5 steps on How to up your dental game and have a routine! Morning and Night!

The key to healthy teeth and gums can be found in a dental routine.  Much like a skincare regime, a dental routine is paramount.  

If you teach your children to look after their oral health as much as we should look after our body and mind they’re less likely to need invasive dental procedures as they get older.

There’s no denying that us Brits are a bit behind on our dental routines.  With 29% of us only brushing our teeth once a day and 2% saying that they don’t brush their teeth everyday it’s no surprise as to why gum disease and tooth decay are at an all time high.

With information and choice at our fingertips it’s baffling as to why we still don’t look after our oral health more thoughtfully.

So, what is a dental routine and what should we be doing?

1.  Floss before cleaning your teeth.  Flossing is so important yet only 31% of us floss.  Crazy right? not only does flossing get rid of debris between the teeth it fights gum disease by massaging the gums, fights halitosis and freshens breath.  It’s also been said that it’s good for our overall health and can help protect from heart disease.

2.  Brushing your teeth.  The very least that we should be doing! Preferably with our charcoal bamboo toothbrushes of course 🙂 Dentists recommend brushing for at least 2 minutes.  Morning and night at least.

3.  Tongue Cleaning.  Swiftly becoming the dental product to have, our stainless steel tongue cleaners are a firm fav of our customers.  Tongue cleaning gets rid of dead skin, debris and will freshen breath as well as enhance your taste buds.  Some people clean their teeth with their toothbrush, however, this has been found to just move bacteria around, not actually getting rid of it at all.

4.  Lastly, oil pulling and/or a mouthwash.  The most used oil for oil pulling is coconut oil. Extra virgin for its nice taste.  But, you can use sesame oil, olive oil and sunflower oil.  It takes a bit of getting used to and can seem rather icky to put oil in your mouth but it really is amazing.  The oil will pull bacteria, toxins and bad breath from your mouth leaving you with a super fresh, pleasant taste.  Mouthwashes generally contain skin stripping ingredients such as alcohol but there are some good natural ones on the market too.

5. Now I’ve got two optional tips for you. 

Firstly, interdental brushes.  Usually advised by your dentist if you need a bit of extra help between the gums.  These are notably made of plastic so it doesn’t really fit into our zero waste ethos, however, it does fit into our good oral health mantra so, a teensy secret not so secret for you.  We are working with our manufacturer to produce some fabulous bamboo interdental brushes… that will be as sustainable as they can be and 100% vegan of course. Not zero waste but reduced waste and 100% better than the plastic ones.  So, if you need to use them for your health, then hopefully, soon, we will be able to help with with that 🙂

Secondly, breath freshener.  I myself suffer from bad breath.  It’s not pleasant and rather embarrassing.  It’s no wonder I set up a natural dental biz eh?  I use breath fresheners most days – actually a combination of coconut oil, peppermint and eucalyptus, just a little something I’m working on 😉 – it works a treat as a bit of a mini oil pulling pick me up for during the day in a spray bottle.  However, there are many fab natural breath sprays on the market that you can use, as well as mints to give you a bit of a minty boost! Just avoid the super synthetic ones like the B12 stuff.  That strips the skin and will leave your mouth feeling very very sore.

This all seems rather faffy but it’ll take you 8 minutes max.  Less time than a face mask.  Once you get use to doing it, it’ll become second nature.  Like cleansing, toning and moisturising, flossing, brushing and cleansing your tongue will become a stable in your morning and evening routine.

Happy breath freshing peeps!!!!!

Jayne x