after eating or drinking something you think will stain or anything with sugar in it. It's literally scrubbing the sugar into your teeth. Look it up. Instead, drink with a straw to avoid it touching your teeth, and when you are done drink some water and swish it around your mouth. Then later that night after you've rinsed and drinken other things, brush your teeth. And teeth are mainly genetics. Those people who dress well but have horrid oral health, either were raised very poor without dental coverage, never learned the habits (my mom always drilled it into us to brush, but after we were teenagers she stopped with the nightly routine and even though she knew she should, if she was too tired or whatever she would just go to bed.) brushing your teeth twice a day is ideal, but according to my dentists it's likely that around 90% of people only brush once a day, due to the fact that they're too busy or they've forgot, or they simply never learned. It's also genetic, if you have the perfect routine but you have halitosis (chronic bad breath, medications often cause it but genetics make you more susceptible to it) you can't get rid of it without proper products. Or if your family has naturally crooked or yellow teeth. It doesn't mean you never brush. It just means your teeth are not as white. Crooked teeth are also so much easier to get bacteria trapped in, so it's harder to keep clean. Either way, don't judge someone on their teeth unless you know everything about them and they're just not taking care of themselves. You never know what the facts are.

Twice a day brushing (after breakfast & before sleeping at night) as well as everyday flossing is extremely important. It's also important to visit your dentist twice a year. Oral B Professional electric toothbrush is a smart choice for lazy people. One of my Dentist client informed me that he always insult those patients who has lots of plaque.

Good article! It drives me nuts to see people spending an hour on their hair and makeup routine, but their teeth are filthy and covered in plaque because they "didn't have time to brush and floss"! They even go to the dentist like that! Dressed to the nines, disgusting rancid mouth!

I can't believe that coffee and cigarettes weren't mentioned. They will stain your teeth worse than anything else.

Rhonda just because you are dressed to the nines does not mean you had been properly educated on hygiene at all. I know plenty of women who dress well but are uneducated on many topics. I know plenty of women who dress well to escape from the fact they haven't been taught things. And regardless my point was to not worry about other people and their hygiene and concern yourself on your own

Rhonda like you said - you have to "assume"

Hey Gals, I just have this pet peeve about people with the TIME and ENERGY to spend on a full face of makeup who can't spare the TIME to brush. As a dental professional, I see this in both the rich and the poor, the educated an uneducated. It's a priority issue. I'm not talking about crooked or stained teeth. I'm talking about so much plaque that it's obvious there has been little to no brushing for days. To me it's like brushing your hair before work but not wiping your behind after you poop. It just seems backward. And I'm sharing these thoughts in the hope that people might think about it if they have fallen into these habits over the years. Or maybe no one ever told them when they were kids. It's not a judgement or an obsession, just something to think about.

@MeghanC, i do concern myself with areas in which I may need improvement. I read these articles to gain information from the experience of others. In the areas where I have expertise or personal experience, I share in the hope that others may also learn or gain insight. No personal judgment intended. Just something to provoke thought.

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