This Year, Get Serious About Your Dental Health

Everybody is thinking about their New Year’s resolutions – get in shape, read more, take more time with the family – but have you thought about adding your smile to that list? 2016 might be a great year to take better care of your smile: It could improve your health too!

Here are 4 great ways to improve your smile, your health, and your confidence!

• Keep your regularly scheduled dental appointments. Not only do those regular cleanings keep your teeth and gums clean and sparkly, it gives our dental offices in Highland Park and Chicago Heights more opportunities to keep an eye on your oral health. That means we can catch problems earlier for much less expensive repairs and a longer-lasting smile.

• Be vigilant about your oral hygiene routine. Your smile doesn’t only allow you to talk and chew. It is connected to the rest of your body and is a direct link for bacteria from gum disease to enter your bloodstream. Because of this, periodontal (gum) disease has been linked to everything from heart attacks and cancers to low birth weight babies and tooth loss.

• Choose food and drink carefully. Avoid super sugary or acidic foods and drinks like sports drinks, sodas, or candy. Instead, choose foods and beverages that protect and support your enamel instead of eroding it. These include tea (especially green or white tea which won’t stain your teeth as much), coconut water, cheese, chicken or other lean meats, and nuts. Adding crunchy fruits and vegetables like celery, apples, or pears, is a great idea too. These foods stimulate the flow of saliva and lessen the effects of sugars . Plus they can clear away leftover food particles.  

• Consider treating your smile to some cosmetic or other elective dentistry. Many of our patients renew their smiles with porcelain veneers. Dental veneers are one of the best ways to perfect and balance your smile. They can repair chipped, broken, or worn teeth to their original size, beauty, and strength; whiten even the most stained teeth, straighten crooked, gapped, or overlapped teeth; enhance tooth size, shape, color, length, and width; even balance your bite. In other words, porcelain veneers can do almost anything you need to make your smile look absolutely perfect, young, and brilliant.

What could be a better way to begin a new year than with a bright, beautiful, healthy smile that you want to share with the world? Questions? Call our dental office in Highland Park or Chicago Heights. We’re always glad to help any of our neighbors in Highland Park, Deerfield, Highwood, Chicago Heights, Crete, and Park Forest start the new year with a smile!