Learn how California Dental Group can help you maintain a beautiful smile.
Are you concerned that your teeth are starting to make you look old? Refresh and renew your smile with these simple tips for younger-looking teeth.
Brush & Floss
The number one tip for keeping younger-looking teeth well into your senior years is simply to take good care of your teeth. Brushing and flossing are the best way to keep tooth decay and gum disease under control and prevent them from causing tooth loss. These two entirely preventable oral health issues are actually the leading cause of tooth loss in American adults, and we all know that nothing says “old” like a missing tooth.
Keep Your Teeth White
Yellowing teeth can easily make you look older than your years. While maintaining good oral hygiene and avoiding staining agents like red wine, coffee, and tobacco can help keep your teeth white, you may find you need a little extra help as you get older. At California Dental Group, we offer professional teeth whitening for this purpose. Professional whitening is more comfortable and more effective than the products you can buy on your own and can improve the color of your teeth by several shades. When more dramatic color improvement is needed, we can offer veneers.
Beware of Dry Mouth
Older people often suffer from dry mouth, and this condition can be worsened by certain medications. Without a normal flow of saliva, teeth miss out on many protective advantages. They won’t have saliva helping to wash away food debris or delivering the supply of calcium and other minerals needed to promote strong, healthy enamel. This can lead to an increased rate of tooth decay and possibly even tooth loss. To fight this phenomenon, be sure to brush after every meal and especially before bed. You can also try chewing sugarless gum to stimulate the flow of saliva.
Update Your Restorations
To keep a young-looking smile, you need to take care of your restorations so that they do not become stained, damaged, or otherwise unnatural looking. You may also want to exchange your mouthful of silver fillings for white ones, since silver fillings tend to be a mark of an older generation.
Replace Missing Teeth
Even if your missing teeth don’t show when you smile, they can still make you look older by contributing to a “sunken-faced” look. At California Dental Group, we offer two main options for replacing missing teeth: bridges and dental implants. If you are going for a younger look, dental implants are the better choice because they look the most natural and will prevent further bone loss in your jaw from occurring and potentially causing you to lose additional teeth.
Visit the Dentist Often
If you want to keep your teeth healthy and young-looking, don’t neglect to keep up with your routine dental cleanings and exams. If you are prone to gum disease, you may even want to get your teeth cleaned 3 or 4 times per year. To make an appointment for a cleaning or for any of the treatments described in this post, please contact California Dental Group today.
