10 Tips To Keep Your Lips, Teeth & Mouth Feeling Fresh
Find out how to make your teeth and mouth totally fresh, clean and beautiful!
In the UK we spend more money than ever before on Valentine’s Day, sometimes on the other person, but sometimes on ourselves and helping ensure we are looking our very best for the big day.
Here at Abbey Road Dental we often play a big part in Valentines Day preparation for many patients because we can help you feel great about your smile, a key aspect of any date.
Today, we want to give you some helpful pointers to get your teeth and lips date ready. We can’t guarantee you’ll get a kiss on your date, but you can certainly feel much more confident about how your teeth and lips look and feel by following these 10 tips:
1. Book A Professional Hygienist Clean
One of the easiest ways to get rid of deep buildups of plaque and nasty smelling detritus in your mouth is to have a professional hygienist clean here at Abbey Road Dental, St John’s Wood. This will help you get on top of any areas of oral hygiene that you struggle with. A professional clean with our NW8 hygienist will also help to boost the overall look of your teeth by removing any recent surface stains.
2. Try Tongue Scraping
Regular flossing and brushing of the teeth is incredibly important when it comes to oral health. When it comes to fresh breath and overall oral hygiene, though, you might want to add tongue scraping into your routine.
It helps remove the bacteria and debris from the surface of the tongue, a common culprit for bad breath that often gets missed when you brush your teeth. You can use your toothbrush to brush your tongue instead, but tongue scrapers tend to be more efficient for this particular oral health job.
3. Get A Checkup Regularly
By having check ups regularly at Abbey Road Dental you can avoid having any infections, pain or other dental issues for Valentine’s Day. This will help to ensure you feel comfortable with your smile when you go on your date. It also helps you to avoid problems that can contribute to low self esteem related to the smile, like tooth decay, tooth loss or gum problems.
4. Up Your Lip Care
Your lips are very important when it comes to kissing, so upping your lip care is important before Valentine’s Day if you’re hoping for a smootch or two. To get your lips in great condition, a great bit of daily care to add to your beauty regime is brushing your lips. An old toothbrush, or a cloth is perfect for this job. Simply brush the lips in small circles, removing old skin and getting them smooth and soft.
5. Avoid Certain Foods
Certain foods like garlic or onion actually continue to be smelt on your breath for up to 72 hours after consumption, and can even secrete through sweat. Avoiding these foods for a good few days before your date should help you skip those stinky scents omitting from your mouth (or skin!)
6. Ensure The Proper Cleaning Of Dental Appliances
Any dental appliances like dentures or braces can cause a bad odour if they are not cared for properly. It is important to keep them nice and clean so that you can enjoy Valentine’s Day without worrying about them giving you bad breath.
7. Deal With Pesky Tonsil Stones
Tonsil stones, or tonsilloliths are little white/yellow lumps in your tonsils. They look different to tonsillitis in that they are like little stones, rather than yellow/white patches on your tonsils that come with a sore throat.
These little stones have a nasty odour and they could cause you to have bad breath. If you think you have one, you can often dislodge it gently using a cotton bud or even the end of your toothbrush. It is also worth trying salt water gargling to dislodge the stone and to help ease any discomfort.
8. Keep That Saliva Flowing
Dry mouth is a leading cause of bad breath, and it can be caused by all kinds of different things, but usually dehydration of some kind.
Drinking plenty of water will help that saliva flow and wash away bacteria that causes bad smells. Chewing gum will also help you produce saliva, and it can be really handy if you get a dry mouth when you’re nervous because it helps stimulate saliva production and freshens breath too.
9. Consider Cutting Your Smoking Down
It is too late to quit smoking before Valentine’s Day now, although we would always encourage patients to quit smoking, if possible, as soon as they can. In the meantime, it is a good idea to try and cut down how much you smoke for a big date, especially if the other person does not smoke. Stale smoke can be a bit of a mood-killer so if you can smoke less and follow cigarettes with some water and gum you can freshen your breath for your date.
If you would like to try quitting smoking in the future, please checkout the NHS quit smoking page which lists all the resources available to you to help you cut the cigarettes out for good.
10. Dress Your Lips
Wearing a lip balm is a great idea for anybody going on a date because it softens the lips and ensures they look nice and smooth. If you want to get fancy, consider a bold lip to impress your loved one. It can be a really great way to highlight the whiteness of your teeth, especially if you have had professional teeth whitening with Abbey Road Dental recently.
“Let us always meet each other with a smile. For the smile is the beginning of love.” – Mother Teresa
Hopefully you feel much more confident about freshening your smile for Valentine’s Day after reading our tips.
Our team can’t guarantee you’ll have a successful date on the big day, but we can guarantee that you’ll always get fantastic treatment at our NW8 clinic if you want to visit for a checkup, hygienist appointment, teeth whitening consultation or for any other reason. We’re here to support your oral health goals so that you can enjoy a beautiful, confident smile all year round!