{"id":59,"date":"2018-03-27T22:49:15","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T22:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.combsdental.com\/blog\/?p=59"},"modified":"2025-02-04T20:54:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T20:54:50","slug":"oral-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.combsdental.com\/blog\/oral-health\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Prevent Tooth Decay, Gingivitis, &#038; Other Oral Health Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Keeping your smile whole and healthy is essential to preserving a beautiful, properly functioning smile, but it may also improve your whole body health. By working hard to keep your smile whole and healthy, you may lead a longer, healthier life. In this post, we\u2019ll walk you through the basics of caring for your smile at-home and in our office, and we\u2019ll discuss some whole body health concerns that affect your smile.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>At-Home Care<\/h2>\n<p>We get to see you in our office twice a year, but the other 363 days of the year, your oral health care is up to you. We recommend patients at least maintain the following at-home hygiene:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Brush teeth two minutes at a time at least twice a day<\/li>\n<li>Use a soft bristled toothbrush and minimally abrasive toothpaste<\/li>\n<li>Brush systematically not sporadically to ensure every tooth gets the attention it needs<\/li>\n<li>Floss at least once a day carefully removing plaque and tartar buildup between teeth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Biannual Dental Appointments<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.combsdental.com\/check-ups-cleanings.html\">Dental checkups<\/a> are an essential part of every preventive dentistry plan. As is recommended by the American Dental Association, we encourage every patient to visit us two times each year. During these biannual dental appointments, we screen for early warning signs of common oral health concerns and partner with patients to keep their smiles completely healthy.<\/p>\n<h2>Balanced Diet<\/h2>\n<p>You know the old saying, \u201cYou are what you eat?\u201d When it comes to healthy smiles, that may be more accurate than you think. Eating a healthy, balanced diet is one of the many essentials to ensure you maintain complete oral health. That includes avoiding staining foods and drinks that discolor teeth, limiting acidic and sugary foods and beverages, and drinking plenty of water.<\/p>\n<h2>Surprising Factors that Affect Oral Health<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to consuming the right diet, there are also some other whole health concerns that can affect your oral health. Some of the most common whole body health concerns that may increase the challenge of maintaining optimal oral health include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Immune compromising diseases (HIV\/AIDS, multiple myeloma, viral hepatitis, and similar)<\/li>\n<li>Diabetes<\/li>\n<li>Medications that reduce saliva production<\/li>\n<li>Chemotherapy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Meet the Combs &amp; White Family Dentistry Team<\/h2>\n<p>At Combs &amp; White Family Dentistry, we are happy to offer a wide range of preventive dentistry services in our two convenient office locations at Bella Vista and Pea Ridge. We look forward to partnering with you to achieve and maintain the optimal level of oral health for a lifetime. If you\u2019re interested in finding out more about preventive dentistry or the mouth-body connection, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.combsdental.com\/contact-us.html\">call<\/a> our team to schedule an appointment with us in one of our two convenient dental office locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Keeping your smile whole and healthy is essential to preserving a beautiful, properly functioning smile, but it may also improve your whole body health. By working hard to keep your smile whole and healthy, you may lead a longer, healthier life. In this post, we\u2019ll walk you through the basics of caring for your smile at-home and in our office, and we\u2019ll discuss some whole body health concerns that affect your smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,6,7,11,9,10,4,5],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-preventive-dentistry","tag-dental-checkups","tag-general-dentist","tag-general-dentistry","tag-moth-body-connection","tag-oral-health","tag-oral-hygiene","tag-preventive-dentist","tag-preventive-dentistry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Prevent Tooth Decay, Gingivitis, &amp; Other Oral Health Concerns - Combs and Associates Dental Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how to prevent oral health concerns like tooth decay, gum disease, and gingivitis with help from the team at Combs &amp; 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