From May 16th to June 16th it is National Smile Month, an initiative organised and run by The Oral Health Foundation with the aim of ensuring that people know the best way to maintain a healthy and natural smile.
Week 2 of National Smile Month is all about making people aware that a healthy smile is not just something for Hollywood stars! It’s a common misconception that looking after your teeth is expensive, but there are some things you can do at home to make your dental care more affordable.
Here are 7 handy ways to make the most of your dental care:
- Make sure you maintain a thorough oral health routine by brushing twice per day, one time being last thing at night. And clean between your teeth at least once a day.
- Don’t use water when brushing! Not only is it better for your teeth (as it doesn’t wash the fluoride away), it will also cut water waste and therefore save you money. According to the Oral Health Foundation, if the tap was left on while brushing, a family of four would waste more water over the course of their life than what it takes to fill an Olympic swimming pool – that’s about £8,000!
- Try to maintain a healthy diet and make sure that you are limiting yourself to a maximum of four sugar attacks per day (that’s the number of times you eat sugar, including snacking and drinking sugary drinks) to help keep your teeth in tip-top condition. This will reduce the likelihood of tooth decay and therefore the likelihood of requiring expensive restorative dental care.
- Make sure you visit the dentist and hygienist regularly to ensure that you keep your oral health in check and hopefully avoid any issues which can be expensive to treat.
- Join a care plan to spread the cost of your dental care across the year. At 543 Dental Centre we offer our 543 Dencare plans which offer flexible ways to ensure you are accessing the right care at the right time, and make sure that you are protected against any nasty surprises.
- Invest in an electric toothbrush. You can purchase a good-quality electric toothbrush for around £30 and they can make a big difference to the health of your mouth. They remove more plaque than manual ones and their heads only need replacing once every three months.
- The Oral Health Foundation recommends speaking to your dentist about the toothpaste, mouthwash and interdental brushes you use. They may be able to recommend more budget-friendly options which will still allow you to maintain excellent oral health.
Currently, it’s hard to prioritise oral health when there are so many demands on our purse strings. But with over one third of adults, and nearly two thirds of 18-24 year olds, admitting that they’re cutting out dental care to ease the cost of living crisis, we may be setting ourselves up for some nasty shocks further down the line.
Adopting some, or all, of the 7 tips above will help you stay on top of your oral health and keep the costs of doing so to a minimum.
Book an appointment with us so we can check all is well and catch anything before it requires more expensive treatment. Call us on 01482 565488.
